Connecting a laptop to the internet wirelessly.?

Question

My sister just bought a brand new laptop from Best Buy because she needs a computer (shes going away from home for College). But right now our family is confused as to how we use the internet on it without all the wires.

I've read stuff on google about connecting a wireless router to our home DSL modem and thats it. But what happens when shes away from home and shes at school? She can't take our home internet to college, how will she get the internet there?

Also this is the computer my parents got her.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...

And when I was going through the device manager I came across this which sounds like it has something to do with wireless internet "dell wireless 1395 wlan mini card"

What exactly do we need to buy/do?

Answer 1

first..im guessing you have no wireless router, just a DSL modem? well first thing you wanna do if you want to have a wireless connection (for laptops, or Desktops that are too far from modem) is buy a wireless router. it should say how to connect the different wires to the DSL and then to PC...etc.

if it doesnt you could try looking up that certain model and seeing how that works out.

her laptop has a wireless card inside and thats why it says "dell wireless 1395 wlan mini card"

so yeah basically if she goes to a campus..they should have a WiFi (Wireless hot spot) connection there and she could connect there. im not sure if the network will be encrypted (WEP/WPA/WPA2) but she can go ask the college ...somewhere and get the key for it ..if its free internet for the campus.

anyways i made this kind of long but basically shes good with the whole wireless thing..but if you want wireless at your home, you should buy a wireless router (Netgear, D-Link, Linksys) are the top choices for routers/wireless adapters

:)!