How does wireless internet work?

My wife lives about 120 miles south of me in a small community. I am told in a month the entire community (2K persons) will have wireless internet. I have no idea how this works. She says there will be some sort of subscription fee. She says any comptor configured for wireless and we could use out computors in others communities.

How does this work? Is there more than one wireless provider and can someone who subscribes to one, use another... i.e. like cell phones.

I am getting to old for all of this technology. The world is moving way to fast for me. I have just barely figured out the magneto crank phone.

Charger,

You are getting old.....and lazy. Why let fellows here do you leg work when you can just punch it into Google "how does wireless internet work".

[smilie=1: :kidding:

Joe

No different than a cell phone, and just as bad for the same reasons. ... felix

I have "Road Runner" cable service. My computers hook up to the cable in a wireless fashion. They make use of a wireless modum. They are very reliable. MY modum is on the second floor in my house and my laptop is "connected" where ever in the house it is (so is my desk top but it is not portable).

I would guess, from the description, that Chargar's wife's set up is a non cable affiliated device. I have no experience with that system.

Dale53

Just like Felix said, they have a tower and broadcast a radio signal and you have to be pretty much inline with the signal. Sprint was going to do in the part of TN that I live it, but it's way too mountainous and hilly, so they scrapped it. If satelite internet wasn't so initially expensive I would probably have gotten that.

Joe

Chargar, the real question is how you managed to stay married and get your wife to live 120 miles south of you! We hope to retire in Alabama, and I want to be against a National Forest about forty miles north of where my wife wants to live. Any hints greatly appreciated! Tony

Tony,

I live just about like you want. The Cherokee national forest is all around me and I live in the mtns. Alabama is way too hot and humid for me. Neighbors son just come back from there and he said TN is like living up north compared to Alabama.

Joe

Thanks guys.. Now some answers and more info.

Starmetal-- You talking Barney Google or is there some other kind of google I don't know about? There is a difference between being lazy and working smart. Have you ever read the story about Tom Sawyer and how he got the fence whitewashed? Tom worked smart.

The outfit is called Blue Moon Solutions and looks like it wires entire communities some how or another...with some kind of broadband something or another. All gobble-d-gook to me.

Now, as to the long distance marriage. Four years ago, my work required me to move to Corpus Christi, 120 miles north from where we were. She has a job as a college professor (History) and could not get such a position in Corpus. We are just a couple of years away from retirment and she needs to work there for the pension. Also her 88 year old mother is only five miles away.

The only workable solution was to have a long distance marriage. She comes up here every other weekend and I go down there as often as I can. We have bought a house down there (Rancho Viejo, Texas) and looks like that will be the retirment place.

I was quite dubious about how this would work, but it works quit well. We are both free standing persons. We are beginning to wonder how we are going to adjust to living together again full time. She keep telling me that me and the dog have gone plumb feral, left to our own devices.

Not bad at all, I have my independence and she pays conjugal visits..sorta the best of both worlds.

Looks like Blue Moon is going to put in junctions along a wire system, probably just like Dale's arrangement. That would be OK for all except those who have funky radio reception problems within the house. 3 phase motors, for one. Bad high frequency transformers in the house for florescent lights, et.al. ... felix

Usuall they set up what some refer to as a "wireless unbrella". This is where they hard wire certian locations in the local area. At these locations they install wireless access points. This set up is prefered since they do not have to use an ugly tower and one access point going down does not down the whole network, only the area it services. These access point can be as small as a book and easily hidden and repair of "bad" access points is easy. Those access points overlap each other as far as signal. The system they use will register your NIC card's unique identification number and allow you access once you pay the service fee OR deny your access if you do not. You will be provided some sort of configuration software in the form of a disk. Microsoft XP is easy to use since it is configured to search for these signals if it knows you have a wireless nic card.

Do a search on Google for "wireless hotspots" and you will get the idea. In my town there are many places you can have coffee and surf the net with your wireless laptop for free. They also have a umbrella set up in the low life area of downtown. This setup utilizes dontated old computers for needy low income kids who's use of the internet may better their school skills / studies.

Hopefully this helps a little,

Robert

Chargar, thanks for the info, but I don't think the tips will help. I hope to be completely retired, while my wife will still be working as a nurse. Can I convince her I have to be by the forest because thats where all the loading stuff is? Don't know, but I'm gonna try! Tony

For what it's worth, I have wireless INTERNET service from a company named Keyon. I live in a semi-rural community about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. The service costs $30 a month and in almost 2 years there have been no interruptions or other problems. The speed runs anywhere from 900 to 1700 MBPS, about the same as DSL or Cable; Dial-up runs about 25KPS. That is not a misprint. DSL or Cable is not available for 90% of the people living here. Television signal is by satellite from Dish or Direct. Keyon has 3 or 4 signal towers scattered about the area. Buildings or trees can interfere with the signal. There is a small antenna on my roof and a wire leading into my house. It connects to a small electronic gadget which then connects to my computer, to the Broadband Modem I should think.. It is very good service, it is fairly inexpensive, and it does not require any modifications to your computer other than a software download which allows your computer to identify itself and connect to the INTERNET provider. As far as taking your computer to her house and using it there, you would need to have the software download on your computer also. I wouldn't think there would be any extra charge for the extra computer hookup. I would be greatly surprised if your or her computer would make a connection to any other wireless company other than the one you are paying. But... I understand some businesses are getting wireless INTERNET connections set up so customers with laptops with the proper software can "surf" while they are in that business. I THINK the local McDonald's has such an arrangement.

Anthony.... I know allot about a few things and a little about allot of things, but I would be the worst kind of fool and liar if I pretended to give counsel on how to deal with women.

Easy way to live miles apart. Have a house that the wife likes about 200 miles away in a really small town. Let her retire and then you have to work for insurance benefits and such. It also gets her at least 200 miles away from the kids. We are going to be doing that starting next year. That small town has a nice shooting range and I helped build the house when I was in High school. We will see each other at least once a month and maybe twice a month except during hunting season. Mark

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Originally Posted by Chargar

Thanks guys.. Now some answers and more info.

Starmetal-- You talking Barney Google or is there some other kind of google I don't know about? There is a difference between being lazy and working smart. Have you ever read the story about Tom Sawyer and how he got the fence whitewashed? Tom worked smart.




.

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Exactly that is what google is about, working smart you type in your question and you get your answer.

http://www.google.com/