Which connection do you want to use

Availability is also its greatest advantage — most people that might need a connection away from home probably have a suitable phone with them anyway. The feature is also supported natively on both Android and iOS and can be set up relatively easily. As a cherry on top, such a connection is fully wireless, which is very convenient for trips — you can literally carry around a hotspot in your pocket.

However, this method also has its trade-offs. For starters, you are still sharing your mobile Internet with a laptop, which means you have the same traffic and bandwidth restrictions. This will not be an issue for modest tasks like attending a business meeting or fetching a document.

However, streaming a couple of documentaries on Netflix may easily burn through your entire monthly allowance and leave you stranded offline. The verdict : A fallback plan that requires no additional hardware and might save you in some circumstances but hardly a sustainable solution for daily use. Another way to get internet on a laptop anywhere is to use a separate device. These come in many shapes and sizes and go by different names:.

These gadgets range in complexity from simple adapters for SIM cards to fully-featured modems that effortlessly handle an entire network of devices.

The basic premise is the same, though — the 4G modem connects to the mobile network like a phone, then shares the connection with a laptop or shares it like a router.

However, as a device designed specifically for connectivity, it handles the task much more efficiently and reliably than a phone. Recognizing this, laptop modem manufacturers add the possibility to choose from several ISPs and partner with mobile carriers to offer attractive deals. Unlike the options above, all of which rely on mobile network coverage, in this case, the signal is transmitted from satellites, so you will get connected as long as you have clear skies above.

You will still need to buy a data plan, of course, but otherwise, it does not restrict you in any way, making it a perfect option literally anywhere on the planet. Once you've set up your computer, you may want to purchase home Internet access so you can send and receive email, browse the Web, stream videos, and more. You may even want to set up a home wireless network , commonly known as Wi-Fi , so you can connect multiple devices to the Internet at the same time.

Looking for the old version of this video? You can still view it here. The type of Internet service you choose will largely depend on which Internet service providers ISPs serve your area, along with the types of service they offer.

Here are some common types of Internet service. Now that you know about the different types of Internet service, you can do some research to find out what ISPs are available in your area. If you're having trouble getting started, we recommend talking to friends, family members, and neighbors about the ISPs they use.

This will usually give you a good idea of the types of Internet service available in your area. Most ISPs offer several tiers of service with different Internet speeds, usually measured in Mbps short for megabits per second.

If you mainly want to use the Internet for email and social networking , a slower connection around 2 to 5 Mbps might be all you need. However, if you want to download music or stream videos , you'll want a faster connection at least 5 Mbps or higher.

If you have just a modem, you'll be able to connect just one Ethernet-ready device, such as a computer, to the internet. To hook up more than one device to the internet, you will need a router. Providers tend to offer a combo device that's a combination of a modem and a router or wireless router, all in one.

Network cables: These are the cables used to connect network devices to a router or a switch. They are also known as Category 5 cables, or CAT5 cables. The latest network cabling standard currently in use is CAT6, which is designed to be faster and more reliable than CAT5e.

The difference between the two is the wiring inside the cable and at both ends of it. CAT5e and CAT6 cables can be used interchangeably, and in my personal experience their performance is essentially the same.

For most home usage, what CAT5e has to offer is more than enough. In fact, you probably won't notice any difference if you switch to CAT6, but it doesn't hurt to use CAT6 if you can afford it to be future-proof.

Also, network cables are the same, no matter how they shape, round or flat. A wireless network is very similar to a wired network with one big difference: Devices don't use cables to connect to the router and one another. Instead, they use radio wireless connections called Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity , which is a friendly name for the Wireless networking devices don't need to have ports, just antennas, which are sometimes hidden inside the device itself.

In a typical home network, there are generally both wired and wireless devices, and they can all talk to one another. In order to have a Wi-Fi connection, there needs to be an access point and a Wi-Fi client. Each of the Wi-Fi networks that a client, such as an iPhone, detects generally belongs to one access point.

