Hotspot (Wi-Fi)

A hotspot is a physical location that offers Internet access over a wireless local area network (WLAN) through the use of a router connected to a link to an Internet service provider. Hotspots typically use Wi-Fi technology.

Hotspots may be found in coffee shops and various other public establishments in many developed urban areas throughout the world. A hotspot is differentiated from a wireless access point, which is the hardware device used to provide the wireless network service.

History

Public access wireless local area networks (LANs) were first proposed by Henrik Sjödin at the NetWorld+Interop conference in The Moscone Center in San Francisco in August 1993. Sjödin did not use the term hotspot but referred to publicly accessible wireless LANs.

The first commercial venture to attempt to create a public local area access network was a firm founded in Richardson, Texas known as PLANCOM (Public Local Area Network Communications). The founders of that venture, Mark Goode, Greg Jackson, and Brett Stewart dissolved the firm in 1998, while Goode and Jackson created MobileStar Networks. The firm was one of the first to sign such public access locations as Starbucks, American Airlines, and Hilton Hotels. The company was sold to Deutsche Telecom in 2001, who then converted the name of the firm into "T-Mobile Hotspot." It was then that the term "hotspot" entered the popular vernacular as a reference to a location where a publicly accessible wireless LAN is available.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi (or WiFi) is a local area wireless computer networking technology that allows electronic devices to connect to the network, mainly using the 2.4 gigahertz (12 cm) UHF and 5 gigahertz (6 cm) SHF ISM radio bands.

The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any "wireless local area network" (WLAN) product based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards. However, the term "Wi-Fi" is used in general English as a synonym for "WLAN" since most modern WLANs are based on these standards. "Wi-Fi" is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. The "Wi-Fi Certified" trademark can only be used by Wi-Fi products that successfully complete Wi-Fi Alliance interoperability certification testing.

Many devices can use Wi-Fi, e.g. personal computers, video-game consoles, smartphones, digital cameras, tablet computers and digital audio players. These can connect to a network resource such as the Internet via a wireless network access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (66 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspot coverage can be as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves, or as large as many square kilometres achieved by using multiple overlapping access points.

Hotspot

Hotspot or Hot spot may refer to:

Geography

Arts and entertainment

Fictional characters

Film

Literature

Music and theater

Computers

Isaiah Crockett (comics)

Isaiah Crockett (currently known as Hot Spot, formerly Joto, and originally named Slagger) is a fictional character in publications from DC Comics. The character is a superhero and a former member of the Teen Titans.

Fictional character biography

Isaiah's mother was already pregnant with him when she married Judge Crockett, who was unaware that the unborn child was half-alien (part Human and part H'San Natall). At age 16, Isaiah qualified to enter college, but on his first day at Ivy University, he and two other students (Toni Monettia who would later become Argent, and Cody Driscoll who would later become Risk) were abducted by the H'san Natall. Also abducted was The Atom, who was caught in the energy stream as well. On board the alien ship, they rescued the Earth girl who would later become Prysm, and from there they escaped. During these events, the students learned that they were all half H'san Natall. They stayed together and formed another incarnation of the Teen Titans.

Hotspot (geology)

In geology, the places known as hotspots or hot spots are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. Currently, there are two hypotheses that attempt to explain their origins. One suggests that they are due to hot mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the core–mantle boundary. An alternative hypothesis postulates that it is not high temperature that causes the volcanism, but lithospheric extension that permits the passive rising of melt from shallow depths. This hypothesis considers the term "hotspot" to be a misnomer, asserting that the mantle source beneath them is, in fact, not anomalously hot at all. Well known examples include Hawaii and Yellowstone.

Background

The origins of the concept of hotspots lie in the work of J. Tuzo Wilson, who postulated in 1963 that the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a hot region beneath the surface. It was later postulated that hotspots are fed by narrow streams of hot mantle rising from the Earth's core–mantle boundary in a structure called a mantle plume. Whether or not such mantle plumes exist is currently the subject of a major controversy in Earth science. Estimates for the number of hotspots postulated to be fed by mantle plumes has ranged from about 20 to several thousands, over the years, with most geologists considering a few tens to exist. Hawaii, Réunion, Yellowstone, Galápagos, and Iceland are some of the currently most active volcanic regions to which the hypothesis is applied.