How does Wi-Fi actually work?

Wi-Fi is a way to transmit digital data through the air without needing physical wires [2]. It essentially turns your internet connection into invisible signals that your devices can understand [1]. Here is how the process works:

• Data Conversion: Your wireless router acts as a bridge between the internet and your devices. It takes the digital information coming from your internet service provider and converts it into radio waves [1].
• Modulation: The router uses a method called modulation to encode that digital data onto the radio waves. By slightly altering the characteristics of these waves, the router can transmit complex information through the air [3].
• Transmission and Reception: These radio waves travel from the router's antennas through the air [1]. When your device—like a phone or laptop—picks up these waves, its own internal wireless adapter reverses the process, decoding the radio waves back into the digital data that your screen displays [3].

In short, your router acts like a miniature radio station, sending and receiving data to and from your devices using electromagnetic radiation [3].