Can someone answer this question?

[butterfly77]

I am now trying to get another service provider for my internet service. I know this may sound like a dumb question but, do you have to use have a landline or phone service to receive internet. In other words,if I only wanted to have a cell phone and no at home phone service is there another way to receive internet service.

[butterfly77]

1. Another question ..

what companies provide internet service broadband except at&t and comcast. Also how can two computers work at the same time do I have to purchase some equipment to do this if I am not using the modems for these two companies.

[unhappycamper]

2. Hmmmmm.

There are five ways to gain internets access. In order from cheapest to most expensive they are:

1. wireless access point

You may have a hot spot in your neighborhood you can tap into, but you must have a wireless card in your PC/laptop. This is the way certain coffee shops provide internet access while you're having a cuppa coffee.

2. dialup

Old, slow, and not good enough any more.

3. DSL

DSL has been out for a while and it has become much more reliable. You should be able to get DSL for less than $20/month. Your DSL provider will provide you with a modem.

4. cable

Call your local cable companies & ask them how much internet access is. The cable company will supply you with a cable modem.

5. satellite

Slightly faster than DSL, but usually slower than cable. Startup costs are around $500 ~ 600.


You mentioned you have two PCs you want to connect. Are these PCs close together? If so you can buy a cheap router, plug everything together and you're good to go. If they're in different parts of your house, you'll need a wireless router and a wireless card. I like the Linksys WRT-54G. You see them on sale from time to time for $45 or so.

Hope this helps a bit.

[DaveJ]

3. Cell phone companies often have mobile Internet service

Generally Mobile Internet is used for laptops and will be a slower than a land line, naturally.

You should check with your cell phone provider to see what they offer in your area.

It is also possible to 'tether' a cell phone which is using it like an analog phone modem, but I doubt many people are doing that these days (edit: maybe they are, I really don't know).

Again, it mainly depends on your cell phone provider's offerings.

[truedelphi]

4. You need to find a local to your area internet users group and pose that question

Because the real question isn't whether is it possible to use a cell phone for internet (it very often is) but once you start using that phone, how much a minute in charges?

I just read an AP report in the newspaper maybe about five - six weeks ago, and some poor guy was using his "unlimited" cell phone useage package for connecting to the internet. It was verizon or AT & T or one of the other big heavy weights in the cell ph business.

He had not bothered to read the small print in the contract. (Who does - it's absurdly small and very dense in terms of pages etc)

It was like $ 1.99 a minute and he had thousands of dollars that was owed.