​Difference Between Broadband and WI-FI – Understand in Detail

​In India, there are distinct broadband packages from distinct internet service providers (ISPs) in the market. This is because, in today’s world, the internet is a necessity. From streaming television shows and movies to keeping in close contact with friends, family and colleagues, an internet connection is a must. 

WI-FI and broadband are 2 important things often mixed with one another. Read on to understand and get complete clarity on the difference between broadband and WI-FI.

What’s a broadband connection?

In the world of telecommunication, broadband is a vast bandwidth data transmission system which transports multiple ranges of frequencies as well as internet traffic that allows messages to be transferred instantly using a fast internet connection. In simpler words, internet broadband is a kind of internet connection. 

In India, broadband is a popular and common route to connect your office or home to the internet so that you can stream your favourite television shows on television players, enjoy video calls with family and friends and shop online. 

As mentioned above, there’s usually confusion between mobile internet and broadband. Broadband is the internet connection you use at your home, and it operates using wire, but a mobile broadband connection uses 4G or 5G to directly connect to the internet through a mobile network. Until recently, almost every home used a modem or router which offered a so-called broadband connection to the internet. A relatively recent development is fixed mobile broadband, wherein a router or modem uses a 4G or 5G connection to offer an internet network. In rural regions, the broadband connection could be delivered through satellite. However, your tablet, laptop, or phone – when used at your home will automatically connect to the router through WI-FI. 

What’s a WI-FI?

WI-FI is a wireless replacement for a traditional Ethernet network using radio waves. And many think of this as a wireless internet network. However, it is just a way to connect two devices over an internet network with zero need for a cable. WI-FI is not an internet network and only permits internet traffic to traffic wirelessly to your electronic devices like your phone, television, etc. 

Let’s clear the confusion around WI-FI

Over the past few years, as we have rapidly moved to a world dominated by smartphones, many have come to call their internet network WI-FI because this is what connects your devices at home, at work or elsewhere to the internet – so that you do not exhaust your mobile data cap instantly. However, connecting to WI-FI simply permits your device to interact back and forth with the router. In fact, even if you did not sign up with the internet service provider, you would still connect to your router by selecting the right WI-FI SSID name and inputting the WI-FI passcode. 

However, if you did so, while your electronic device would display that you are successfully connected to the WI-FI, you would not be able to reach out to any social media platform or site as the router has no internet through the internet service provider. As soon as the internet service provider gets your home connected through a high-speed fibre VDSL or ADSL, your router will instantly connect to the internet, and you will be able to browse online. 

WI-FI vs wired ethernet

Most homes tend to use both at the same time. WI-FI is basically used at homes to connect laptops and smartphones to the internet. While a desktop computer, may be used for gaming purposes, and can be connected to an Ethernet cable for a quick and reliable internet connection, you would need Wi-FI for other devices.

Wired connections to routers generally offer quicker connectivity and are way less susceptible to interference or any issues caused owing to the environment. This is recommended if you at all run any personal computer or other devices through a wired network cable. This helps not just those devices to maintain a high-speed connection but even lowers the WI-FI congestion caused owing to dozens of wireless devices all simultaneously communicating with home routers in relatively small spaces.

Public vs. secure WI-FI

The next crucial thing you must understand regarding WI-FI is the security problems. At your home, if you are using a modern router and have any simple passcode set for the same, then ensure to set a complex passcode. Yes, this is because there are still specific undesirable means that imposters can use to gain access to your internet network by viewing your passcode via illegal means. Of higher concern is public WI-FI. 

You see such public WI-FI available everywhere now, may it be coffee shops, shopping malls, airports, etc. And they are very convenient to get connected to, especially if you do not have a high cell signal strength or do not have any mobile data limit left, so you may connect to a public WI-FI in such a scenario. However, there are a lot of dangers when you use public WI-FI. 

At times, imposters may set up a fake WIFI connection in public of a similar name as the restaurant nearby, for instance. In such a scenario, a few customers may select to connect to fake WI-FI access points and endow individuals running it with several opportunities to steal credentials or data. Likewise, if you are connected to any unencrypted public WI-FI network, there could be several other malicious activities happening, which may infect your device.

Conclusion

WI-FI is just a wireless method that you use at your home. However, wireless broadband is a kind of internet connection, which uses a router to connect to your nearby cell towers. By using this signal, you can receive and send data through the cell towers nearby. Even if you were using wireless broadband, you would still simply require connecting your phone to your router WI-FI to use this network connection at your home.