I have a laptop and want Wi-Fi, how much will it cost me?

[FullCountNotRecount]

I'm not sure I have a Wi-Fi card installed because I inherited this Toshiba 259CDT computer although I've seen a folder for infrared stuff on the harddrive. Anyone got an overview of how much and what I need? Thanks in advance.

[pk_du]

1. Infra-Red "thingy" is something else...not Wi-Fi

If you want the card...you can get one for less than 50 bucks...will enable you to hook-up at Airports , Starbucks etc.

If you want to get Wi-Fi at home you'll need another 70 bucks for the WiFi Hub to add to your Cable/DSl modem (assuming you have one)

[FullCountNotRecount]

2. Thanks that answers my question...

I guess I'll buy Christmas cookies instead.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I just wi-fied at home with my laptop,

and it was about $110 (I lucked out and good prices from amazon for Wireless G, nicely discounted, plus the router and the card came with $10 rebates each).

it's well worth it - then you can take your laptop almost anywhere in town, and have a good chance of getting a signal. I've been using mine around town and getting into systems.

It's quite nice when sitting at the coffee shop working to also be able to have email and online capacity.

[soothsayer]

9. Wireless G---that's my rap name!

[Flammable Materials]

6. You can buy a used Wi-Fi PCMCIA card for under $20 ...

... on eBay.

[LoZoccolo]

4. Tip - if you use only one computer, an 802.11b hub is just fine.

You can get these for real cheap if you can still get one. But if you hook up your DSL or cable modem to it, it's actually your internet connection that's slower than your wireless network anyways, so you might as well get a cheap clearance 802.11b hub - I've seen these as low as $14.95 and that was almost a year ago!

[Ready4Change]

5. True, 802.11b is fine.

802.11g is technically about 5 times faster, but in my experience the real speed bottleneck is usually the website I'm connecting to, not my own connection.

And 802.11b is cheap now too.

[billie_]

8. 802.11g is better, the new mac laptops have it installed...

you can get a hotspots thing for Wi-Fi with t-mobile (only 20 a month if you use t-mobile as yer mobile service)

i had an iBook g3 with 802.11b

and now have ibook g4 with 802.11g...it is much better....

billie


anyway, the card u can get for like 20
service like 20 a month

[LoZoccolo]

7. I should add, though...

...that if you want to take your laptop out to the airport or coffee shop, it'd probably be worth getting an 802.11g card, since you'll share that network with other people and would want the speed in that situation.