Need advice on what internet service/wireless to use on my new iBook G4! plz help!

Hello! earlier I posted in a differnt part of this forum asking advice for which computer to buy. I have finally decided on an iBook G4 with 1.5 GB and 30 hard drive. comes with airport extreme and blue tooth. Not quite sure what that means lol but anyway.. I am very new to laptops. And to wireless internet service. Ill be honest I have no idea what kind of internet or price I should expect to put on a laptop. Im a senior in highschool but have only ever used AOL dial up and everyone knows that is almost stone age internet service. It is UNBELIEABLY slow. You coudnt pay me to put aol on a laptop!!

Was wondering if you could help explain to me what I should be looking for and what price is reasonable?! Some companies will take advantage of you if they know they can sell you a service for more since you are naive. I called Comcast the other day and the lady said in the beginning they were offering free installation but by the end of the long long conversation she was saying she never said that. She found out the position I was in with school and prob figured they could get away with charging me the price regardless of what deal was going on. Besides that though she said the internet service..the fast one that goes through your cable line would be 100.00 a month with basic cable. And if you dont have cable it is like 60.00 or something. That still seemed alittle expensive to me! does anyone use Comcast? what do you think?

Also any other recomendations for a internet service for my laptop would be wonderful! would be curious to know what yall are using. Would help me out. I know there is like Bell SOuth DSL but all that is through your phone line. I want to be able to take my laptop with me.

THen there is the WI FI thing where certain hotspots are. You can pay for the Boing service. Its like 25 dollars a month or something I think so that u can use your computer in hotspots. However there is only like two hotspots in my area that were on there list and I never go to those! so its like that is pointless. I thought you could use a laptop like in starbucks since they have wi fi regardeless of what service you have. mabe i was wrong since its saying you have to pay for it.

look forward to hearing back ! thanks you guyd for all the help

 

ah.. well.. starbucks has free wifi i think... if you have an intel wifi card or other wifi card you can pick up internet access in starbucks and some libraries.. but some hotspots make you pay for the internet service that they provide.. i know for a fact that they make you pay in most hotspots.. what you do is when you connect you have to input a subnet gateway to connect to them that requires a password and they only provide that to paying customers lol.. its expensive to like 5 bucks an hour to use there wifi... however i know philadelphia has alot of hotspots that are free and you can piggyback there internet and most colleges also have free wireless internet... just depends on where you are...

now onto your more pressing question.. comcast is overpriced and yea shes right its about 50-60 a month for cable internet LOL!! thats crazy...

can you get verizon? in your area... because you can get a 768k dsl line from verison wireless or not.. just stick a wireless router to your dsl modem simple and you got wireless.. then just use your wifi card to connect.. i can also recommend some firewall software for your wireless router so that people dont piggyback your internet...

... ah now.. that will cost about 17.99 a month for verizon dsl..
if you want the 768k - 3mb service which i proudly have its about 31$ a month.. but that is very fast.. i get 20-60 ping on counterstrike and about 33 on warcraft tft... if that means anything to you... i also download at about 300-400kb/s from good sites.. but more computer is nerfing that.. i would get about 1-2mb/s if i had a better comp...

anymore questions feel free to PM(private message me) o
or post here

doublehelix.

 

Since you have a wifi card(Airport extreme), if you want to be daring, you can connect on to some one elses wifi and go from there(but not approved...). Since your coming from dial-up, it will be a BIG boost in speed and it will shock you. Bell South is part of the SBC alliance, which is now AT&T again, so DSL is a good option since the lowest package they have is about 17.99 for a decent speed.

 

Hey Guys! thanks for the advice. I need to check into verizon wireless. I have heard of them. If that is cheaper then it is a much better decision. Dont you go through your phone line with DSL? meaning the phone would be busy whenever the lap top was on or am I wrong? With dial up that is how it is. I know for a fact we have Bell South. Alot of my friends have that on there computers at home. i didnt realize though you could put it on a laptop! haha see I know nothing. sorry about being so ignorant when it comes to ccomputers. Ok so my computer comes with a wi fi card thats good to know lol. So all I would need if I did decide to get hooked up to a DSL whether it goes through a phone line or not is a ROUTER. Nothing else ? I can buy a router no problem! just cant afford comcast high prices!

I am not in college yet at the moment working towards it so I dont think doing the hotspot things would be that helpful. At least not yet anyway!

Again I want to be able to take this computer with me. So if you have DSL you can do that right? all new to me lol.

thanks again so much for both of your help!!! if you are any one else could answer these questions for me that would be fantastic. yall will save me alot of money!

 

Your DSL will come with a phone filter, it will seperate your internet from your phone frequencies. The phone line will not be busy.
A wireless router basically broadcasts internet to your laptop. In order to broadcast it, it needs a source (your DSL). There's also a limited range for it to broadcast (usually, around your house). So you can only use your own router around the house.
You can take your computer anywhere else with you, but you can only access the internet if you get a free signal from somebody else's router. Or if you're at a hotspot with free internet.

Hope this helps

 

Oo, i shall explain dsl YAY!!!

ok, dsl means digital subscribed line. meaning you pay to have this extra "thingy" on your phone line for internet access.

no it doesnt stay busy and the phone filter is so the phone lines dont interupt your connection as in nerf it (reduce the speed)

you can talk and use the internet. and its extremely fast downloading uploading, page loading and GAMING!!!!

its also very cheap

what it comes with is phone filters (funny things you stick on the end of your phone line and plug into the wall), a dsl modem, and 1 ethernet cable.. you must buy the router seperate...

and i think your confused.. anyone can have wired or wireless dsl.. that all depends on what router or modem you have.. you can get a wireless modem if your the only one using it but i suggest getting a regular dsl modem..comes with the service and buying a wireless router.. they are about 50 bucks... around there

then you plug the modem into the router and configure away.. I can explain this once you get settled i need the router name, brand, default password, and the ip address for explain 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.0.1 orr 192.168.1.1.. depending on the router they are all different...

OR! verizon has tech support that can help you set that up.. they are on average so-so.. kinda retarded excuse my childish insult...

again
doublehelix

 

Hey!!

thanks so much for taking the time to explain DSL to me! I never realized all of this and now it makes sense. Very glad to know that even though DSL goes through your phonelike it wont disconnect you every time your phone rings. That is like the most frusterating thing in the entire world I think. I am going to check with Verizon and Bell south to see what they offer. Im looking for an internet service that will allow me to take my laptop ANYWHERE with intnernet service. There is such a thing right? My computer does have the wifi card so someone told me yesterday if I went through a company like Bell South or Verizon and got DSL with a router I should be fine! Is this true? or no? What I read online is that if you go through a DSL company and have a router then you can move your laptop around in your house or for a certain distance but you cant like take your laptop with you 10 miles away and expect to have a connection. If yall could clear that up it would be awsome!!!! thanks guys sooooo much. Double Helix I will be replying to your email sooN!!! thanks for it!!!!!

 

Yep, you can go around your house, and depending where in your house your router is probably outside also... i dont know how far but most likely not a mile...

to get internet access outside your house you would have to goto a hotspot ... like some libraries.. and other places, some are free some are not... depending..

most colleges have free hotspots throughout the college, and they either have a password protecting it or a new subnet, which they will supply you with if you goto school there