Wireless Advice

Question

I love my mac since the day I got it. I've tried several times to get different types of internet but every where I went locally wanted me to get some bundled deal where I had to have a phone and every other contraption invented by man since the telephone. I just want an internet I can pay for myself. It doesn't even have to be high speed so long as it's easy for me to hook up and use. I've dismissed cable and dsl because that means having to deal with either our phone company or our cable company. I want it to be separate from that and I keep coming back to interest in Wireless internet only I don't know how that works and what I need to do. I know my mac can access wireless internet at the local barnes and noble but that's across town and doesn't help me any. What do I need to do to get wireless internet? What equipment will I need? What service is available for me to purchase wireless internet and for how much how long? Are there restrictions to downloading through wireless? Any help or advice would be appreciated. thanks.

Answer 1

There are two ways to get wireless internet. The first is via a network of WiFi access points. You'll more than likely be able to access these with your built-in AirPort card. The other is with other types of equipment which require some sort of transceiver that can connect via USB or Ethernet.
Some municipalities have proposed free wireless internet using the 802.11b/g/n standards and outdoor access points at strategic locations for as full coverage as possible. San Francisco has been talking about it for ages but hasn't actually deployed it yet. Their model was advertising based. Every time you'd initially log in you'll get an ad and must agree to their rules before proceeding. I've used free wireless or wired internet where the system was set up to ask for your agreement for terms of use before proceeding. The first attempt to access the internet brings up a splash screen with the complete agreement and a digital signature authorization (click on a button to agree with the terms). The system logs the MAC address (unique identifier) of all wireless cards connecting to it and you just need to do this once unless your session times out.
Seattle has free municipal WiFi deployed in certain business districts. The model is one where you get a splash screen with terms of use before proceeding.
Some colleges have deployed such systems throughout their campus. UC Berkeley was one of the first, but required a campus username/password combination to access it. I believe their first generation used the original Apple AirPort Base Station mounted at dozens of locations throughout the campus. You had to be either a student or staff to use it though.
http://www.seattle.gov/html/citizen/wifi.htm
Some airports, hotels, bookstores, etc have an agreement with an internet service provider for "hotspot" internet coverage using 802.11b/g/n. You can pay for daily, monthly, on continuing service. T-Mobile has hotspots with such service. They have a special rate if you're already a T-Mobile voice user, and various daily/weekly/monthly rates if you're not. I remember being at the San Francisco Airport with my iBook G3 600 a couple of years ago. My AirPort card showed a signal from T-Mobile and I selected it. As I tried to access my first website (could be any website), I got redirected to T-Mobile's splash screen. It prompted me to either enter a T-mobile account number or accept a usage plan (a day/week/month), at which point it would accept payment via credit card. It was something like $10 for 24 hours, so I decided I didn't need it.
I remember there used to be a California company deploying internet service on (public band) 900 MHz transceivers from leased space on utility poles. You had to get their equipment to connect to the network. I think they went out of business.
If you're in a residential neighborhood, there probably aren't many options outside of dealing with a phone or cable company. I had Earthlink DSL before, and they operate by piggybacking on copper phone wiring. Your phone company probably has a similar service, but there are federal laws that force the phone company to allow others to access their lines for DSL service. Sometimes if there are problems, fingers start getting pointed as to which side is at fault for a service outage.