# We use Wi-Fi every day to connect our devices to the internet, but how does it actually work? How do our devices communicate with the router and what makes Wi-Fi different from other types of wireless communication?
In: Technology
As others have pointed out WiFi uses radio to communicate. What makes WiFi different? The thing that distinguishes WiFi is the “protocol” that it uses. A protocol is a very specific and precisely defined method of communicating that includes set sequences of messages with specific formats, all defined as a part of an international standard. Any device that is WiFi compatible follows this protocol precisely.
The protocol itself handles numerous things:
– discovery of WiFi networks, so you can scan for available networks
– connecting to an access point using a shared password
– encrypting a connection for privacy
– avoiding multiple devices talking at once on the same frequency
– sending “packets” of data to any other device on the network by specifying its network address (MAC)
Beyond that, everything else is basically the same as a wired network and it uses IP (Internet Protocol) on top of the WiFi protocol to be able to communicate with other devices on the same network as well as over the Internet (if the network has an Internet connection).
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