I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
stuck with dialup, maybe.
I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
and on my son's home system.
Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The
LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
to use the dial up connection.
Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world
way out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work I can
take a nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless task. I
don't mind paying for broadband but satellite seems to be the only
other way and I am not quite ready to go that way yet. Thanks.
"hawkeye" <w5ec@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:1161185830.924693.30740@e3g2000cwe.googlegrou ps.com...
>I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
> stuck with dialup, maybe.
> I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
> and on my son's home system.
> Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
> Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
> excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The
> LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
> to use the dial up connection.
> Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
> is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world
> way out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work I can
> take a nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless task. I
> don't mind paying for broadband but satellite seems to be the only
> other way and I am not quite ready to go that way yet. Thanks.
Your browser is probably just set to only use a dialup connection.
Whether it will work or not, who knows. It may not be going to an internet
gateway, may be VPN'd, or any other number of things. Its Adhoc? I'm
betting it doesn't have an permanent internet gateway. Out there in the
boonies, the owner probably just uses it to connect another PC to, and
perhaps occassionaly share dialup internet over ICS.
Whether you should play around with it or not is your moral call. I
wouldn't, but if you want to then try pinging www.yahoo.com and if that
works, simply change your browser's connection settings.
On 18 Oct 2006 08:37:11 -0700, "hawkeye" <w5ec@bellsouth.net> wrote in
<1161185830.924693.30740@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.c om>:
>I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
>stuck with dialup, maybe.
>I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
>and on my son's home system.
>Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
>Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
>excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it.
Just like items in racks outside stores are begging you to shoplift
them.
>The
>LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
>to use the dial up connection.
>Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
>is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world
>way out here? ...
Move around with your laptop recording the signal strength on a simple
map. As you approach the access point, signal will tend to increase,
and vice versa. Use Network Stumbler for an accurate reading of signal
strength.
Then approach the owner of the access point, and see if you can work out
a deal for Internet access.
--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
hawkeye wrote:
> I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
> stuck with dialup, maybe.
> I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
> and on my son's home system.
> Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
> Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
> excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The
> LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
> to use the dial up connection.
> Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
> is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world
> way out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work I can
> take a nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless task. I
> don't mind paying for broadband but satellite seems to be the only
> other way and I am not quite ready to go that way yet. Thanks.
>
If you are connecting peer-to-peer you are just connecting to another
computer. Unless that computer is set up to share its Internet
connection you won't be connected to the Internet. That peer to peer
connection could even be another computer in your own house (if you have
another one with a wireless card). Obviously that computer will not
have a connection to the internet to share.
If you can find out who is the owner of the computer you are connecting
to, you might be able to convince them to share their broadband (if they
have broadband).
"hawkeye" <w5ec@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
>I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
> stuck with dialup, maybe.
> I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
> and on my son's home system.
> Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
> Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
> excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The
> LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
> to use the dial up connection.
> Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
> is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world
> way out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work I can
> take a nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless task. I
> don't mind paying for broadband but satellite seems to be the only
> other way and I am not quite ready to go that way yet. Thanks.
>
A weird thing happened to me once and I'm not really sure why.. I connected
to a ad-hoc network with a SSID it never let me go anywhere.. after I left
the location I was in i noticed that it still showed me connected but of
course didn't do anything.. i removed the connection from my preffered
connection list and proglem solved.. sounds like your computer just wont
let go
hawkeye wrote:
> I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
> stuck with dialup, maybe.
> I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in
> Dallas and on my son's home system.
> Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a
> Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
> excellent signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The
> LAN icon says I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries
> to use the dial up connection.
> Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal
> is, where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband
> world way out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work
> I can take a nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless
> task. I don't mind paying for broadband but satellite seems to be
> the only other way and I am not quite ready to go that way yet.
> Thanks.
Just out of curiosity, where do you live? I got a 5 acre place in northern
idaho and had the same prob (no cable/dsl only dialup), was gonna do the sat
thing, and luckily, about a month after I moved in (and was really sick of
dial-up), they started the spokane-rathdrum skynet (basically a 260+ sq mile
hotspot, now they have 12 others.. Nice graphical map at http://www.onelasvegas.com/wireless/ID.html if you want to see what
available/covered in your area, they have a US map at http://www.onelasvegas.com/wireless/ )
hawkeye <w5ec@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy
> stuck with dialup, maybe.
....
> Wireless Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps,
> excellent signal strength
peer-to-peer is possibly another computer in your own house. It is
unlikely to be anything else. I presume that if you are 20 miles from a
small city, you also have a few hundred feet from you to the nearest
neighbor. That is likely beyond the WiFi connection range of your laptop.
Does that 20-mile-away city offer high speed internet?
If it does, you might be able to get a high speed connection, if you want
to pay enough for it. I presume you would want something less than $100
month, though.
You could get a cellular connection. Sprint, Verizon and Cingular all
offer high speed cellular data for around $60 per month. That can range
from 30kbps to 400kbps and higher. When I was in a similar situation, my
dialup rarely went above 21600, so even 30kpbs would have been an
improvement.
The hardware can be a card to put into your laptop, or some phones that can
be "tethered" to act like a modem for internet access. In my case, the
Cingular/Motorola v551 can tether via Bluetooth, so I can set the phone in
on a windowsill where it gets good signal. It's also possible to hook up
an external antenna. If you have cellular coverage, even spotty coverage,
you might be able to get good data coverage.
On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:37:11 -0700, hawkeye wrote:
> I live 20 miles from even a small city, no cable, so I am hopelessy stuck
> with dialup, maybe.
> I have a wireless capable laptop that I have used in hotspots in Dallas
> and on my son's home system.
> Meanwhile, back at home I see that it automatically connects to a Wireless
> Network Connection (peer-to-peer). It has a speed of 11Mbps, excellent
> signal strength and appears to be begging me to use it. The LAN icon says
> I am connected but If I try to open a browser, it tries to use the dial up
> connection.
> Properties don't tell me much, so how can I find out what this signal is,
> where it is coming from, and how can I get into the broadband world way
> out here? While waiting for my 26.4 Kbps connection to work I can take a
> nap, play a game of Sol, or do some other mindless task. I don't mind
> paying for broadband but satellite seems to be the only other way and I am
> not quite ready to go that way yet. Thanks.
It would help if you informed us as to which operating system you are
using (i.e. Windows XP, Windows2000, Linux, etc).
Windows XP and the latest distributions of Linux have network management
tools built in that will show you what wireless networks are around. If
you are using Windows, you need to go into Internet Explorer and change
the connection settings to never automatically dial a connection
(something to that effect - I'm not near a Windows machine right now).
That will prevent your browser from trying to dial out when you open it.
The default network settings for Windows should allow you to access *OPEN*
wireless networks. That's it in a nutshell.
WLAN? 
Linear Mode
