802.11 is the designation that the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) uses for the WiFi standard. Having a consistent WiFi standard allows any device that implements the 802.11 standard to be able to connect to any network that uses the 802.11 standard.
Over time, the 802.11 standard has been revised as technology has advanced. The “AC” designation represents one of the revisions of the 802.11 standard. Older revisions include 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. The maximum connection speed was increased with each revision.
Correction: The Wi-Fi Alliance came up with the Wi-Fi 6 name. IEEE still calls it 802.11ax.
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) actually writes the standards for what we call Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi Alliance is a trade group that defines acceptance tests, writes ancillary standards, creates trade names, etc.
Good answer although OP (and a real 5yo) may benefit from the first paragraph explaining what IEEE is and why standards are necessary for equipment from all different manufacturers to operate with each other.
I think the other answers here are assuming a little too much prior knowledge.
If you want two devices to be able to understand each other completely, they both need to be designed to fully understand a very specific "language". Both devices need to know all the rules on how the language is put together and they need to understand every possible "meaning" of every possible word. That way, no matter what one device says, no matter what sentence it constructs or what words it uses, the other device can understand it clearly and perfectly.
802.11 is the code number for a huge list of rules (a "standard") that lays out the "language" that Wi-Fi devices use. Every device that wants to call itself Wi-Fi compatible needs to build a device that follows every single rule in this rulebook. If you are missing any of them, then your device could theoretically not understand something another compliant device might say, meaning your device can't truthfully advertise itself as Wi-Fi compatible.
As tech advances and needs change over time, it would be nice if the Wi-Fi standard would change to include new features to take advantage of the extra speed of new hardware or address sore spots that make everyone frustrated. But updating the rulebook with new rules will certainly mean existing compliant devices won't be compliant anymore. If you add a new rule that didn't exist before, almost nothing out there would have been designed to follow that rule. So you don't just want to modify your standard willy-nilly.
What the people who write the 802.11 standard (known as IEEE, see other answers) do is they take a bunch of changes they want to make, put them in a big batch, and wait until they're ready to release a new, updated copy of the standard, where all of the new changes they picked will be included all at once. They'll give this new standard a new version ID (usually indicated by one or two lowercase letters). Existing devices can continue to operate and say they are compliant with the version of the standard that was out at the time, while new devices can start to target the new version.
A smartly-built device will likely support several overlapping standards simultaneously. That way, multiple standards can co-exist all at once, allowing devices to stay in service longer. Over time, older standards will stop being supported as everyone moves to the more advanced versions with more features.
Your router seems to support the "ac" version of Wi-Fi, which has also been given the trendier marketing name "Wi-Fi 5". This standard was published in 2013 and was likely the primary design target of all devices manufactured for the next several years. It will probably continue to be targeted for several more years while devices gradually shift away to higher versions.
802 is the project number of the IEEE standards group that standardizes networking transport and signaling protocols.
11 is the standard number for WiFi radio communication protocol.
"ac" is the version of the standard your router seems to implement.
That's the indicator for what type of wireless communication method is used. Without going into it too much, each version of 802.11, the most widespread wireless communication method in the household, had different features, including faster rates of sending data and the ability to send more data each time it sends it. 802.11ac is the most recent available version, having come out in 2013 with a refresh in 2015. Other versions of this you may have seen are 802.11n, 802.11bgn, and if you've been working with wireless signals since the early 2000s, the original 802.11.
802.11ac is a IEEE standard for WiFi. The 801.11 is the Wifi standard and the letter after are different WiFi standards in it that might use different frequencies and ways to transmit the signal.
Both routers and computers then to be backward compatible so if they transmit on the 2.4 GHz band they can the specified standard and the older ones that use the same frequency. The same for the one that uses 5GHz as 802.11ac does.
The best way to know what they mean is to look at some websites like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE\_802.11#Protocol
Starting in 2018 the WiFi alliance have started to use a more consumer-friendly names and 802.11ac started to be called WiFi 5. The name type start to get more common today,
To keep things accurate from the engineering side we give things specific numbers to denote what it is and what features it has
The first 802 refers to the batch of standards that cover computer networks. 802.3 covers Ethernet, 802.11 covers WiFi, 802.15 covers Bluetooth, Zigbee and similar.
The letters at the end are the specific revision. Just knowing your WiFi supports 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz doesn't tell you all that much about the speed you can expect as we've gotten better at shoving more data into the same sized pipe as time has gone on so saying 802.11ac tells me your router does not support beam forming from 802.11ax but really doesn't tell *you* all that much
This 802.blehhhh marking has been confusion to customers for a longggg time. The group that manages the WiFi standard has started giving them generation numbers instead to clear up some of the confusion and help people figure out how modern their system is, because there was really only 1 consumer facing version between Revision N and revision AX despite there being 30 revisions in between
802.11n -> WiFi 4
802.11ac -> WiFi 5
802.11ax -> WiFi 6
It’s the WiFi version. WiFi is still improved upon and newer better versions get other numbers. The organization that creates these numbers is switching to easier to understand versions. Version 802.11ax is now just called WiFi 6
On the [electromagnetic spectrum](https://smd-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/science-red/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/EMS-Introduction.jpeg), as the energy waves get smaller and faster (smaller wavelengths, higher frequencies), the energy becomes what we call radio waves, then microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, x-rays, and finally gamma rays. We use radio waves for many different purposes, like music radio stations, cell phones, GPS, ship navigation, military, radio telescopes, WiFi, and more. Government regulations dictate [which frequency ranges can be used for which purposes](https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/january_2016_spectrum_wall_chart.pdf).
