Re: Wireless internet

On Thu, Jun 28, 2001 at 04:32:30PM -0700, Jih-tung Pai wrote:

:1. Is iPaq good for this purpose?

:2. The way I imagine is to use iPaq as a X terminal to use my other
:desktop which has DSL connection. Is that the way how people do it? If
:it is, do you get good fonts so it will look nice. If not, what will be
:the alternative? One way I can imagine is to use a browser in iPaq
:running familiar. Which browser is the browser of choice for familiar?

I find the screen too small for most desktop apps. If you want to use
a text browser like lynx and use a console email client (mutt, elm,
pine, etc) you can use ssh to connect to another machine and read it
on the FAMILIAR rxvt

:3. I am just learning wireless internet. Do I need to use PC card or
:there is CF card that can do the same thing? Is CF expansion sleeve
:smaller and cheaper?

You need a PCMCIA card, though the CF expantion is smaller (don't know
pricing), it won't handle a network card.

:4. You can buy wireless LAN kit consisting of 1 access point and 2
:wireless PC cards for $378. Is it a good buy? Will it work with iPaq +
:familiar. If not, what will be the alternatives? Is access point needed
:in my case?

Seems OK to me, but I haven't been pricing them out.

An access point will make your life MUCH easier, though you can get a
PCI adapter of the wireless PCMCIA card and set up your desktop to
route it, there's definately alot of weirdness involved, took me the
better part of a day to setup my laptop to act as a router between my
home wired network and the ipaq wireless.

I guess that's not too much of an investment of time if it's a
permanent setup, mine was just for what was left of the weekend.

:5. Just forget about iPaq and familiar for a monent. What will be the
:best way to have what I want -- a very portable and fast internet access
:around the house? Notebook is too big for me.

Sony makes some pretty small vaios, almost palm top, don't know the
model numbers off hand, slightly larger than checkbook sized. If you
want some Netscape like browser you'll probably want the extra screen
realestate

my $0.02,

-Jon
Received on Thu Jun 28 2001 - 17:49:04 EDT