When someone talks about Wireless Networking, it is quite likely that the network in question would involve one or more of the following:

• Cellular Telephone Networks: Cell phones, including 2.5GHz, and 3GHz cell phones,
  
• 802.11x Standards Based Networks (aka WLANs): Wireless LAN is the term commonly used for IEEE 802.11x based wireless networks.
  
• Personal Area Network (PAN), Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15: Bluetooth is now being regarded as a defacto Personal Area Network (PAN) standard. Even though it has been widely adapted in the Europe, it is not yet widely in use in the North America.
  
• HomeRF: The 10Mbps version of the HomeRF showcased in May 2001 also included support for multiple voice channels. However, it was dealt a major/final blow when Intel announced that they would no longer be developing products based on HomeRF standard.
  
• IEEE 802.16 Based Wireless Networks, or
  
• Laser or Optical Data Networks: Even though Laser or Optical data networks require a direct Line of Sight, they provide excellent data transfer rates for applications that require Point-to-Point Wireless Connectivity -especially in the applications/environments (such as many military applications) that do not allow use of RF signals.

In all probability, however, the type of Wireless Network that we are most likely to encounter at a hospitality center is usually based on one of those IEEE 802.11x standards, or to be more specific, a WiFi/WLAN based on IEEE 802.11b standard.

Just like you would need a Network Interface Card (aka a NIC) to connect your device to a wired network (aka Ethernet), you would need a wireless network interface (aka a Wireless Adapter) to interface your computing device (a PC, a PDA, a Handheld device, etc.) to the wireless LAN. Your wireless adapter would usually connect to a Wireless Access Point (aka an AP) which may in turn be connected to other APs, Bridges, or be directly connected to your wired (Ethernet) LAN Gateway.