Occasionally my wife asks me a question on technology, usually because it is on the radio or in a quiz she is doing, most of the time i can give an answer in the format been there done that and still wearing the tee shirt.
This moring it was on internet, communications and she asked who invented Wi-Fi…
Thanks to google i found an answer as i did not know…
But that only gave me a partial answer
But still not sure, and neither gave the answer option suggested in the quiz, but there suggestions were wrong as the answer was given as Tim Berners-Lee, but he was html. Of course bill gates and steve jobs (but that was appletalk) were offered and a 4th which was totally left field. (Fred wifi who gave it his name)
I was sure it came out of either Xerox or ieee but perhaps they were just standards as in 801
For me the move from ethernet, 10 baseT etc just happened and i missed the history lesson.
For some reason I already knew about Hedi Lamarr - she didn’t invent wifi, but was responsible for frequency hopping algorithms…
I actually used an “early” form of WiFi in 1997 - and it was reasonably “mature” so I’m sure it didn’t use the CSIRO (where @nevj used to work) patents.
I was working at a large teaching hospital, and we had a “demo ward” in the teaching wing (mostly occupied by University of WA medicine, and surgery, schools) and I had to setup a demo of a trolley to be used by nurses / doctors, with a chunky laptop and the trolley itself had some kinda battery that did 240 volts. And the laptop had a wireless (probably not ANY of the later widely adopted WiFi standards) PCMCIA card - and I had to setup a “bridge” device that bridged to the ethernet LAN - was very fiddly and a PITA to setup and - SLOW!
I didn’t actually have WiFi at home until around 2004 / 5.
It was developed at CSIRO, Division of RadioPhysics, originally for airport controllers. … That was in the early 1990’s.
I am not sure how/when it came to be applied to PC’s, but it was not there when I left CSIRO in 1998. I dont know whether
the CSIRO patents even covered the PC application.
To me, patents are against everything that research is about.
Research is supposed to find out things, then apply them, publicly, … not hide them in a legal lockup.
The concept of ‘intellectual property’ has ruined the academic side of research institutions. That is why Universities insist on ‘right to publish’.
The only research you can trust is that which is done under public scrutiny.
It was developed for radio astronomy work, which before the internet was
so popular, has always been CSIRO’s biggest activity.
A friend whose name escapes me at the moment was involved with the people who developed it. Joe Turner W2JT also worked with them and adapted it for whisper signal work now being used to find the Malaysian airliner that ditched in the Indian Ocean.
Hi Barry
Welcome to the site and thanks for your contribution to my question.
Going to show my lack of knowledge in i had never heard of Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO … like many uneducated who think technology comes from the uk or America
I intend to look further into the site and what information is on it.
Spent too much time now in france so there is no world outside of here !
And if there was to be then the french would change its name anyway.
I was going to get excited, an email from Barry White, but guess you get many comment around the name so will try to resist, but your my first and possibly my last … poor joke, please continue to contribute you are very welcome
In america an archaeological dig was carried out, after digging for 1 foot, the found glass, this showed america had the internet through fibre 10 years ago.
Not to be out done
In france an archaeological dig was carried out, after digging for 2 metres, they found copper wires, this showed france had the minitel 30 years ago.
And of course…
In Australia an archaeological dig was carried out, after digging for ages, the found nothing, this showed Australia had wifi before everyone else.
Funny, but sad, and true… Three-four weeks ago my shonky ISP teased me saying that Fibre was available - after wasting about 2.5 hours on the phone to their marketing tw@ts - I learned that it WASN’T AVAILABLE! FFS! This was just to assuage me from logging another case with the Telecommunications Ombudman… And it kinda worked…
I gave up… Already had to swap in my old router they supplied 6 years - and got the newer one (July 2023) replaced under warranty (after an NBN “tech” said my issue was my router) - and GOT THE EXACT SAME SYMPTOMS - and the ISP are unable tell me why it’s so shonky on two examples of the SAME ROUTER, that they list as a supported model (TP-Link Archer VR2100).
I want to use my new router… But it takes like an HOUR to get a connection, and when it does, it’s usually about 1/4 of what I get on the ISP supplied Netcomm “toy”.
4 years ago we had copper line to our apartment, we live in mainly holiday village so most are rentals. The technicians came and tested our line the day before covid lock down and discovered it was not connected at main switch. He ran a test and any other line not in use was disconnected to give us access. That was the normal at that stage.
3 years ago we were offered fibre as they were putting it in around 30 apartments in a straight line from the switch as only one passage of trunking was suitable to use. Hence were on fibre.
The rest of the village had to wait till the trunking to other parts was cleared of plant roots. This has now been done and so everyday a massive reel of fibre arrives and they are dragging it through the clean holes and tubes. There are about 10 technicians pushing and pulling cables every day. The idea is all 650 apartments throughout the complex can have the same offer.
I cannot imagine the cost in material and labour for the numbers who will actually bother to connect. But they are pulling copper out i guess to recouper the costs and anyone who dies not upgrade will be without a connection.
Several of my clients have bought air boxes and connect to the 4g only but costs and limits prevent that over time as signal here can be poor especially in summer
Technically we have wireless networking. Wifi was originally the name of a wireless standard. Wifi rated devices were guaranteed to be able to communicate. Wifi has been accepted as the name for wireless.
“Vic Hayes is often regarded as the “father of Wi-Fi.” He started such work in 1974 when he joined NCR Corp., now part of semiconductor components maker Agere Systems.”
"His role in establishing and chairing the IEEE 802.11 Standards Working Group for Wireless Local Area Networks has led to him being referred to by some as the “Father of Wi-Fi”.
Thanks for the reply paul and welcome to the site.
Looks like Howard got closest to the answer i was looking for. Shame it was not the one offered in my wifes question possible replies but as it was a fun qestion quiz it did not matter.
Did not want to start a new topic, so I thought I would just add it here. Ran across this today.
Where did the name Bluetooth come from?
"The Bluetooth name came from Jim Kardach of Intel in 1997. “Bluetooth” was the nickname for King Harald Gormsson of Denmark and Norway in the 10th century. Historians have guessed that the nickname came from a discolored tooth—imagine that. But how does that become the name of a wireless standard?
Kardach said he chose the Bluetooth name because the king was “famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.” It was originally going to be the codename, but here we are, nearly 30 years later, still saying “Bluetooth.”"
