Like many technologies, wireless networking has evolved a number
of times since it's inception. Today it's in the process of
leaping forward once more. The technology generally referred to
as wi-fi is actually a series of wireless networking
specifications, or amendments, that are collectively known as
IEEE 802.11. Each wi-fi specification or amendment to 802.11 is
denoted by a letter of the alphabet. The most common ones in use
today are a, b, g, i and n. Today, wireless "b" and wireless "g"
are by far the most common, with maximum speeds of 11 Mbps and
45 Mbps (megabits per second), respectively. Both specifications
have become so common that virtually all laptop computers built
nowadays support both of them. But a new 802.11 specification,
dubbed "n", increases wireless speeds to more than 100 Mbps.
Such drastic increases in speed are accomplished using a
technique called "MIMO," which stands for "multiple input,
multiple output." This clever technique uses multiple antennas
at both the transmitter and rec