Chapter 7 Local Area Network's Small Pond

  On New Year's Eve, Feng Xiao Tian sat in front of the computer. Tonight, he had a very important thing to do, which was to connect his computer to the wireless network.

  Through these days of study, Feng Xiaotian finally understood the ridiculousness of his own actions. At first, he thought that as long as he installed the radio signal receiver on the computer, it would be fine, but he failed. At that time, he had already vaguely perceived many difficulties in this, but after studying for these days, he realized that these difficulties were far more difficult than he had imagined!

  Firstly, the frequencies received by computers and radios are vastly different. Although both are electromagnetic waves, trying to adjust the radio signal receiver's frequency band to match that of a computer is simply an impossible task due to the power issue involved. The gap between them is too large, making it fundamentally unadjustable. In simpler terms, it's like trying to fit a big foot into a small shoe.

  Your foot is much bigger than the shoe, even if you squeeze hard, it can't be squeezed in. How can you wear shoes? To solve this problem, you can only change to a larger pair of shoes, that is, the signal receiver installed on the computer by Feng Xiaotian must be replaced with a more powerful one.

  This problem is difficult, but at least there's hope. Feng Xiao Tian thought for a moment and then ran to Old Li's place to find a broken "San Yang". What is San Yang? It's simple - it's a type of radio with a larger volume that can play cassette tapes. Because the first company to enter the domestic market with this type of large radio was Japan's San Yang Company, domestically all similar products are referred to as "San Yang".

  Feng Xiaotian spent a dollar to buy the signal receiver of this large radio, no choice, the overall price of such things is a bit expensive, so even if it's the parts above, they are sold at a relatively high price. Feng Xiaotian installed this wireless signal receiver on his computer, which finally solved the problem of big feet and small shoes.

  After Feng Xiaotian's adjustment, the frequency of this receiver has been synchronized with the wireless network signal of the computer. This involves very professional knowledge, and Feng Xiaotian spent a lot of effort to finally solve this problem. Moreover, replacing this signal receiver also has another benefit, that is, it does not need battery support, as long as it is connected to an ordinary power source, it can be used. This saved Feng Xiaotian the money to buy batteries. Now, the price of a small battery is 50 cents per pair, and the price of a large battery is actually sold for 1 yuan per pair. For Feng Xiaotian, this is also a relatively unexpected surprise.

  The problem of receiving network signals was solved, and the next step was to solve the problem of transmitting signals from the computer. Feng Xiaotian bought a used wireless signal transmitter from Lao Li and installed it on the computer, which finally achieved two-way transmission of computer signals. This wireless signal transmitter was dismantled from a broken mobile phone. In this era, the price of mobile phones was extremely expensive, with a starting price of tens of thousands of yuan. Feng Xiaotian spent more than 10,000 yuan just to buy the signal transmitter on it, which almost made him heartbroken. Originally, the signal transmitter on the mobile phone also had the function of receiving wireless signals, but due to its limited data reception and transmission capabilities, if it were to complete two tasks at the same time, even if connected to a wireless network, the internet speed would be extremely slow. In this case, it's better to separate the work of signal reception and transmission, which can guarantee a smooth network.

  After doing all this, new problems emerged. When Feng Xiaotian opened the computer, the display was still a jumbled mess of code. Through his research, he finally found the key to the problem, which was even more complicated and difficult to handle than the signal receiver issue.

  The wireless radio wave signals emitted are extremely complex digital codes, and to convert these numbers into real information, an information conversion process is required. Feng Xiaotian installed a signal receiver for large radios, which only converts the radio's digital signal, as for computer signals, it doesn't recognize them at all!

  Although it has the ability to receive computer wireless signals after adjusting Feng Xiaotian, it is not within its capability to convert the received digital signal into content that can be displayed on a computer. No way, it was not meant for this in the first place.

  Since the signal receiver cannot convert information, there is only one way left - to enable the computer itself to have this ability. This sounds simple, but it's extremely difficult in practice, because to make the computer achieve this function, you must equip it with a translator - that is, a translator!

  It's just like two people from different countries wanting to talk, because they don't speak the same language, so neither of them understands what the other is saying. At this time, a person who is proficient in both languages is needed to translate in between. What about computers? The answer is simple - data packet conversion software.

  All external information received by a computer is transmitted in the form of data packets. How easy is it to write such software?

  Although Feng Xiang Tian is quite proficient in computer software, he does not understand the principle of data packet transmission. What kind of ability do translators need to have? At least they should be familiar with the languages of both parties involved in the conversation.

  The problem with Feng Xiaotian was that he knew the language of computers, but didn't know what a data packet was. To solve this problem, Feng Xiaotian even spent several days running to the city center's library. There was no other way, as this question was too professional and only large libraries had books on this topic.

  After several days of study, Feng Xiaotian finally understood the underlying principles, and this problem was finally solved. What's left is only programming, to be honest, this is the most painful part. Feng Xiaotian applied his knowledge, using the most common BASIC language, and started the tedious programming work.

  For ten whole days, Feng Xiaotian has been completely focused on programming. Today is the 30th of December, also the day he will complete his programming task. His hands are swiftly clicking away at the keyboard, his eyes fixed intently on the computer screen, seemingly not worried about making any mistakes with his fingers. As soon as the last character of the program was inputted, Feng Xiaotian suddenly slapped the table and threw back his head to laugh loudly: "Hahaha! I've finally finished!"

  Feng Xiaotian was jumping around the house like a little kid, his face extremely comical. At this moment, his heart was filled with joy. In his opinion, the happiest thing in life is to put one's ideas into practice. The sense of satisfaction after success is wonderful, and it's absolutely impossible to understand without experiencing it. Of course, Feng Xiaotian was carefree, and exploring new fields was the only meaning of his life.

  Feng Xiaotian was excited for a long time before calming down, he rubbed his already sore fingers and sat back in front of the computer. Since the program had been written, next was to debug it, see if there were any grammatical errors inside. Soon, Feng Xiaotian finished debugging, this software did not have any problems. Feng Xiaotian embedded the program into the computer's operating system and activated the software, immediately this software started running on the computer.

  As the interface continued to switch, the computer finally displayed a prompt that the signal reception was normal. Immediately afterwards, Feng Xiaotian couldn't wait to start his own journey of exploration.

  But soon he stopped because he was connected to the domestic network, and at that time in China there were only small-scale local area networks, and no internet as described in computer books.

  Feng Xiao Tian was disappointed. This wasn't the result he wanted. He wanted to be able to freely roam in the ocean of the internet, but now it seemed like there was no difference between this and being trapped in a small pond.