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A home and office wireless network can be set up using wireless local area network (WLAN) devices. A wireless LAN has a wireless platform to enable wireless communication amongst the computers/laptops and peripheral devices part of the LAN. A wireless LAN has limited range and is usually best suited for local environment such as a building, office complex or home. The number one advantage is the flexibility and mobility provided by a wireless LAN.

A wireless home and office network can easily be installed by connecting a wireless router to the network. The router must be placed in a high and central position within the home or the office. Computers which are placed close to the router, or in the same room as the router, receive better network speed. Most wireless routers support broadband modems while others support telephone lines connections. Each computer connected to the wireless LAN need to have a wireless LAN card installed.

It is compulsery and important to name the wireless network and to ensure that all the computers on the WLAN share the same network name. Despite the fact that a wireless router contains a built in access point, one may need to use a wireless access point if an existing Ethernet home/office network is extended. You must cable your access point to the switch, hub or LAN router.

Unlike cellular networks with fixed frequencies, users in Wireless Local Area Networks have to share frequencies, that sometimes can lead to collisions. The choice of frequency depends on whether microwave, spread spectrum, or infrared communication is used.

The primary WLAN standards include the IEEE-802.11 series and HiperLAN. The IEEE-802.11 (Wi-Fi) standards supports 1 Mbps data rate and several selection of physical medium like: spread spectrum and infrared. One of the extra feature of this standard is the battery conservation for inactive or idle wireless users. Faster 54 Mbit/s 802.11a (5 GHz) and 802.11g (2.4 GHz) standards are now available. New criteria beyond the 802.11 specifications, such as 802.16(WiMAX), are currently being developed and provide enhancements such as longer range and faster transfer speeds.

The HiperLAN standard may be used to support 23.5 Mbps channel rates. However, it allows use of only spread spectrum physical medium and is not very popular.