Wireless and Wi-Fi

I'm not new to computers or the internet but somehow I've managed to get this far without know the difference between wireless and wi-fi... Are they one in the same.

Wireless is more generic a term that includes WiFi in it.

WiFi, if I recall correctly, refers specifically to wireless (eg, without wires) networking using one of the 802.11 protocols.

Wireless, obviously includes that, but also can describe infrared communications like those between your remote control and television, or BlueTooth connections between keyboards and computers or headsets and telephones.

Thanks Shikarnov... Your answer got me going in the right direction... From what I googled. The way I understand it is a general wireless network like a 802.11 is dealing with a speed in which it will transfer data thus the 802.11b, 802.11g, etc... WiFi puts priority on audio and video to keep there speeds up so you won't hear a delay in the voice conversation and so the video will look nice and smooth. This priority will in turn allow other areas to lack such as down-loading large files. If this is in fact the case is restaurants that have WiFi catering to the Cell phone or the guy with Macbook? Or I may still be totally confused...

You're confused. Wi-Fi is a play on the word "hi-fi" which was short for High Fidelity back when stereo equipment was first introduced. Wi-Fi is associated almost exclusively with 802.11(x) wireless internet access.

The term "wireless" is sometimes used to refer to cellular data, but is more commonly understood to be another term for Wi-Fi. When someone is trying to distinguish between cellular and Wi-Fi, they will generally use the term "3G" to refer to the cellular data.