Why Is It Called 802.11?

Many people wonder what the heck the 802.11a, b, and g stand for. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the same people who brought your IEEE-1394 (also called FireWire, iLink, and so forth) is an established standards body that has defined many technologies via its internal open working groups (WGs). 802.11 is named this due to its IEEE working group being group 802.11. IEEE Project 802 is also called the LAN/MAN Standards Committee, or LMSC, and the 802.11 working group handles wireless LANs. Tens of millions of IEEE 802.11 devices have been deployed worldwide and are interoperable. IEEE 802.11 has many flavors. The most widespread today is 802.11b (named after IEEE 802.11 working group B), which operates in the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band at approximately 2.45 GHz, and can transmit up to 11 Mbps. Newly available 802.11 flavors include 802.11a and 802.11g. 802.11a and g support speeds up to 54 Mbps (in the standard, proprietary solutions claim faster speeds), and operate in the ISM band, as well as the newly unlicensed U-NII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) band, at 5.2 and 5.8 GHz.
Even though 802.11 is a standard, its availability is restricted in different regions of the world because of varying regulations. Generally, 802.11b in the United States has 13 broadcast channels available for use (3 optimal ones because they are non-overlapping), and 802.11a in the United States supports 140 channels, with 12 non-overlapping optimal channels. However, in France and Spain, the various channels available to 802.11b and g users are severely limited (1 non-overlapping channel), while there are actually more channels available in Japan (13 channels, 3 non-overlapping). Take note: Even though 802.11a provides so many optimal channels, the international legalization of its 5.2 GHz frequency use has not been standardized, so outside-U.S. deployments may run into broadcast legal issues. Another note: The 5.2 GHz U-NII spectrum is also used by microwave landing systems to help planes land in bad weather.

Speeding Up Wireless Internet Access

To save battery life, the PSP defaults to a “wireless power saving” mode, which lowers the transmit and receive speed of the built-in wireless. To improve wireless performance, especially for Internet access, you should turn that mode off. Of course, it will eat more battery power, but play around with it and see what you think.
You may actually need to disable the wireless power saving mode, as some wireless access points and devices aren’t compatible with the power saving feature of the PSP, so knowing how to do this may help you when you can’t connect in certain places.
Follow these steps to disable wireless power saving mode:
1. Use the PSP Navigator to select Settings, and then Power Settings.
2. Select the WLAN Power Save option and press X to select it.
3. Set the option to Off and press X again.

How to Create an Ad-Hoc PSP Wireless Profile?

If you’re just going to do some quick gaming with friends, you all need to have the same network name, or SSID, so you can all connect with each other. Once everyone has the same profile, you can all connect and play your games together.
The PSP doesn’t actually let you set your SSID in Ad Hoc Mode, so it just defaults to a generic name beginning with PSP, followed by a number of different characters. This can vary depending on the game you’re playing, too, as some games will set a different SSID to differentiate the PSP hosting the game from the other PSPs in the vicinity (which may be hosting games, too). Unfortunately, this means anyone with a PSP and the same game could potentially join in your game (if your game supports uninvited joins), so feel free to be paranoid and check to see who’s around you before you start a wireless match.
If you switch to Ad Hoc Mode, you will have to switch back to Infrastructure Mode at the Network Setting menu before you can use your PSP in infrastructure mode again.
Follow these steps to set up an Ad Hoc network:

1. Use the PSP Navigator to select Settings and then Network Settings. Select the Ad Hoc Mode option and press X
2. Set the channel to Automatic and press X.
3. Press X to save the settings.

How to Set Up a WiFi Networking Profile

The PSP’s networking capabilities are very similar to a Macintosh’s, where you can set up different network profiles for use in different locations.
To set up a network profile, go to the PSP Navigator, select Settings, and then select Network Settings. You are given two options, both of which pertain only to wireless networking—Ad Hoc Mode and Infrastructure Mode-3). If you’re not familiar with the difference between the two, read the sidebar “Wireless Modes in Focus: Ad Hoc and Infrastructure.” Ad Hoc Mode is generally used when playing head-to-head with multiple PSPs in close proximity (10–20 feet), as it doesn’t require a base station. Infrastructure is useful when there are multiple people in different rooms and you use a central base station to connect.
It’s actually a good thing that most PSP games limit wireless play to eight players. As wireless networks get more and more crowded, the devices’ transmissions adversely affect the overall available bandwidth and you could lose data and therefore have poor gameplay. Remember, when you’re on an 11 Mbps wireless network, you’re sharing that bandwidth with everybody else, so the more you do on the network, the less bandwidth that’s available for others. This is especially true if you’re trying to play a PSP game with eight people while someone’s downloading a huge file and printing a large document over your wireless network—there’s a good possibility of losing packets and having issues with gaming.
Let’s go through configuration of both network types. Some games may actually require one type over another—the back of the box says “Wi-Fi Compatible (Ad Hoc/Infrastructure),”. Some games may not support wireless play at all and won’t have the Wi-Fi Compatible logo on their box at all.

Turning Wireless On and Off

To enable and disable the built-in wireless of your PSP, simply flip the switch on its left side. Up enables wireless and down disables it. This doesn’t turn wireless on, however. Games and applications selectively turn the wireless feature on and off, so you can safely leave the switch up and it will only actually be “on” when an application needs it.