What is difference between wi-fi and wireless Lan?

Question

What is difference between wi-fi and wireless Lan?

Answer 1

LAN means it's part of a private network [Local Area Connection hooked up to a private computer/source].  wi-fi is for public spaces and is meant to be shared with anyone in the area.

that's why offices and homes use LAN [so people can't hack in or steal info from their network], and places like starbucks and schools use wi-fi [because information accessed through wi-fi is accessed at the computer owner's risk and does not need to be secured].

they work the same way, it's just more of a security thing from what i can tell.

Answer 2

Wifi is the "technology" which allows wireless communication. It simply replaces the need for ethernet cables on your computers.

A LAN (wired or wireless) is a local area network that can be enabled on your computers to allow them to share files and printers and be interconnected.  You can enable local networking when all machines are connected to a "common" point, like a router.  You can also setup AD-Hoc networking between computers which sets up a wireless point to point between two wireless computers. (Works like a cross-over ethernet cable if you don't want to wire the machines direct to each other.)  

To enable a lan just run the network setup wizard on each machine..

Here is a great how to .. and it doesn't matter if the machines are wired or wireless as long as they are connected to the same router!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using...

Hope that helps

Answer 3

You can use Wi-fi to create a wireless LAN. wi-fi is a protocol (mean), wireless-lan is a concept(goal).