Confused about codecs, or wondering about wireless?

Home networking lets you do great things that aren’t possible with standalone PCs. Printers can be shared between PC, so there’s no need to buy one for each machine; data can be swapped around virtually instantaneous; and every PC can go on the net via a single modem or ADSL connection. But, for many years, the price to be paid was having messy wires trailing all around the house, with associated hazards such as disentangling the dog from the mess or persuading the cat to stop chewing cables. Then along came the WiFi wireless networking standard, allowing computers and peripherals to communicate without all those cables. Read about it here.

CoDecs compress and decompress data. The word CoDec is a shortening of the term Compressor/Decompressor. Compressing a data stream or a file reduces its data rate. This cuts costs all the way down the line. It reduces the bandwidth required for transmission or broadcasting and the amount of space required for storage. Before the data can be used, though, it has to be decompressed. Both phases of a CoDec’s work can be carried out in hardware, in software or a combination of both. Read about it Hexus.