QUESTION and HELP please.... [Archive] - Practically Networked Forums

Sooner Al

03-08-2007, 01:25 PM

I'm sorta new to the wireless stuff but, have gotten my Linksys all connected now my question is this... If I want to take my laptop out of state or such how do I use it wireless ?? Do I need to take my router along too or what ?

HELP PLEASE ASAP....
BluesOecan

No you don't need to take your router with you...

What your looking for when you travel are free public open wireless (WiFi) hot spots like bars, restaurants, hotels, library's, airports, etc, etc, etc. Some places do charge or at least restrict access to paying customers. Some restaurants or bars and some hotels follow that model. See my comments in this thread...

http://forums.practicallynetworked.com/showthread.php?t=7848

If your visiting a family members home or a friends house or a business location its possible (and highly recommended) that their wireless network is encrypted with a WPA or WEP key. In that case they must give you the encryption key before you will be able to connect to their network.

You can configure your laptop to either connect automatically to open networks or make you manually select an open network to connect to. Personally I do the latter. I have some guidance for laptop users at the end of this page that you may be interested in. The screen shots are from a laptop running XP Pro...

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/LAN/SoHoWirelessSecurity.html

Its basically the same for Vista just in case that is what your running on your laptop. Here are some help pages for Vista...

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/search.aspx?=&qu=wireless
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0406.mspx

Just make sure your wireless hardware is enabled. Some new laptops with integrated wireless hardware have an on/off switch that needs to be turned on.