Wifi Newbie with ?????

[Saint Fool]

A good friend is passing along a laptop and says it is wifi capable. Luddite that I am (I only got a cell phone six months ago) I am clueless.

The city I live near has free wifi in the central core. I've got the public library a mile away (love to see those folks sitting outside the closed doors on Sundays or early evening), MacDonald's, what passes for the local coffee house, and several other businesses also have it.

I've started calling to get prices on different plans and of course, salesmen are telling me that free WiFi is teh evil. I'd like to get some kind of WiFi for the times that I don't want to find a hot spot. (the dead of winter, for instance.)

My questions are:

Is free WiFi teh evil? Or are there programs out there that can provide me protection?
What plans do you use that you like and what does it cost?
Is there such a thing as a prepaid WiFi card?
Are there any good sites for WiFi idiots? When I google, the sites that come up first seem to be tech talk.Thanks for any help you can give.

[teapot]

My questions are:
Is free WiFi teh evil? Or are there programs out there that can provide me protection?No, it's a Godsend. Wifi is not 100% secure, particularly if it uses WEP encryption, but the Wifi you pay for is exactly the same. Use a firewall if you can, and don't use public wifi for sensitive transactions.
What plans do you use that you like and what does it cost?Free public wifi is free. I like that. Some places like hotels charge about six pounds an hour. I don't like that. At home, you don't need any special "plan" - it's exactly the same as any other internet connection. You just get a wifi router, with a broadband connection which is exactly the same bit of kit you use for wired connections. You can either plug your computer into the router with an ethernet cable, or connect to it wirelessly. There's no difference. Your router is also a firewall, which makes your home wifi much more secure than public wifi (if you set it up properly) Don't let anyone sell you a special "wifi" internet connection!
Is there such a thing as a prepaid WiFi card?Yes, and they're a rip off. It's not actually a card - you pay for your account - you can buy a month's access, or unlimited access, or whatever suits you, and then you can log into that providers access points whenever you like. Of course, there may not be any of their access point nearby.

[Clair Dickson]

First-- a link: WiFi at the Simple English Wikipedi (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi)a. There are, of course, links off that page for further reading. Limited tech-speak and only the jargon necessary for the topic (such as Wi-Fi.)

I agree with teapot that the best way to get WiFi at home is to buy a wireless router. They come with pretty easy to follow instructions and set up quickly. Usually it's just plug the internet it one port and make sure the router is set correctly to talk to your internet connection. (Cable and DSL use different settings.)

I get DSL from AT&T for my internet. I run my desktop & Hubby's desktop on it, neither of which are wireless (we have a high-tech network set up we call "taping the network cord to the hallway floor.") I also run my wireless laptop off it. (Would it be too geeky to admit how much I so love transferring files from the laptop to the desktop over the wireless/wired network? Yeah? Okay.)

Educate yourself to avoid someone selling you the computer equivalent of muffler bearings... =) (My MIL told me I didn't know enough about computers... and then spent over $200 on upgraded wireless networking components when the whole problem was spyware/ malware so bad it was coming out the ports. Sigh.)

[groovyville]

Also, if you have multiple computers connected to your home network, secure it with a password or something (I personally don't know how to do that, but my dad did it for ours).
You don't want random people getting into your network and slowing your internet connection down. (someone in my neighborhood has an unprotected network, and I have used it when I'm out of range of my own home network, unfortunately for them lol)

[Saint Fool]

Thanks everyone! The computer is on its way so this came at a good time. I've discovered an insane # of free hotspots in my little rural community so I should be good to go.

[Williebee]

I've discovered an insane # of free hotspots in my little rural community so I should be good to go.

THOU SHALT NOT leach off thy neighbor's wifi, just because they haven't secured it and it is wide open to the public.

They are starting to put people in jail for that. Makes a certain amount of sense. If you wouldn't steal water from their water hose....