Editing Beacon (section)

== Other uses ==
Beacons have also allegedly been abused by [[Wrecking (shipwreck)|shipwreckers]]. An illicit fire at a wrong position would be used to direct a ship against [[shoal]]s or [[beach]]es, so that its cargo could be looted after the ship sank or ran aground. There are, however, no historically substantiated occurrences of such intentional shipwrecking.

In wireless networks, a [[Electric beacon#IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi beacons|beacon]] is a type of [[Frame (networking)|frame]] which is sent by the access point (or WiFi router) to indicate that it is on.

Bluetooth based beacons periodically send out a data packet and this could be used by software to identify the beacon location. This is typically used by [[indoor positioning system|indoor navigation and positioning]] applications.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kontakt.io/beacon-basics/what-is-a-beacon/ |title=What is a Beacon? - Beacon Basics |website=Kontakt.io |date=2016-09-20 |access-date=2017-04-05}}</ref>

''Beaconing'' is the process that allows a network to self-repair network problems. The stations on the network notify the other stations on the ring when they are not receiving the transmissions. Beaconing is used in Token ring and FDDI networks.

=== In fiction ===
In [[Aeschylus]]' tragedy ''[[Oresteia|Agamemnon]]'',<ref>v. 281 ''et sqq.''</ref> a chain of eight beacons staffed by so-called ''lampadóphoroi'' inform [[Clytemnestra]] in [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], within a single night's time, that [[Troy]] has just fallen under her husband king Agamemnon's control, after a famous [[Trojan War|ten years siege]].

In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s [[high fantasy]] novel, ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', a [[Warning beacons of Gondor|series of beacons]] alerts the entire realm of [[Gondor]] when the kingdom is under attack. These beacon posts were staffed by messengers who would carry word of their lighting to either [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]] or [[Belfalas]].<ref name=TolkienLotR>{{cite book|last=Tolkien|first=J. R. R.|title=The Lord of the Rings|year=2004|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|volume=[[The Return of the King]]|pages=747–748|edition=50th Anniversary }}</ref> In [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King|film adaptation of the novel]], the beacons serve as a connection between the two realms of Rohan and Gondor, alerting one another directly when they require military aid, as opposed to relying on messengers as in the novel.

=== In publishing ===
''[[The Beacon (magazine)|The Beacon]]'' was an influential Caribbean magazine published in Trinidad in the 1930s. [[New Beacon Books]] was the first Caribbean publishing house in England, founded in London in 1966, was named after the ''Beacon'' journal.<ref>{{cite book|last=Phillips|first=Caryl|title=[[Colour Me English]]|year=2011|publisher=Random House|location=London|isbn=9781409028925|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eia2VYteDwwC&dq=new+beacon+books+publishing+house&pg=PT111|author-link=Caryl Phillips|chapter=John La Rose}}</ref>

=== In retail ===
Beacons are sometimes used in retail to send digital coupons or invitations to customers passing by.<ref>{{cite web |author=Peter Lewis |url=https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/retail-marketing-beacon-technology.html |title=How Beacons Can Reshape Retail Marketing – Think with Google |website=Thinkwithgoogle.com |date=2016-08-19 |access-date=2017-04-05 |archive-date=2017-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503041241/https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/retail-marketing-beacon-technology.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Analysis of Promising Beacon Technology for Consumers|journal=Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications|date=Spring 2015|volume=6|issue=1|url=https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/153/2017/06/EJSpring15_Full.pdf|page=59|first=Marisa|last=Moody}}</ref>