Generally, each wireless network, like those you see popping up on your phone's screen as you walk around a big city, belongs to one access point. You can buy an AP separately and connect it to a router or a switch to add Wi-Fi support to a wired network, but generally, you want to buy a wireless router , which is a regular router one WAN port, multiple LAN ports and so on with a built-in access point.

Some routers even come with more than one access point see discussion of dual-band and tri-band routers below. Wi-Fi client: A Wi-Fi client or WLAN client is a device that can detect the signal broadcast by an access point, connect to it and maintain the connection.

All recent laptops, phones and tablets on the market come with built-in Wi-Fi capability. Think of a Wi-Fi client as a device that has an invisible network port and an invisible network cable. This metaphorical cable is as long as the range of a Wi-Fi signal broadcast by an access point. Note: The type of Wi-Fi connection mentioned above is established in the Infrastructure mode , which is the most popular mode in real-life usage.

Technically, you can skip an access point and make two Wi-Fi clients connect directly to each other, in the Adhoc mode. However, as with using a crossover network cable, this is rather complicated and inefficient. Wi-Fi range: This is the radius an access point's Wi-Fi signal can reach. Typically, a good Wi-Fi network is most viable within about feet from the access point.

This distance, however, changes based on the power of the devices involved, the environment and most importantly the Wi-Fi standard. The Wi-Fi standard also determines how fast a wireless connection can be and is the reason Wi-Fi gets complicated and confusing, especially when considering the fact there are multiple Wi-Fi frequency bands. Frequency bands: These bands are the radio frequencies used by the Wi-Fi standards: 2.

The 2. Generally, the 5 Ghz band delivers faster data rates but a little less range than the 2. Note that a 60 GHz band is also used but only by the Depending on the standard, some Wi-Fi devices use either the 2.

Wi-Fi standards decide the speed and range of a Wi-Fi network. Generally later standards are backward compatible with earlier ones.

It offers a top speed of 11 Mbps and operates only on the 2. The standard was first available in and is now totally obsolete; It's also now obsolete, though it's still supported by new access points for backward compatibility.

The standard offers the top speed of 54 Mbps but operates on the 2. It's used by many older mobile devices, such as the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3Gs.

This standard is supported by access points of later standards. The standard operates on both 2. There are two types of dual-band routers: selectable dual-band routers now defunct that can operate in one band at a time and true dual-band routers that simultaneously transmit Wi-Fi signals on both bands. On each band, the Wireless-N standard is available in three setups, depending on the number of spatial streams being used: single-stream 1x1 , dual-stream 2x2 and three-stream 3x3 , offering cap speeds of Mbps, Mbps and Mbps, respectively.

This in turns creates three types of true dual-band routers: N each of the two bands offers a Mbps speed cap , N one band has a Mbps speed cap while the other caps at Mbps and N each of the two bands allows up to Mbps cap speed. Note: In order to create a Wi-Fi connection, both the access point router and the client need to operate on the same frequency band. For example, a 2. Also, a Wi-Fi connection takes place on just one band at a time.

If you have a dual-band capable client such as the iPhone 6 with a dual-band router, the two will connect on just one band, likely the 5 Ghz. The standard also comes with the 3x3, 2x2, 1x1 setups that cap at 1, Mbps, Mbps and Mbps, respectively. Technically, each spatial stream of the In real-world testing so far, with the same amount of streams, I've found that Note that the real-world sustained speeds of wireless standards are always much lower than the theoretical speed cap.

This is partly because the cap speed is determined in controlled, interference-free environments. The fastest peak real-world speed of an On the same 5 GHz band, While That said, all Prior to that, it was considered a different type of wireless networking.

Operating in the 60 Ghz frequency band, the It can't penetrate walls very well, either. For this reason, the new standard is a supplement to the existing It's an ideal wireless solution for devices at a close range, with a clear line of sight no obstacles in between such as between a laptop and its base-station, or a set-top box and a big screen TV.