Is wireless internet for broadband only? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Perry]

DSL and cable modems are not available in my area yet, but I was wondering if I could use a wireless modem with dial-up. If I'm going to wait forever for my dial-up pages to refresh, I might as well be lying on the couch!

Thanks

 

[James_A]

Yes.... with some caveats...

First, you do need some modem to dial in to your ISP, now, there are two ways that can be done. Either a router (wireless or not) with a modem (they do make them, at least with an external port for a modem -- but I don't know about wireless), or another PC with a modem (this is what I did/do). If you use a hardware solution, that's one thing... but if you use another PC to dial in, you also have to run a proxy server on that PC, as well as connect it to the wireless access point. Once you do both of these, configure your laptop to access the IP of the proxy assigned connection, and you can surf wherever you want to.

If you have more question, let me know. Insofar as cost, the hardware option may be $200 to $400 depending on configeration. The PC/proxy version would be around $150 or so (assuming that you have a PC already).

Hope that helps (and it can be done, becuase I do something like it now).

Jim

 

[Brian Ruth]

OtherBrian:

YES, you can use wireless ethernet with a dialup connection, but IMHO you're wasting lots of good bandwidth until you get broadband.

The wireless connection WON'T make your pages load faster. If you end up sharing an internet connection (which often ends up happening on wireless networks), realize you'll be splitting up that 56k line into however many people are on at once.

What I'm saying is while you CAN use wireless ethernet with dialup, it's much better to have a broadband connection with your setup than it is to have dialup. Just my $0.02.

 

[Steve_Ch]

I disagree that one is "wasting" a lot of bandwidth using wireless with dialup, as one of the real major advantages of wireless is WIRELESS, and not bandwidth. The reason to go wireless is not bandwidth (one can have 100MB ethernet CHEAP with wire), but wireLESS.
My Orinoco RG1000, a first generation 802.11b gateway, has a buildin modem, and I've tested it just for kicks, and it works. Don't know if that kind of wireless AP/RG still exist these days.

 

[Michael*K]

Yes, wireless can be used in conjunction with dial-up connections. Apple make wireless routers with built-in modems. Not sure what's available for the PC denizens. And if you go wireless now, you'll be able to hook it up to broadband when it is made available in your area.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Yes, it is what I'm doing currently. What I use:

SMC Barricade wireless base station: it has a serial (9 pin) connector, 3 100baseT switched ports, and a WAN link. On that connector, I have an external US Robotics 56K modem. I connect from any room in my house with my Powerbook. It's not fast but it is exactly the same as being tethered to a phone line.

By the way, the SMC has a web-based config interface. You just tell the base station that it's using the modem port. when you are ready to go to cable/DSL, you just change the setup. Then, you can use the modem as the backup gateway if your broadband connection goes down for some reason.

You can eliminate the need for a separate base station and modem by buying an Apple Airport. It works with PCs or Macs...