Clueless, have patience...

I am completely and utterly new to this, so please excuse
my ignorance, lack of termnology, and so forth. Anyone who
would care to walk me through this I would greatly
appriciate.

I am a recent HS Graduate, and have purchased a <a
href="http://costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?
prodid=11000537">Toshiba</a> laptop with the following
communication features:
Integrated V.92/56K modem; data and fax support
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Integrated Wireless LAN (Atheros 802.11b/g)

Now, what does this entitle me too?

I would like to use the wireless capabilty. A friend of
mine once upon a time had wireless on his laptop, but was
not signed up for service and simply tapped in on his
neighbors, or surrounding office buildings' networks. What
do I need to purchase to do this same thing? This being
temporary, of course, I'd like to purchase my own wireless
service. What do I need to buy for that, and who offers
that kind of service?

I apologize if this all has been asked before, and I
appriciate anyone who read through it all. Any advice
would be meeted with extreme gratitude. Thank you very,
very much.

Hi.
These are three options to connect your computers to the Internet and or
other computers.

DialUp Modem let you use the Internet in case you have only DialUp service
in your geographical Area. (Like AOL).

LAN Card (NIC) let you connect the computer to other computer (Network) or
and use it for Internet connection if you have a Cable or DSL Internet
service.

Wireless is just a replacement to the wire that is necessary to connect
Networked computers.

Your friend tapping to his neighbor Internet via Wireless will be just like
connecting a wire from your computer LAN card to the Neighbor Network.

This site has few Basic pages about these issues: www.ezlan.net

Jack (MVP-Networking).



"Amanda" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1b5901c47c84$ab2d3350$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I am completely and utterly new to this, so please excuse
> my ignorance, lack of termnology, and so forth. Anyone who
> would care to walk me through this I would greatly
> appriciate.
>
> I am a recent HS Graduate, and have purchased a <a
> href="http://costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?
> prodid=11000537">Toshiba</a> laptop with the following
> communication features:
> Integrated V.92/56K modem; data and fax support
> Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
> Integrated Wireless LAN (Atheros 802.11b/g)
>
> Now, what does this entitle me too?
>
> I would like to use the wireless capabilty. A friend of
> mine once upon a time had wireless on his laptop, but was
> not signed up for service and simply tapped in on his
> neighbors, or surrounding office buildings' networks. What
> do I need to purchase to do this same thing? This being
> temporary, of course, I'd like to purchase my own wireless
> service. What do I need to buy for that, and who offers
> that kind of service?
>
> I apologize if this all has been asked before, and I
> appriciate anyone who read through it all. Any advice
> would be meeted with extreme gratitude. Thank you very,
> very much.