Wireless internet connection for laptop

[violaine]

Can someone explain to me what this is and how it works in practice?

[lisaj]

you have a wireless ethernet card that operates over radio rather than a wire. In practise, once you've set it up it just works if you're in range.

[Harley]

Yes but watch out for connection speed, its only as fast as a 56k modem, so if you are on cable or broadband you will lose speed.

[powerless]

Well its like what you will experience on a wired connection, there is no or very little noticable difference when you are surfing, emailing, downloading etc. Of course distance will degrade performance and the surroundings can hinder performance, for example thick walls. You are free to roam around within ceratin distances from the "Base". I'm afraid I have to disagree with Harley's comments of speed being only as fast as a 56K modem when your actually on BB. You will get the same speed as you will on a wired connection. Providing of course there is no interference and the hardware is setup correctly. There are a few ways to be wireless connected, I for example am typing this on a Centrino Laptop, the wireless bit is built in and i can surf and downlaod at BB speeds. There are two standards when it comes to wireless. 802.1x where x can be either b or g. There is also a but for home use you do not really see it available. 802.1b has a theoretcial speed of 11Mbps so it is perfectly ok for BB speeds, as BB speeds in the UK do not come near superceeding this speed. If your on a home network and wish to transfer large file the faster 802.1b at 54Mbps should be the one to go for. Loads of stuf better that i can put it at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe
=UTF-8&q=wireless+internet

[lisaj]

The slowest wireless ethernet connection you'll get is 1Mbps. Below this it simply won't connect, and as for speed, I see 108Mbps from mine all over my house... I thoroughly recommend wireless for any connection that isn't critical. If you need to connect a server to a DSL line, stick with a cable.