Is there really a short-term use of wireless internet that one can buy, like on a card or something? I have been told there is, and I don't know where to look. I am visiting my father in the mid-west, and while there are wifi hotspots 20 or more blocks away, I do not want to have to go visit a coffee house. All I need is a resource to continue looking further and some definite knowledge of a provider who has this service. I appreciate it.
g2
What you describe doesn't really exist. Yes, one can purchase short-term internet access, but this access involves using WiFi at some location. For example, Flying Js (and other similar locations, as well as the usual places like Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, etc.) offer internet access, and there is usually a partner company that charges for it. Access can be purchased by day, or by an entire year.
Another option available to some is to use a cell phone as a modem. Whether or not one can do this depends on the carrier and the phone one has. However, this usually entails some type of longer-term agreement regarding data plans. I use my phone as a modem seasonally, and I usually have a data plan active for 8 or 9 months out of each year. I must renew my contract with my carrier each time I "turn it on" or "turn it off," though.
BUMMER! I'm in Lincoln & Verizon is advertising "one month" of wireless internet, and you are probably right that you have to already have a contract with them, and I am not airport-smart enough to try to conceptualize how that is done.
one other quick question. My dear old father has "dsl enet" and while he has gone to bed I disconnected the cable from his (shut down computer) and plugged it into mine and it is working great as you see, and I don't want to cause any problems for him by doing this-tell me I won't-or how not to, and thx again.
g2
It shouldn't cause problems for him. It might not even be strictly necessary to shut his computer down; just power off the modem, swap the ethernet to your computer, then re-power the modem. To put things back the way they were, just reverse the process.
Of course, it might be prudent to double-check that his PC gets back online.
Verizon may be offering one month of "wireless" internet, but how? "Wireless Internet" could mean one of several things: DSL from Verizon, with a wireless router included in the mix, one month of access at WiFi hotspots provided by Verizon (like at Starbucks), one month of data access via your cellular phone (provided you also have a compatible phone and plan), etc., etc.
"Airport" is just the 802.11x wireless networking protocol, and it only peripherally has anything to do with the internet (it allows you to join a wireless network that is in turn connected to the internet via some means; DSL, cable, T-1, etc.). It is just one way of gaining a connection to the internet. Ethernet is another, and a cellular phone (provided the phone supports it) can provide an internet connection via USB or Bluetooth, by acting as a modem.
