Wireless Basics 3: How It Works

To get the big concept out of the way first, wireless networking uses electromagnetic radiation to generate a cell. Receivers inside this cell can use it to connect to the rest of the network, although signal strength decreases following the inverse square law.

Once again, in English this time. The best known form of electromagnetic radiation is the one most people use constantly. It's called light. It is very helpful to think of the wireless Access Point as a lightbulb. The closer you are, the brighter things will be lit. Some nearby places will be in shadow completely, whereas light will diffuse into other areas quite far away. The Network Adapters behave as eyes; where they can see the 'light' from the Access Point, you will have a signal. The 'brighter' the light, the stronger the signal.

Because the signal used isn't light, it goes through things light can't, like the walls of Elliott huts. It also gets stopped by things light can get through, like fish tanks full of water.