Wifi, Broad band, Laptop

Most laptops come with everything you need, except an air card from your cell provider.

Be sure that you verify this before you purchase one though. I saw a couple of cheaper ones that had empty slots where the card reader should be.

As to your provider. I can't help you there.

 

I think all of the new laptops come with wifi built in to the mainboard these days. And broadband wireless just plugs into a usb port.

 

Some manufacturers have everything built into the notebook now, which means you don't need to purchase a separate aircard from the cell phone company. Dell makes a few models, as does Sony. I'd stay away from Sony as the BIOS is software driven and not burned into the chipset.

Once you purchase the notebook, all you need to do is call a special number to get your service activated. Having it built into the notebook has the huge advantage of not having to worry about the aircard breaking.

 

Hey, Jaywalker! I have a dell laptop with a usb modem from Verizon. It's about $60 a month. It works great! Anywhere I have phone service I have access to the internet. It's fast too!

Best of luck!

 

I have some friends with Sprint and they are very happy with it around the chicago area, however if you look at the coverage maps of the northwest sprint is not the one to choose.

I went with verizon for both phone and internet, I have their usb air card which works great!

It is more expensive then getting the flying J internet, but then you are stuck only going to the J.

I am currently in Pennsylvania, and its worked all the way between here and seattle, down to Denver, and up to Edmonton, Ab,Can (Very expensive to use in Canada though) with very few dead spots that I have found.

What I found when looking for a new laptop, very few still have spots for pcmcia card, some have the express card port, but of course they all still offer the USB, I would look into that, if you get it with your service its very close to free, if you dont and need to buy one later....... its not cheap!