I have a Laptop computer that i use mostly for word processing. It has windows 98SE. I want to be able to use it to check my Email and stuff at airports and other public venues that have wireless Internet service.

What do I need to do that?


I saw a NETGEAR
54 Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter on Dell's website and from the product description it looks like what i need. Is that all I need?

Yep, a wireless adapter should be all you need. You can get either a USB adapter like the one you saw, or a PCMCIA card adapter that fits into the card slot that your laptop may or may not have. Your laptop might already have wireless built in, so check before you go out and buy one.

If you are running Win98, you most likely don't have a built-in 802.11x compatable card.

Before you go out and spend money on a card, be sure to see if it is compatable with Win 98, and has proper drivers.  Windows won't have the drivers for it, that is for sure.  You may need to upgrade the OS if you can't find a wireless card that has drivers for Win 98.  On all the cards I've used/installed/tested, I haven't found any (recently) that had drivers for any OS prior to Windows 2000.

Quoted: If you are running Win98, you most likely don't have a built-in 802.11x compatable card. Before you go out and spend money on a card, be sure to see if it is compatable with Win 98, and has proper drivers.  Windows won't have the drivers for it, that is for sure.

The product description says it works with Win 98SE and includes the drivers. Do i need to use my existing online account or can i just use internet exployer if i'm at a place with shared wireless?

In most places, it's pay-per-day

You can do the pay by day gig at the airports or check out Verizon Wireless Wireless service.  Pretty fast!!!

The product description says it works with Win 98SE and includes the drivers. Do i need to use my existing online account or can i just use internet exployer if i'm at a place with shared wireless?

-When you use public 802.11x wireless, you don't use "your" ISP, you use the wireless server's ISP (whatever ISP it's on). You can usually get email from your own ISP but not always newsgroups (some ISP's won't relay them).

And you should think twice about accessing private websites through public servers--things like bank accounts and so on. It's possible for others to eavesdrop on public wireless access points and capture the data going back and forth. It's very rare, but it is possible, with another laptop running the right program.

If you want to have a laptop hookup into your own ISP then you need to get the wireless through a cellphone company, like Verizon. It's DSL speeds and they give you a special card that works wherever you can get cellphone reception, but then there's cellphone-roaming charges involved.
~

Quoted: The product description says it works with Win 98SE and includes the drivers. Do i need to use my existing online account or can i just use internet exployer if i'm at a place with shared wireless? -When you use public 802.11x wireless, you don't use "your" ISP, you use the wireless server's ISP (whatever ISP it's on).

Now is there a fee for that?  The city I work in claims the entire downtown has free wireless. You can go into any store/coffeeshop/ect and allegedly with the right equipment get online at no cost.

Quoted: Quoted: The product description says it works with Win 98SE and includes the drivers. Do i need to use my existing online account or can i just use internet exployer if i'm at a place with shared wireless? -When you use public 802.11x wireless, you don't use "your" ISP, you use the wireless server's ISP (whatever ISP it's on). Now is there a fee for that?  The city I work in claims the entire downtown has free wireless. You can go into any store/coffeeshop/ect and allegedly with the right equipment get online at no cost.

the city is acting as the ISP, so it's free

Quoted: Quoted: The product description says it works with Win 98SE and includes the drivers. Do i need to use my existing online account or can i just use internet exployer if i'm at a place with shared wireless? -When you use public 802.11x wireless, you don't use "your" ISP, you use the wireless server's ISP (whatever ISP it's on). Now is there a fee for that?  The city I work in claims the entire downtown has free wireless. You can go into any store/coffeeshop/ect and allegedly with the right equipment get online at no cost.

Not sure about your area, but anywhere it says free here, it is free.  Panera Bread, Crispers, several coffee shops all offer free wireless internet.

What Floppy_833 says about security.  My friend has a wireless neighbor whose "screen" sometimes pops up on my friends wireless notebook.