Wifi working - need some assistance

facewax7 · #1 March 2nd, 2007, 02:28 AM

Hi folks, hope someone can point in the direction of a simple and cost-effective solution. I'm a UK-based web developer/editor and work from home - I have a wired set-up to a router here which provides my BT Broadband connection. I'm on holiday for a week during March and will be staying in an apartment which is apparently in the middle of a wifi hotspot in Brighton. Although it's a holiday I have to check my emails every day and might need to do some work for clients. I don't have an airport card in my iBook and TBH don't have a clue about wireless working - I just need some ideas of a way round this, without having to convert my home set-up to the new BT broadband offering where you get a certain amount of wifi minutes each month as I won't make use of them at any other time.
One solution which I'd considered was to get a smartphone (Treo 650 or similar) which would mean less bulk than the iBook and would allow me basic email and word processing ability.
If anyone's got any suggestions I'd really appreciate hearing them. Thanks in advance.

Debaser626 · #2 March 3rd, 2007, 05:40 AM

Umm... your home setup would have nothing to do with your road setup. That said, buy an Airport card. If you're one of those cheap people who still own a G3 iBook, you're screwed, but you get what you pay for.

sgould · #3 March 3rd, 2007, 07:18 AM

An airport card is the best answer, if your machine is new enough for the Airport Extreme card. The older Airport card is almost impossible to find.

Apple website will tell you which card your computer needs.

I use the wi-fi more than I thought I would. Most hotels have wi-fi these days, so the laptop goes on holiday with us. Good for rainy days and booking museums on the day to avoid the queue.

I have a Belkin wi-fi plug-in working on my old IBM ThinkPad. Plugs into the USB port. Don't know if it will work on a Mac, but something similar should.

billbaloney · #4 March 3rd, 2007, 09:17 AM

Just so you know, you can shop around for wireless connectivity hardware for a Mac just as for a PC.

There's one here, some here, and here...you get the picture. There's no guarantee that any or all of these will work with your particular machine, but it's worth looking around.

You have at least four options: taking advantage of your machine's internal capacity to install a real Airport card, if such capacity exists; using a PCMCIA card, such as I linked to above; using a USB wireless adapter; and using a wireless-to-ethernet bridge, so you just plug an ethernet cable into a reverse wireless access point.