A home network is a very complex thing. Taking information from one place to another place which might not eve be on the same continent is a pretty big deal. This article will not go into too much technical jargon, but will do a thorough job of answering general (and some complex) questions about networking, especially wireless networking. Let us look at the most basic aspects of a wireless network in a question/answer format.
How does the signal get from my computer to my router, the Internet and back again?
When a computer user is connected to the internet, they are almost constantly sending signals to multiple places. The way this is achieved begins with binary code. Everything the user does is broken down into binary code and sent (in this case, wirelessly) to the router and then towards the destination you have given it. In the case of a wireless connection, it is sent from the wireless card to the router using a protocol called CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) which only allows one node (or computer) to access the router at once. If one computer is using the router and a second computer wants to use it too, the second system is sent a sort of “busy signal” and must wait a specified amount of time. Once the time is up, the computer may resend the request. For reference, a wired connection uses CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection), which enables the computer to sense when another node is using the router. This way the request is not sent in the first place. » Read more: Understanding Your Home Network
