Which ISP for Wireless Broadband?

A

allendog

Registered User
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Hi,
Just got a wireless-enabled laptop and am completely new to the Wi-Fi stuff - had seen www.broadband.ie, which is quite hard to digest. What precautions should I watch out when it comes to select the ISP for provision of Wireless BB?

Thanks,
allendog
 
I think you are a bit confused. The wireless capabilities of your laptop are simply for connecting to a wireless router/access point and this is separate from (although often related to) the broadband connection that you might use. Just because your laptop is wireless enabled does not mean that your broadband connection must be wireless. For example, I have UTV Internet Clicksilver ADSL at home (which uses the phone line) and I connect to it from my laptop via a wireless router which connects on to the ADSL modem which sends/receives the data over the ADSL broadband enabled phoneline. An alternative setup would be to use something like Irish Broadband wireless broadband but I would still need a local wireless router to connect from the laptop to the broadband connection. You should read this HowStuffWorks.com article to get a bit of an overview on this stuff and maybe use the search to find previous discussions about wireless LANs and wireless broadband.
 
The wireless ability in your laptop just connects to a router without wires, what you need is a wireless router for your laptop to connect to and that wireless router needs to have a broadband connection attached it ..either by phoneline such as eircom, esat etc or one if the "wireless" broadband suppliers.

Before I would do any of that I would check to see if there are any people near you (ie with wireless range) but showing available wireless networks and if any of them are unsecured then you can use their broadband for free ... they are fair game imho
 
paddyc said:
Before I would do any of that I would check to see if there are any people near you (ie with wireless range) but showing available wireless networks and if any of them are unsecured then you can use their broadband for free ... they are fair game imho
Click to expand...
Be careful when assuming that these are fair game just in case...
 
Would take quite a while before anyone copped on somebody was piggybacking on their connection if they don't know how to secure it. But I also think that everyone should secure their wireless network, I would equate an unsecured wireless router to leaving your phone outside your hosue for anyone to use.... peolpe need to wise up if they are going to use wireless.
 
It might also be likened to leaving the front door of the house open - arguably asking for trouble, and something that the insurance company might not cover, but not something that in itself excuses or permits unauthorised entry.
 
paddyc said:
Would take quite a while before anyone copped on somebody was piggybacking on their connection if they don't know how to secure it. But I also think that everyone should secure their wireless network, I would equate an unsecured wireless router to leaving your phone outside your hosue for anyone to use.... peolpe need to wise up if they are going to use wireless.
Click to expand...

It might also depend on what you were doing with it. If you were doing heavy uploads/downloads and choking their connection speed they may start asking questions, if their ISP support are any good (I know many get slated but you never know) they might figure out what is going on.

BTW the link you provided does not appear to be a retail broadband provider, they seem to deliver very high bandwidth carrier and corporate type products.
Try the government information site instead: www.broadband.gov.ie
 
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