Moble Internet

[Frost Byte]

I"m helping my girlfriend's mom out with buying a laptop. She said she wants to be able to connect to the internet from anywhere. WOuld satalite be the way to go, and if it is how do I go about doing that..


Chad

[Lusankya]

Well if you live in a city.. most admins are nuts and leave their wireless gateways open.. I know there are people in my school that use wireless laptops and find access points from companies in the building and use their connections.

[su root]

Lusankya: stealing other people's wireless is illegal.

The better solution would be to equip the computer with every kind of communication possible:
- Wireless, so if you are allowed access to someone's wireless network
- Modem, so that you can dial-up to the internet
- Network Card, so that you can plug in.

Furthermore, if you absolutely need to be connected from anywhere, get a cell phone that is capable of being connected to the laptop's modem and then you can dialup using the cell phone. (or in desperate situations, satelite phones).

[none1]

Sprint PCS vision phone, with data connection kit. Internet is available anywhere on their network, and in my experience their coverage is real good, not universal (e.g. half way up the mountain between Tahoe and Sacramento, CA =no service). I have never had an issue in many many US cities.

Vision currently gives you up to about 70 K download, not great, but not terrible either. Sprint has "plans" to crank this up to over 100k, as they test things out and see how much bandwidth they really need.

All you need is a cellphone, data kit, and a WINDOWS comp with a USB port. CDROM software install, real easy. Plan cost options are reasonable too.

There is also a PCCARD available, so you don't NEED to have a cellphone. NOTE, the cellphone / USB does NOT work with current PDA's, e.g. PALM or windows pocket PC, you need full blown windows. I don't know if the PCCARD will work with a PDA or not.

Sprint PCS vision will give "mom" internet access most places she will likely be.

NOW, if you really need "universal" access, like internet at the south poll, you need to go satelite, and last I checked 128K satelite internet was uh .... say expensive. Some satelite solutinos actually require a portable "dish", so not nearly as convient as a cellphone.

OTHER OPTION, is most cell phone providers today offer relatively inexpensive internet / modem access, but most are only at 14.4, and that speed just drove me up a freakin' wall.

Good luck, and let us know what else you find out. Wireless internet is real cool, I need it, but its still in its infancy, I expect much much more COOL in three years or so.

[Lusankya]

I never told him to steal it. I don't have a laptop so I can't even make a chocie of doing so or not. I just stated a fact that has been documented

[su root]

sorry, it sounded to me like you were condoning it, that's all

[Lusankya]

Sok..

I saw an atricle somewhere recently about a group that sent teams around New York I think for informational or documentable reasons with detectors and located something like 200+ open access points

[su root]

yeah, i know of a couple studies like that. Three are a surprising number of network administrators who don't know how to lock down a WLAN. That still doesn't mean that you can use it w/o permission. Some people would go as far as to say it's hacking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2268224.stm

[chuckerants]

I have a LM-510 cell phone through Verizon. I bought a serial dongle to attach the cell phone to my laptop and using the software that came with the dongle, I can connect to the internet anywhere I have a cell signal.

The dongle cost me around $50. The air time for connecting to the internet comes off of your per month cell time.

I'm sure most new phones have this capability though.

The connection speed is only 14.4 but it seems a lot faster than I remember my old 14.4 modem.

[Frost Byte]

thanks....I think the cell phone thing would be the best. Now she has aol at home, would she dial to AOL from the cell phone connection, or would sprint (I think that is who she goes through) provide the internet connection?

[su root]

you would dial your ISP (Internet Service Provider), not your telephone service provider. So you would dial AOL

[Frost Byte]

What if she has one of those cell phones that you can acces the internet on it? Will that work for the comptuer too?

[su root]

Hmm.. That's a good question. I believe that internet ability is for use with the cell phone's display only, however I may be wrong.

Internet on cell phone is expensive, unless you have a no-charge evenings cell phone, and unlimited internet account at your ISP.

The cell phone internet charges by the minute or by number of webpages downloaded.

[chuckerants]

Verizon charges just for the number of minutes you are online.

As for the ISP, Verizon is the ISP when you are using the cell phone to access the internet.

As for airtime, I have 900 anytime minutes plus 3000 nights & weekend minutes - I'll NEVER use up all those minutes.

[none1]

Old sprint, 14.4, NON vision / G3, you needed to have your own ISP, the phone only acted as a 14.4 modem to your normal ISP. Online time was counted as part of your normal minutes.

NEW sprint, 3G, called vision, Sprint is your ISP. You use their software and connect to their site. I'm guessing now that sprint is the ISP, that that is why they limit you to like 70K download, they don't know how much bandwidth they will need and don't want to get run over. After they get an idea of the usage, they say they will crank it up. With Vision, you pay PER MEGABYTE DOWNLOAD. So this option is great for quick look ups, email, etc.., but you don't want to use this for downloading MP3.
:-)

[parkan]

Great, more people that think wardriving is wrong :rolleyes:

[none1]

My 1/50th of a dollar. If you take bandwidth that someone else is charged for, then that is wrong.

HOWEVER, if someone has already PAID for bandwidth, and chooses to share that bandwidth that they Legally have PAID for, then that should be OK. Just like I have multiple computers all running off of my one internet connection, it should not matter if the computers using my cable line are mine or someone I choose to share with sitting in my front lawn. The cable company already caps my download speed to 1.5, and my upload at 128. I have paid for 1.5 meg download, it should not matter to the provider if

A) I download on one of my single computers at 1.5,

B) If I run simultaneous downloads form my 8 computers totaling 1.5, or

C) If a bunch of folks + me download a total of 1.5.

All three scenarios cost the cable company the exact same amount in resources, AND I HAVE PAID FOR THESE RESOURCES!!!

Wheather it is legal or not, it is MORALLY CORRUPT for a company to charge you for a product and then NOT allow you to use that product THAT YOU HAVE PAID FOR, its just wrong wrong wrong wrong ....

Its like MS saying (A) you can't transfer that windows license to another person and (B) every PC must keep its MS license intact, meaning that you can never legally sell or even give away a used computer THESE EVIL COMPANIES MUST BE OVERTHROWN THEY ARE STIFLING THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY AND AND and and ......


BREATH ..... OK, my blood sugars low, I gotta go eat somethin'

later

[su root]

none1 i completely agree with you.

I was actually talking about warchalking/wardriving -- identifying and stealing bandwidth that you have not been authorized to use.

However, some companies allow you to use their wireless access points, while you are in their buildings. That is fine.. it's the illegal stealing of internet access ... not to mention the security hazard to the business..

Your internet at home is a different matter, and I completely agree with you there.

[parkan]

Originally posted by su root
none1 i completely agree with you.

I was actually talking about warchalking/wardriving -- identifying and stealing bandwidth that you have not been authorized to use.

However, some companies allow you to use their wireless access points, while you are in their buildings. That is fine.. it's the illegal stealing of internet access ... not to mention the security hazard to the business..

Your internet at home is a different matter, and I completely agree with you there.

I could argue about that but I am afraid that will get me banned, so I will not.