I reciently got a laptop PC to replace my old desktop. I’d like to be able to websurf from the sofa while my wife is watching something on TV I find boreing.
Wireless network time, right?
Well, my problem is, we live in the country, where we will NEVER have DSL or Cable, and I refuse to pay $50+/mo for Satellite Internet. (I’m already paying that much for F***ing TV!)
I also don’t want to have to use my old PC as a “host” because it’s big an ugly an the wife doesn’t want to look at it. Plus it takes up too much space, that’s why I got a laptop.
So that leaves me with a router, right? Someone told me that a couple years ago, routers came with phone jacks and built-in modems, exactly what I think I need. But now, with the (almost) universal spread of Cable and DSL, manufactures have been leaving off the Dial-up feature. I’ve poked around on the web looking at routers, and this seems to be true. None of the products I looked at say anything about a phone jack for dial-up.
So my question is: Does ANYONE still make (or ever make) a router with a built-in modem and phone jack? If not, what are my options, if any, considering my restrictions named above?
Well, theApple Airport Extreme comes with a modem, and should work with most wireless cards. A quick perusal of that site seems to indicate that you can just plug it right into the wall, and it’s smooth sailing from there. I think this is the type of thingie you’re looking for, right?
You could put the big ugly desktop in a closet so you won’t have to look at it, and run Internet Connection Sharing. Then you won’t need a router; you can just put a wireless card in the desktop and one in the laptop, and use them in ad-hoc mode.
Or, if you do most of your surfing at night or on the weekends, it might be economical to use a cell phone for internet access. With the right phone and service, it can be twice as fast as a modem.
Of course you’d also need a bluetooth dongle for your laptop, if it doesn’t natively support bluetooth (and if there isn’t one supplied with the modem). Make sure you get a modem and dongle that work at 100m range - some of the cheaper devices only have a 10m spread.
I’m not sure how secure this device would be - i.e. whether you can prevent a neighbour using it.
Anyone know anything about this product, or manufacturer? It looks like this is just what I need, and the price is right: $75 for the base unit, $50 for the PCcard.
I don’t really know anything about BlueTooth. Anyone have any experience with similar devices? Will I be able to get AS GOOD a data transfer rate as I would on a hard phone line with this thing? I don’t wanna shell out $125 and end up with a 24K connection.
I would also suggest looking into a wireless phone jack system. They seem cheaper and you could use it for other things too. They’re available all over the place. The only disadvantage is that you have to be near an electrical outlet, but you should have way more of those than phone jacks.
AFAIK bluetooth is a high speed, extreamly short range wireless connection, planned to remove all those wires connecting keyboards, mouses, monitors, palms, to the PC.
I think you would be better off with a wi-fi connection, the modem can be a network cable connection and you could use a wireless access point to convert it to wireless.
I have an SMC Barricade DSL router which also has a serial port for controlling a modem. It can use dialup that way. It works great, though I haven’t used it that way much since my DSL works quite well. Then I have a wireless access point hanging off one of the ports on the router.
It is a BlueTooth (as opposed to Wi-Fi) wireless modem. The base unit is tiny, about 2X3in, and connects to the phone line and an AC wall-wart. It’s $75. The PC Card (they have a USB dongle too) was $49, the whole thing was $136 with UPS second-day air.
The install and configuration was pretty easy, even for me. My laptop already had an on-board modem, so the first time I tried to launch Internet Explorer and Outlook, I got an error message saying there was a problem with my modem. I had to go into each program’s “Options” menu and tell it to use the BLueTooth modem, then everything worked like a champ! Speed seems to be completely comparable to a hard-line connection, based on performance, not the “Bluetooth connected at 115kbps” message I get when it connects. My hard-line modem would usually connect at 49.2kbps, and the Bluetooth modem is giving me performance as good as my hard-line. So I dunno where they’re getting 115kbps from.
So that’s it guys. I would totally recommend this product for anyone who wants to go wireless, but doesn’t have DSL or Cable. I’m happy!
I used to get ‘connected as 115.2Kbps’ with a conventional modem, it doesn’t mean that the data is actually flying about at that speed, only that your modem and your ISP’s modem have negotiated a connection for which the theoretical maximum data transfer rate is 115K - the actual rate of transfer will usually be not much higher than the 40K mark on most phone lines. Indeed, i think I’m right in saying that 56K is pretty much the limit set by copper wire and standard modem frequency ranges.