Every mainstream laptop shipped today includes several methods of wireless network connectivity. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth top the list, but a few offer wireless cellular modems or Ethernet ports. The modern market has become standardized to a considerable extent. As recently as the mid-2010s, different devices offered more variety than they do today.
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Wi-Fi is the standard for wireless connectivity. When you see 802.11, you are looking at the Wi-Fi standard. While Wi-Fi is a recognized protocol, the relative version level of that protocol determines the relative speed of a connection. Current hardware uses the 802.11ax protocol.
A Wi-Fi connection is only as fast as the oldest, slowest 802.11 protocol supported between the router and the laptop. A router transmitting using 802.11ax will only see 10 Gbps of throughput. A Wi-Fi radio in an old laptop using the 1999 802.11b standard will only see 802.11b throughput of 11 Mbps. A cutting-edge wireless network card can’t speed up a coffee shop router that hasn’t been updated since 1999.
Every few years, the 802.11 protocol gets an update, which is indicated by a one- or two-letter suffix. There are still more than a dozen protocol versions in use, so when you buy a new laptop or a plug-in wireless network card, choose the most recent protocol to ensure the fastest speed and best reliability in any environment.
