We will be mistaken if we say the internet has not had a huge effect on our lives. Research says that most of us are internet users. Not only that; we also spend a significant chunk of our free time on the platform. Today, there are more than 35 billion devices connected to the internet. To give you an idea of the scale of what we are talking about here, that figure is more than a hundred times the total number of people residing in this great country. Yet another striking statistic is the fact that, just in the United States, there are about seven thousand internet service providers and many of them cater to such large audiences that they have to come up with a multitude of deals. Just look at the number of Xfinity internet plans available to subscribers of Xfinity – one of the most well-reputed internet service providers that the US population has been served by.
Considering how big a thing internet has become, it comes as no surprise that a lot of dinner conversations involve some discourse on the internet. A certain sector of the population explores the pros and cons of the internet to decipher whether the world is better off with it. Another sector of the population finds themselves discussing which scientist contributed the most to the internet in times past. Yet another section of people delve into more semantic explorations where they try to find out how different words in the internet provision world relate to one another. If you belong to the latter category of people, be psyched! Today, while you read this piece, you will find out a lot about how the word “WiFi” relates to the phrase “Digital Subscriber Line.”
Digital Subscriber Line
The digital subscriber line is often considered the successor to dial-up. This is because DSL uses the same type of cable as the telephone. The same was the case with dial-up. Without a doubt, however, there is a momentous way in which the successor deviates from its predecessor: broadband signals can be sent over the digital subscriber line. All this leads to the enablement of much greater internet speeds. It is true that speeds of hundreds of megabytes per second can be reached. Compare this to the 56 kilobytes per second speed of dial-up when it was first invented and you will know how big of a milestone the invention of DSL was. Perhaps, this is the reason why people in the OECD used DSL more than any other type of internet up until very recently (2019).
Read: Wifi Hotspot Turns Off Automatically In Android
WiFi
Perhaps, WiFi signals are the most commonplace forms of internet distribution in a single building or household. It has made a place in the world by enabling devices to be connected to the internet without any cords having to be plugged into them. Just imagine how weird it would be if you had to connect your phone to a cable to upload an Instagram story. Actually, now that we think about it, you are probably a Wifi right now. Most people read blogs on their phones and phones don’t even allow connection to the internet through a cable. Let us delve further into the components of WiFi:
Cable
The thing that brings the internet into a building is the cable. In the case that you have a fiber connection, your line would be a fiber-optic line while in the case of a digital subscriber line, the line would be a sort of a phone line. The quality of the cable really impacts the kinds of internet speeds you get. Also, treat your cable with care. Don’t bend it trying to roll it around your router or something.
Router
Okay, the cable brings the internet into the place but what device is responsible for the actual creation of the signals of WiFi in the house? The answer is the router. In the router, there is an input port where the cable connects. Then, there is an output port, the antenna.
Antenna
The antenna is the output port of your router. The antenna is responsible for converting the internet coming from the cable to wireless signals. This explains why everyone says that the antenna should always be upright. After all, if the antenna is horizontal, the structure of the router itself will block the signals.
Read: Why Won’t My PS4 Connect To Wi-Fi?
Conclusion
DSL is the line that brings the internet into the building. It is the input to the router. The WiFi is the output.