802.11 Alphabet Soup

Here's a review of 802.11 b,a,n, and i, with respect to wireless internet security:

802.11b - This is a popular wireless standard, and includes WEP only. WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. This means that this protocol was supposed to be just as safe as plugging your device into the network with a cable. Unfortunately, the WEP designers didn't do all their homework, which means WEP is a poor choice for your wireless network security.

802.11a - This was the next wireless standard to be widely accepted following 802.11b, and added increased transmission speed, as well as WPA. WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access. It fixes the holes in WEP and adds stronger authentication.

802.11n - This is an upcoming standard for Wi-Fi. It offers increased speeds and reliability for Wireless access. It does not include any new security standards.

Check out this interesting article that explains how the overhead involved in WiFi means that network speeds are much lower than advertised. For one thing, it's a shared medium. That's why 802.11n devices use multiple antennas. They communicate using MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology. Ethernet itself is rated at 10Mbit/sec but actual throughput is less. Overhead always occurs in transmission for things such as redundancy, error correction, and protocol overhead.

Currently you can get Draft 802.11n capable wireless cards. The standard is slated for finalization in Sept, 2008, at the time of this writing. Devices that use Draft 802.11n should generally be flash upgradeable to the final standard later on.

802.11i - This is the latest wireless security standard, which includes WPA2. WPA2 is the successor to WPA, and adds stronger encryption in the form of AES, vs. the older RC4. AES is used by the US Government, so it's probably secure enough for your needs too. This is currently the best choice for wireless security.