Posts Tagged ‘satellite’



Friday, June 27th, 2008 in General, Reviews by admin

There are two well-known ways to access the Internet; via a wired or wireless connection.

In general, better than 80% of Americans access the Internet through a broadband (highspeed) wired connection. There are a smaller and shrinking percentage of Americans who use a dialup connection (through the phone lines). Either way, these are both wired connections.

The primary broadband access methods utilized from home are Cable, DSL, or Satellite. The cable connection is often offered through your cable TV provider and the mode of connectivity is through the same lines used to send the signal to your cable TV. The DSL connection is typically offered by your phone company and the mode of connectivity is through the phone lines. However, unlike dialup, DSL offers much higher bandwidth and connection speeds. The satellite connection is primarily offered through independent satellite providers and the mode of connectivity is through a wireless signal, which is collected by a dish you attach to the outside of your home. The signal is then transferred to the modem through a cable/wire from the dish. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, you should research to verify which is best for your purposes.

Other than satellite, one can obtain a wireless connection through an access point or router. In essence, an existing wired (cable, dsl) connection can be transformed at the access point, into a wireless signal, which allows you to do all the same things you normally do with your wired connection. Granted, there can be some speed drops associated with these wireless connections. However, most Internet users would likely not be able to tell the difference.

Wireless connectivity is just starting to blossom, especially in the U.S. There are thousands of wireless hotspots - which are typically referred to as “wifi” hotspots. These hotspots are wired local area networks, which have transformed the wired signal at a central location (router or access point) and then the signal is sent wirelessly to devices (like your computer) within the hotspots range. Typically these ranges are anywhere between 50-300 feet from the access point.

wifi.com has set out to simplify the process of connecting to a wireless Internet signal. It is our goal to make it easier for you.


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Skype Resells Boingo Access in New Mac Beta - Skype has released a beta test version of its Mac OS X that offers per-minute hotspot access: The 2.8 beta, released today, works with Boingo Wireless's worldwide aggregated hotspot footprint to allow metered access. While the example on Skype's blog shows a 19-cent-per-minute charge, it's likely that the metered rate would vary depending on venues. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.


New York Parks Wi-Fi Shut Down - The company operating Wi-Fi in some New York parks is closing down: Eagle-eyed correspondent Klaus Ernst noted that the Wi-Fi in the parks project has shut down. Wi-Fi Salon, the concessionaire for most of the major parks, posted a message about the current economic conditions, but the note is undated. I was always dubious about Wi-Fi Salon due to the surreal technical explanations made by its founder, its small size and lack of real-world experience, and the extensive delays in every step of the project. Ultimately, something closer to kiosks than coverage were erected, and I've never seen any usage numbers. Community Wi-Fi organizers in New York City had a variety of other ideas about how to offer free Wi-Fi, but parks had its own agenda. Let's see if they approach this differently this time around. Update: Marshall Brown, Wi-Fi Salon's founder, takes issue with my characterization of his operations. No one--especially me--ever claimed that building outdoor networks was easy. From all that's happened in the last few years, it's clear that building large, sustainable, free (sponsored or otherwise) networks requires many stakeholders, a diverse revenue stream, and real purposes for a network beyond public access. Crain's reports on the issue: Possibly prompted by my post (or by Brown's outrage), Crain's New York Business writes about the shut down and Brown's new project, which has put Wi-Fi into Union Square. Brown's new venture, Wired Towns, is talking to business improvement districts about outdoor Wi-Fi across New York City. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.


The Week Ahead - It's been a slow few weeks in Wi-Fi and wireless land; that should change this week: The holidays were quiet, but both the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld Conference & Expo happen this week, and we'll see some action. I'll be at Macworld starting tomorrow evening; Apple might pull out a surprise. At CES, we're likely to see quite a lot of gadgets and home-networking servers. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.