Mostly, what hardware do I need, is a wireless PC card all I’d need? The school has WiFi and the apartment has a wireless router, I assume the same connection would work for both but would switching between internet access methods require any manual software manipulation on my part or would it be automatic?
You just buy the card (802.11G recommended), install the software, plug it in and cross your fingers. It should just work. Sometimes the software gets a little screwy or you might have to play around with the Network control panel but they are supposed to be nearly plug and play.
All brands developed to the same standards and they all supposed to work fine. I like Linksys products best.
After you install the card and software, you may still need to get some information from the system administrator in order to connect to the network. If the network is “secure”, you will need an authentication code to access it and then (possibly) a network login. If the network is not secure, then you should be able to get on without a hitch. All of the Hooter’s restaurants in the D/FW area have WiFi installed and I have used it many times while eating lunch.
If its a school then most likely its an open network. If not then you need to find out what security they have in place (encryption used, MAC filtering, etc). Then you will need a wireless NIC. I’d recommend an 802.11a/b/g PCMCIA or USB 2.0 attached NIC myself (just in case…the a/b is an older standard but a lot of schools aren’t exactly state of the art).
Also, they may use a proxy server if they have filtered internet access (a lot of schools and libraries have this…basically to restrict you from going to alt.sex.farmanimal.com type sites 
). If they are using a proxy gateway then its pretty easy to configure your browser for it…you just need the IP address of the proxy and the port they are using.
Other than that you should be set. If you need a hand configuring any of that stuff, just get the info and I (or probably a bunch of other folks on this board) can walk you through it…its pretty easy.
Good luck!
-XT
If either one uses security to lock it down you might have to configure the different networks in the wireless card driver. I haven’t used much wireless, but they usually let you specify settings for several networks, and then will try to auto detect which one it can connect to when you turn it on.
-Otanx
I have a laptop with built-in wireless that connects seamlessly to my home network, my school network, the public library network, and hotels with wireless access.
Some things to watch for:
If you have your own wireless router at home, make sure to secure it against unwanted users. Adding a WEP key is typically enough, as long as you don’t give the router permission to provide the key to “foreign” computers. (Select the option so that each user has to set up the key manually, instead of getting the key automatically.) The router’s manual should have instructions on how to do this.
If you connect to networks that are NOT your own, pay attention to whether the connection is secure or not. Some secure connections automatically provide a key to whatever computer connects to the network. Others require that each user enter a key manually. A secure connection means that data sent between your computer and the router are encrypted, so that anyone who might intercept the data (this is just plain radio, after all!) cannot see the information you are sending.
An unsecure connection means that there is no encryption going on at all. This is okay for the bulk of how most people use the Internet, but you probably don’t want to send sensitive information like credit card numbers over an unsecure connection. Most hotels and public libraries have unsecure connections, in my experience, as do a certain percentage of household networks. Our local library requires that I set a proxy address while I am connected to their Internet, so I just change Internet settings if I have to work in the library.
On rare occasions, you may need to provide your laptop’s MAC address to the network you want to join. The school where I work does this, as an example, so that they can ensure that any computers that connect to the network have AV software installed first. Since the user typically does not know what the MAC address is, or how to find it, it means that the laptop has to be physically carried to the IT department. The IT staff then have the opportunity to look over the installed software on the laptop before getting the MAC address and adding it as an approved address on the network. This can happen for both wired connections and wireless.
My best suggestion is to take your laptop to school and log onto it. If there is an available wireless connection, your laptop should find it automatically, and even connect to it. If the laptop sees a wireless network but cannot connect, you can contact the IT department to find out what to do next. If it doesn’t find any wireless, you can contact the IT department to find out where wireless access is available.