the fvm318 firewall conforms to the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) 802.11b standard for wireless lans (wlans). on an 802.11b wireless link, data is encoded using direct-sequence spread-spectrum (dsss) technology and is transmitted in the unlicensed radio spectrum at 2.5ghz. the maximum data rate for the wireless link is 11 mbps, but it will automatically back down from 11 mbps to 5.5, 2, and 1 mbps when the radio signal is weak or when interference is detected.

    the 802.11b standard is also called wireless ethernet or wi-fi by the wireless ethernet compatibility alliance (weca, see http://www.wi-fi.net), an industry standard group promoting interoperability among 802.11b devices.