I will be staying at a relative's condo in Florida for a week. During the off season they disconnect the phone. If I get a wireless card for my laptop, can I get online that way? I searched other threads and am not sure if I also need a portable wireless router or some type of service plan.

If they have a active wireless network and router in the house, and your laptop is equipped to receive 802.11 (a,b, and/or g) signals without a card, then no, you won't need a card. It there is an active network, but you don't have built in Wi-Fi in your computer, then you will need a card.

If there is not wireless network in the house, then you can always get online with one of wireless services offered by cellular providers like Verizon, Sprint, etc. Then you would need one of there cards, which is completely different than the wireless network card I just described. But this also assumes that the cellular provider's signal can reach your relatives condo.

With some cell phones/services, you can connect the laptop with USB or bluetooth to the cell phone and get and internet connection through that.

They don't have a wireless setup so I'm SOL on that. I have a Nextel phone with a data plan. I'll have to look into that.

W/respect to your phone, you'll want to Google for what's known as "tethering".

Also, you'll want to find out if your laptop has built-in wireless (802.11) or not. If not, it's probably worth picking up a cheapie 802.11 USB adapter. Even if your relative's place doesn't have Wi-Fi...you may be able to pick up a signal from the surrounding area and "borrow" it. This may be considered a moral/ethical gray area...some people don't approve of it, others don't care. But it works. Wi-Fi adapters are so inexpensive these days that unless you're flat broke buying one shouldn't be that big a deal.

microcenter has the hawking USB G adaptors for free after rebate, 5.00$ shipping.

NEXTEL I don't think has a tether option, but they do have a roaming agreement with Boingo I think. checkout where you live there might be a boingo location near by where you could do email and internet. As for in the appartment, there are a couple of websites, don't have the names, which will show you what people have found war driving (essentially, driving around neighborhoods to find open signals) So, yes you could probably get a signal somewhere to use for free.

but, we a bit wary of using other peoples signals, people are getting arrested for it around the country.

http://www.joegratz.net/archives/200...-wifi-network/

AFAIK, only 1 person has been arrested for it. And he got arrested because he was sitting in his car in front of a house in the middle of the night. If you're inside your own house, "borrowing" a Wi-Fi signal from the neighbors...the chances of getting arrested are pretty much slim and zero. Good luck on the neighbors even realizing that you're using their signal.

There are also several legal challenges about to go up for those laws. Can that signal be considered "private" if you're broadcasting it out, etc.

Data Calls via your cell phone are bound to be slooooow unless you have a specific hi-speed data plan or option you can sign up for. The slow type connection may be fine for just reading emails, but if you're going to be surfing the web, you may need a higher speed plan to make it workable for you.

What I would suggest is going to this site:

http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm

...and plug in the Zip Code where you're staying and select the "free" button and do a Search for any free Wi-Fi locations in your area. If you find an acceptable hotel lobby, library, coffee shop, restaurant, bar or pub that offers free Wi-Fi, then consider investing in a cheapie Wi-Fi card for your laptop and go to those locations to do your surfing.

Many McDonalds also offer Wi-Fi for $2.99 for 2 hours. see:

http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless.html

Some McDonalds even have unofficial Wi-Fi for free on their own franchise's unsecured network.

Good Luck!

indeed, there have been more than one. Two in FL, and another in DC. Now, DC is probably just on the edge regardless so that is not too surprising.

what IS surprising, is that the same thing is happening internationally.

As for open, closed much of this was covered back in the 80's when cordless phones came on the scene, the airwaves governed by the FCC. Cases were won for people having listened in on phone calls, normally not possible up till then, not so much that it was an open or closed network but that it was MY open or closed network. It was akin in that sense to wire tapping, illegal from a federal level and monitored by the FBI.

I think recent cases of hacking into wireless has been seen as just like hacking into a system.

I for one, run two networks. an ipsec, AES encrypted, MAC filtered, locked down G network and a fully open B network that sits outside the firewall and connects to the internet. I've had many people try to tunnel down, but none sucessfull. I have a seperate server that just sits there and registers there hits though, fun to watch - sort of like paint drying.

If somebody was sitting in front of my house all day in an SUV playing on a laptop, I'd call the police too. I have to think that there is way more to this story then we will ever know.

Doing it by cell will be insanely slow, you may be better finding a public internet cafe or public wireless and going there when you need it.

Thanks for all the help! I've decided to buy a wireless card and sign up with Boingo.

Do you have any broadband at home?
SBC has a deal for access to their freedomlink service, 1.99$ a month, and that is access to all wayport and other access locations, many of which are on the boingo network.

jiwire.com is a nice sight that will show you closest location to your location.

I think you just get the freedomlink locations for the $1.99. They have a separate plan for $21.99 a month that includes partners. I'm at a Barnes and Noble in Seattle right now using the $1.99 plan.

From their web site:

Basic subscription service provides unlimited access to all FreedomLink Hot Spots � $1.99 per month for DSL members and $9.99 per month for Dial-up members.

Premier subscription service provides unlimited access to all FreedomLink Hot Spots plus all roaming partner locations � $21.99 per month for DSL members and $29.99 per month for Dial-up members.
---------

Have you been able to get access on the others under the $1.99 plan?

I have Cox broadband at home. I think that lets me out of the $1.99 deal. The JiWire site has been very helpful.

Right. The $1.99 per month only gets you the Freedomlink locations and no other Wayport locations, with one exception: McDonalds

I guess they throw in Wayport McDonalds into the $1.99 plan because they normally only charge $2.99 for 2 hours there.

So basically for your $1.99 per month you get Freedomlink access at:

- Barnes & Nobels (Freedomlink)
- UPS Stores (Freedomlink)
- Mail Boxes Etc (Freedomlink)
- McDonalds (Wayport)

But no roaming at any other Wayport locations (like in hotels and airports), and hence no Boingo.

But I still feel the $1.99 per month plan is a great deal and pretty fair coverage for the money, and there's usually one or more of the above in most locations.