ok - you know how a cordless phone works? plug it into the jack, take the actual handset and go anywhere within the house
wifi works the same. buy a box, plug into your cable modem or high speed internet - and buy a "handset" for the laptop (it's really a card) and walk all over your house. Or office. Or airport.
The cool part is the card works at your house, or your starbucks, or panera, or wherever - it's all the same card. Sometimes you have to pay. Sometimes it's free. Sometimes it's written in chalk on the sidewalk of Manhattan, for all to know about. It's good if it's free.
have you ever seen any warchalking in the city? i always forget to look for it. maybe i'd look harder if i had my laptop with me haha
okay so this is what a sierra card is for
well, actually, no. the sierra card you are referring to is actually designed on a similar sort of principle, but instead of working just in your house - it works anywhere your cell phone does - it has a much wider area (3-5 miles per cell phone tower). however, speed gets sacrificed - it's usually about the speed of dialup.
so wifi and cellular are different...and then there's the differences betwee GPRS and CDMA 1RxT but I think that's a convo for another day
i know gprs but not cdma...?
cdma is the technology that verizon and sprint use. GSM/GPRS is what t-mobile, at&t, and cingular use. ehhh.