"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
When you guys are out and about with your laptops, do you pay for
wi-fi?

How does that work?

Most motels have free wi-fi, as do libraries and even McDonald's. Some
towns are setting up town-wide Wi-Fi.

Some protect and reserve the service to paying customers by issuing a
passcode to use it.
Others, like the Comfort Inn I am at right now do not. You just search for
a server, the motel's server shows up and you hit "connect".

Works fine, lasts a long time.

RCE

Kewl. Do you need a specific wireless card? Or is it protocol
sensitive?

Any laptop built recently will have wi-fi built in as standard equipment.
For an older machine cards can be purchased for the PCMCIA slot. Any card
with "G" protocol is what you want. "G" is backward compatible with the
earlier "A" and "B" protocols, I believe.

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:27:32 -0500, "RCE" wrote:


"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
. ..
When you guys are out and about with your laptops, do you pay for
wi-fi?

How does that work?

Most motels have free wi-fi, as do libraries and even McDonald's. Some
towns are setting up town-wide Wi-Fi.

Some protect and reserve the service to paying customers by issuing a
passcode to use it.
Others, like the Comfort Inn I am at right now do not. You just search
for
a server, the motel's server shows up and you hit "connect".

Works fine, lasts a long time.

Kewl. Do you need a specific wireless card? Or is it protocol
sensitive?

There's some standard setup ... somebody here will know ....802.11b or
something like that.
My laptop has it built-in. Mrs. E. has a module plugged into a USB port for
her tower computer.
We put a wireless router in the house and did away with all the cables.

I noticed when I checked into the motel that if your laptop does not have
the built-in wi-fi thing, they will lend you a USB module to use during your
stay.

RCE

Around 3/25/2006 5:45 PM, RG wrote:

Kewl. Do you need a specific wireless card? Or is it protocol
sensitive?

Any laptop built recently will have wi-fi built in as standard equipment.
For an older machine cards can be purchased for the PCMCIA slot. Any card
with "G" protocol is what you want. "G" is backward compatible with the
earlier "A" and "B" protocols, I believe.

Nope, G is only backwards compatible with B.
A is a completely different animal. For one, it operates in the less
crowded 5GHz band vs. the B/G's use of the 2.4GHz band. You can get
cards that will do both A and G, but they're not very common.

Most Wi-Fi these days is either G or B. Get a good G card, and you'll be
set. Here's the one I use, and it serves me well:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DWL-G650
The Extreme G is nice if you're hooked up to a compatible router.

One other thing: NetStumbler is almost a must if you're into wireless.
It'll detect all sorts of info about any network in range (even "hidden"
networks), and it'll even hook up to a GPS and mapping software to chart
hotspots:
http://www.netstumbler.com/


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats." -- Kenneth Grahame
~~ Ventis secundis, tene cursum ~~

"Garth Almgren" wrote in message
...

Nope, G is only backwards compatible with B.
A is a completely different animal. For one, it operates in the less
crowded 5GHz band vs. the B/G's use of the 2.4GHz band. You can get
cards that will do both A and G, but they're not very common.


Thanks for the clarification and heads-up, Garth. Not being an IT guy, it's
always nice to learn the facts on such things.

Russ

Garth Almgren wrote:
Around 3/25/2006 5:45 PM, RG wrote:

Kewl. Do you need a specific wireless card? Or is it protocol
sensitive?

Any laptop built recently will have wi-fi built in as standard equipment.
For an older machine cards can be purchased for the PCMCIA slot. Any card
with "G" protocol is what you want. "G" is backward compatible with the
earlier "A" and "B" protocols, I believe.

Nope, G is only backwards compatible with B.
A is a completely different animal. For one, it operates in the less
crowded 5GHz band vs. the B/G's use of the 2.4GHz band. You can get
cards that will do both A and G, but they're not very common.

Most Wi-Fi these days is either G or B. Get a good G card, and you'll be
set. Here's the one I use, and it serves me well:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DWL-G650
The Extreme G is nice if you're hooked up to a compatible router.

One other thing: NetStumbler is almost a must if you're into wireless.
It'll detect all sorts of info about any network in range (even "hidden"
networks), and it'll even hook up to a GPS and mapping software to chart
hotspots:
http://www.netstumbler.com/

One of my employees showed me some maps his son made while "war
driving" around Vallejo, CA. Using a GPS and "Netstumbler" (or
something like it) the maps showed wireless access just about
everywhere he went. Many of the access points in their residential
neighborhood were unencrypted and unrestricted. The system even mapped
out the estimated usable range of each access point. You don't have to
go far in most neighborhoods to see the SSID "Linksys" pop up in the
list with easy access.