Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual: Exactly What You Need to Get Started

7.1. How to Get Online

Most people connect to the Internet using a modem , a device that connects your PC to a standard voice phone line. Almost every modern computer comes with a dial-up modem built right in. All you have to do is sign up for an Internet account, and you can be online in minutes. (For more detail on choosing a service, see the box on Section 7.2.1.)

7.1.1. Cable and DSL

Nearly half of all Internet fans have abandoned their dial-up modem in favor of much faster gear like a cable modem or a DSL connection. Actually, neither cable "modems" nor DSL connections are modems in the true sense of the word. The word "modem" is an abbreviation of mo dulator- dem odulator, which refers to the way the device converts data into bursts of sound. Still, people have to call them something , so "cable modem" and "DSL modem" are the common terms.

Whatever you call them, these systems offer several gigantic advantages over dial-up modems. For example:

• Speed . These modems operate at 5 to 50 times the speed of a traditional dial-up modem. For example, you might wait 5 minutes to download a 2 MB file with a standard modema job that would take about 10 seconds with a cable modem. And complex Web pages that take almost a minute to appear in your browser with a standard modem will pop up almost immediately with a cable modem or DSL.

• No dialing . These fancier connection methods hook you up to the Internet permanently, full time, so that you don't waste time connecting or disconnectingever. You're always online.

• No weekends lost to setup . Best of all, there's no need to do any of the setup yourself. A representative from the phone company or cable company comes to your home or office to install the modem and configures Windows XP to use it. If you sign up for a cable modem, the cable TV company pays you a visit, supplies the modem, installs a network card into your PC, and sets up the software for you.

• Possible savings . As of this writing, cable modems and DSL services cost about $30 to $50 a month. Sounds pricey, but it includes the Internet account for which you'd ordinarily pay $20 if you signed up for a traditional ISP. And you may be able to save even more money by canceling a second phone line you were using for a dial-up modem.

Virtually all cable TV companies offer cable modem service. Unfortunately, you may not be able to get DSL if the phone company doesn't have a central office within about three miles of your home. It's also worth noting that cable modems and DSL modems aren't always blazing fast. The cable modem can slow down as more people in your area use their cable modems simultaneously . And DSL modems may be slower the farther away you are from the telephone company.

7.1.2. Wireless Networks

If you have a broadband connection like a cable modem or DSL, you're in heaven, but not on the penthouse floor of heaven. These days, the ultimate bliss is connecting without wires, from anywhere in your house or buildingor, if you're a laptop warrior , someone else's house or building, like Starbucks, McDonald's, airport lounges, hotel lobbies , and anywhere else that an Internet "hot spot" has been set up.

Those are places where somebody has set up an 802.11 access point (or base station), which is a glorified antenna for their cable modem or DSL box. Any computer that's been equipped with a corresponding wireless networking card (as most new laptops are these days) can hop online, at high speed, with only a couple of clicks.

Say you open up your laptop in a hotel lobby, which just happens to be a hot spot. You'll see a little balloon pop up over your notification area, in the lower-right of your screen: "Wireless networks detected ." That's Windows' dull way of saying, "You've found a hot spot!" To start making the wireless connection, click the balloon.

Next, you get to read about the network you've found. To get online, click the network's name and then click Connect. (The message onscreen warns you that hackers with network-sniffing software could, in theory, intercept your wireless transmissionsalways a concern with public wireless networks.) If a yellow padlock appears, you can't use the network without a password.

You can wander around your house and yard with a laptop and pull the same stunt . For the basics of setting up your own wireless network, see Section 13.1.