Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Difference Between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

The advance technology and communication methods have made a very remarkable position in our daily life. Imagine a life without your internet working or a day when you cannot transfer the data from your phone. These two are really so much in use in our daily life that its really a mes to work without them. But have you ever wondered that what is the difference between the two technologies? I guess not much of us give a thought to it, so I would like to explain some of the basic differences between Bluetooth and Wi-fi.

Difference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Bluetooth: Bluetooth can be explained as the specification with which we can define or explain how the different devices like the mobile phones, computer or PDAs are connected with a short-range wireless connection. The connections may be of point-to-point or multi-point type providing a maximum range of 10 meters. Moreover for security purpose, Bluetooth is provided with built-in encryption and verification services.

Wi-Fi: On the contrary, Wi-Fi covers wireless local area networks using the specification detailed in 802.11 family. It has found applications in business, agencies, schools and our homes. But when we are talking about such a great use, there are a lot of security risks that come in. If the Wi-Fi is not protected adequately then it can be breached and unauthorized users may gain access to the internet.

Strength and Weakness of Bluetooth technology

The concept of Bluetooth came into existence when all of us were deliberately looking for a replacement of the short-range cable technology. This technique works by connecting a device to its peripheral like for example you can connect a mobile phone with a headset or synchronizing a PDA with a desktop. In short Bluetooth is regarded as you own personal area network (PAN).

It is definitely a great solution for the short range cables and it has been highly useful in short range data transfer but Bluetooth has certain risks. One of the major problem in Bluetooth is that it is possible to connect to a Bluetooth device without the prior knowledge of the other user. In this way one can gain access to the data stored on the other device.

In addition to the above fact, this device can be easily breached with the use of specialized hardware and one can gain access to the transfer channel of the two devices. With this once a connection is developed, it is very easy to spoof the signals from one hardware device to another.

Strength and weakness of Wi-Fi technology

On the contrary, Wi-Fi is more reliable because it is a mature technology as compared to prior one. There has been a lot of improvements in the technology since its inception. The latest release, 802.11i, provides you with the industrial strength encryption and these security features are shipped with the Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) technology.

The advancement in security feature of Wi-Fi has definitely cemented its stand against the Bluetooth technology but it do have some serious issues. Wi-Fi consumes a lot of power and hence its really hard to implement it on the hand-held devices. But these issues have been worked upon and there is certainly a definite amount of success. SO till now it is pretty clear that with its security W-Fi holds an upper hand in the race.

Source: ezinearticles.com