WiFi help, please

[Thistle]

I'm soon off sailing for a fortnight. I'll be taking the new laptop which, I believe, has a WiFi interface. Does anyone know where I can find an idiot's guide to connecting to the interweb through WiFi hotspots?

Many thanks.

PS No worthwhile manual with the machine: it's a manufacturer's refurb job.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Thistle,

if WIFI is set up and running on the laptop it couldn't be easier.....

when you get to a wifi hotspot, you pay your few quid for an access code.

When you then try to connect to the internet, the first page will flash up asking for this code regardless of what site you try and visit, you enter it, and bobs yer uncle...

if your wifi isn't set up on your laptop, then thats a whole different kettle of fish....

 

[harvey]

The password was "trident" in Guernsey a couple of weeks ago.
John

 

[bobgosling]

[ QUOTE ]
and bobs yer uncle...


[/ QUOTE ]

No, I'm not !

 

[mr_williams]

Bear in mind that the Operating system you are running will also make the job easier or harder... If you XP installed then you have a nice little tool called Windows Zero Configuration utitlity...

You may also note that if your WIFI card is not integrated into your laptop... i.e. your wireless card sticks out the side of your machine, you may need to install and configure the third party software that came with the device...

All in all, it aint that hard to setup, and you should find that the people who sell you the connection, should have some idea about how to connect you to it...

 

[BrendanS]

WZC ain't a nice little utility, it's a pain in the .....

 

[polwart]

Find a local hotspot and set it all up at home before you leave. Once it works on one hot spot - it will usually work on any one.

 

[Birdseye]

can I barge into someone else's thread to ask for a bit of help?

a pal uses adsl on his pc and it works fine. he has bought a new netgear wifi router so ha can use a wifi enabled lappy as well. but has hit problems that era beyond me, and thei si with the new router / modem coupled by usb cable to the pc ie not even using the wifi bit yet.

the router / modem seems to iniialise OK and you can even see the little tv screen symbols in the bottom right part of the screen. in device manager you can find the new modem and it is enabled and functioning. but in internet options and any other software, the modem doesnt exost. so attempts to log on to the internet are met with "cannot find modem" presumably because the system is looking for the old dsl modem.

and usinmg the modem wizard doesnt seem to find the new modem.

I would have thought that the new modem would simply pick up the dsl settings of the old one since we are not yet using the wifi bit. obviously we are missing some part of the installation / enabling process.