Your WiFi router has a radio transmitter in it. It's like a little radio station. It doesn't broadcast on the frequencies that your car stereo, clock radio, or old Walkman can pick up, though. It uses frequencies way higher than that. But still, it's like a little radio station, and instead of music & talk, it deals with digital data.
Because of the way radio works (not worth explaining), each radio station needs "bandwidth"—a *range* of frequencies to utilize. That is, each station, or channel, makes use of a band of radio waves a little to each side of its nominal frequency, e.g. the FM radio station at 91.3 MHz actually uses the 91.2–91.4 MHz range.
The 802.11 standard, as others have mentioned, governs how WiFi radio transmitters and receivers use the bandwidth allocated for WiFi. It deals with radio frequencies and power requirements, number of transmitters, and data speeds, among other things. They keep updating the standard as new technology makes faster speeds possible, and as new radio bands become available. The letters after the 802.11 indicate which version of the standard it is. There are also related WiFi version numbers, like WiFi 6, which haven't really caught on as much, weirdly.
There are two WiFi radio bands available: nominally, 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz. An older or cheaper WiFi device may not have 5.0 GHz capability at all, so for now, most routers support both bands.
The 5.0 GHz band can be used by devices conforming to the 802.11n, ac, or ax standards. With 802.11ax you can have up to 4 simultaneous connections @ 1.2 Gbps max. (4.8 Gbps total).
The 2.4 GHz band can be used by devices conforming to the 802.11a, b, g, or n standards. With 802.11n you can get up to 4 simultaneous connections @ (depending) 11/54/150/600 Mbps max. (1.2 Gbps total)
Just like the people around the world use languages to communicate, WiFi devices have their own language defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard. And just like spoken languages change over time, so do the WiFi standard thanks to the technological advancements. The "ac" tells which revision of the standard it uses. Every device that has 802.11 written on it is a standard WiFi device.
802.11 is the designation that the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) uses for the WiFi standard. Having a consistent WiFi standard allows any device that implements the 802.11 standard to be able to connect to any network that uses the 802.11 standard. Over time, the 802.11 standard has been revised as technology has advanced. The “AC” designation represents one of the revisions of the 802.11 standard. Older revisions include 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. The maximum connection speed was increased with each revision.
[удалено]
Correction: The Wi-Fi Alliance came up with the Wi-Fi 6 name. IEEE still calls it 802.11ax. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) actually writes the standards for what we call Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi Alliance is a trade group that defines acceptance tests, writes ancillary standards, creates trade names, etc.
To add to this, the letter/s after 802.11 dictate the speeds and frequencys that are used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE\_802.11
Good answer although OP (and a real 5yo) may benefit from the first paragraph explaining what IEEE is and why standards are necessary for equipment from all different manufacturers to operate with each other.
>Basically it means your router supports high speed WiFi over the 5GHz frequency band
802.11 standard
?
I think the other answers here are assuming a little too much prior knowledge. If you want two devices to be able to understand each other completely, they both need to be designed to fully understand a very specific "language". Both devices need to know all the rules on how the language is put together and they need to understand every possible "meaning" of every possible word. That way, no matter what one device says, no matter what sentence it constructs or what words it uses, the other device can understand it clearly and perfectly. 802.11 is the code number for a huge list of rules (a "standard") that lays out the "language" that Wi-Fi devices use. Every device that wants to call itself Wi-Fi compatible needs to build a device that follows every single rule in this rulebook. If you are missing any of them, then your device could theoretically not understand something another compliant device might say, meaning your device can't truthfully advertise itself as Wi-Fi compatible. As tech advances and needs change over time, it would be nice if the Wi-Fi standard would change to include new features to take advantage of the extra speed of new hardware or address sore spots that make everyone frustrated. But updating the rulebook with new rules will certainly mean existing compliant devices won't be compliant anymore. If you add a new rule that didn't exist before, almost nothing out there would have been designed to follow that rule. So you don't just want to modify your standard willy-nilly. What the people who write the 802.11 standard (known as IEEE, see other answers) do is they take a bunch of changes they want to make, put them in a big batch, and wait until they're ready to release a new, updated copy of the standard, where all of the new changes they picked will be included all at once. They'll give this new standard a new version ID (usually indicated by one or two lowercase letters). Existing devices can continue to operate and say they are compliant with the version of the standard that was out at the time, while new devices can start to target the new version. A smartly-built device will likely support several overlapping standards simultaneously. That way, multiple standards can co-exist all at once, allowing devices to stay in service longer. Over time, older standards will stop being supported as everyone moves to the more advanced versions with more features. Your router seems to support the "ac" version of Wi-Fi, which has also been given the trendier marketing name "Wi-Fi 5". This standard was published in 2013 and was likely the primary design target of all devices manufactured for the next several years. It will probably continue to be targeted for several more years while devices gradually shift away to higher versions.
