Any of you more up-to-date computer geek woodworkers use and can recommend a wireless dialup solution for Windows, in particular experience with the wiFlyer or nebo?
Mom, 84 year today, is not doing well and not able to get to her computer and she's really missing it. They live miles out in the country, so their existing dialup and a laptop will have to solve the problem.
TIA for any experienced suggestions.
I'm not familiar with wiFlyer or nebo.
Genericly there are two types of mobile wireless - Wireless Wide Area networking and wireless local area networking.
The latter is often called WiFi, 802.11 and many other branded names and was originally just a local premise (in building or campus only) wireless solution. This is what people buy and hook up to their cable modems, DSL and so forth. Its also whats available in airports, starbucks and other "hot spots". I use this in my house and when I'm on the road. I usually don't pay for it unless maybe I'm in a hotel and cant get good reception with my Sprint Card (See next paragraph)
Wireless wide area networking works over the cellular network, requires a special card for the laptop and a contract with your cell provider for the service. I use Sprint for this. I have the Merlin S620 card. I can get very good speed in some places and bad in others. It depends if Spring has their high speed technology rolled out in the particular area yet.
Stop me.
I was about to go on further and I then googled wiFlyer. wiFlyer is a modem that also has a router and a WiFi access point in it. Essentially it means, if your laptop has a WiFi card in it and everything is configured correctly you get to the net via your dial-up account wirelessly. Kind of cool if you do not have DSL or Cable Internet.
Netgear used to have something like this for local area networks (wired) before wireles came down in cost. I don't think they have that any more nor do they have something like wiFlyer. Linksys is the biggest wifi vendor, may be worth checking to see if they have something.
So, bottom line. If you can only get dial-up at the house and you want mobility in, and around, the house then wiFlyer would do the trick.
I've been on cable for years, so I might not remember all this correctly...
It would seem that all you need for her would be a $50 wireless router with her phone line connected and a wireless card in a notebook?
We use wireless at home and love it... no more cables across rooms and freedom to take laptop to shop/yard/patio... love it! Mac
The trick is that you need a wireless router with a built-in modem, which is what the "WiFlyer" is.
Chris
Chris Friesen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
If you've got an older system no one uses any more (486 or early Pentium is about as slow as you can go.) you can put a modem in there and a network card and use a free linux router program such as Freesco to talk to your wireless connection.
The trouble with Freesco and the like is that you need a working knowledge of TCP/IP to set the networks up properly. I had this set up for years, and almost never had problems with it.
Sites to check out for more information:
I have the 'smc7004abr' wired router which does come with a 56kb modem inside. The wireless models don't seem to have modems in them. I have had this for several years for broadband and it works great, comes in a small package. It's currently available for between $35-$50. The laptop probably has a RJ45 port already. With a length of ethernet cable, you would be good to go. Good luck.
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