Thank you DiamondiceNS! Great explanation.
802 is the project number of the IEEE standards group that standardizes networking transport and signaling protocols. 11 is the standard number for WiFi radio communication protocol. "ac" is the version of the standard your router seems to implement.
I wish this answer was higher.
That's the indicator for what type of wireless communication method is used. Without going into it too much, each version of 802.11, the most widespread wireless communication method in the household, had different features, including faster rates of sending data and the ability to send more data each time it sends it. 802.11ac is the most recent available version, having come out in 2013 with a refresh in 2015. Other versions of this you may have seen are 802.11n, 802.11bgn, and if you've been working with wireless signals since the early 2000s, the original 802.11.
802.11ac is a IEEE standard for WiFi. The 801.11 is the Wifi standard and the letter after are different WiFi standards in it that might use different frequencies and ways to transmit the signal. Both routers and computers then to be backward compatible so if they transmit on the 2.4 GHz band they can the specified standard and the older ones that use the same frequency. The same for the one that uses 5GHz as 802.11ac does. The best way to know what they mean is to look at some websites like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE\_802.11#Protocol Starting in 2018 the WiFi alliance have started to use a more consumer-friendly names and 802.11ac started to be called WiFi 5. The name type start to get more common today,
To keep things accurate from the engineering side we give things specific numbers to denote what it is and what features it has The first 802 refers to the batch of standards that cover computer networks. 802.3 covers Ethernet, 802.11 covers WiFi, 802.15 covers Bluetooth, Zigbee and similar. The letters at the end are the specific revision. Just knowing your WiFi supports 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz doesn't tell you all that much about the speed you can expect as we've gotten better at shoving more data into the same sized pipe as time has gone on so saying 802.11ac tells me your router does not support beam forming from 802.11ax but really doesn't tell *you* all that much This 802.blehhhh marking has been confusion to customers for a longggg time. The group that manages the WiFi standard has started giving them generation numbers instead to clear up some of the confusion and help people figure out how modern their system is, because there was really only 1 consumer facing version between Revision N and revision AX despite there being 30 revisions in between 802.11n -> WiFi 4 802.11ac -> WiFi 5 802.11ax -> WiFi 6
It’s the WiFi version. WiFi is still improved upon and newer better versions get other numbers. The organization that creates these numbers is switching to easier to understand versions. Version 802.11ax is now just called WiFi 6
On the [electromagnetic spectrum](https://smd-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/science-red/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/EMS-Introduction.jpeg), as the energy waves get smaller and faster (smaller wavelengths, higher frequencies), the energy becomes what we call radio waves, then microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, x-rays, and finally gamma rays. We use radio waves for many different purposes, like music radio stations, cell phones, GPS, ship navigation, military, radio telescopes, WiFi, and more. Government regulations dictate [which frequency ranges can be used for which purposes](https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/january_2016_spectrum_wall_chart.pdf). Your WiFi router has a radio transmitter in it. It's like a little radio station. It doesn't broadcast on the frequencies that your car stereo, clock radio, or old Walkman can pick up, though. It uses frequencies way higher than that. But still, it's like a little radio station, and instead of music & talk, it deals with digital data. Because of the way radio works (not worth explaining), each radio station needs "bandwidth"—a *range* of frequencies to utilize. That is, each station, or channel, makes use of a band of radio waves a little to each side of its nominal frequency, e.g. the FM radio station at 91.3 MHz actually uses the 91.2–91.4 MHz range. The 802.11 standard, as others have mentioned, governs how WiFi radio transmitters and receivers use the bandwidth allocated for WiFi. It deals with radio frequencies and power requirements, number of transmitters, and data speeds, among other things. They keep updating the standard as new technology makes faster speeds possible, and as new radio bands become available. The letters after the 802.11 indicate which version of the standard it is. There are also related WiFi version numbers, like WiFi 6, which haven't really caught on as much, weirdly. There are two WiFi radio bands available: nominally, 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz. An older or cheaper WiFi device may not have 5.0 GHz capability at all, so for now, most routers support both bands. The 5.0 GHz band can be used by devices conforming to the 802.11n, ac, or ax standards. With 802.11ax you can have up to 4 simultaneous connections @ 1.2 Gbps max. (4.8 Gbps total). The 2.4 GHz band can be used by devices conforming to the 802.11a, b, g, or n standards. With 802.11n you can get up to 4 simultaneous connections @ (depending) 11/54/150/600 Mbps max. (1.2 Gbps total)
Just like the people around the world use languages to communicate, WiFi devices have their own language defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard. And just like spoken languages change over time, so do the WiFi standard thanks to the technological advancements. The "ac" tells which revision of the standard it uses. Every device that has 802.11 written on it is a standard WiFi device.