Dude! Technology is actually pretty flippin SWEET!

[LastDetail]

So over the weekend I bought myself a laptop, it is my last year of college and it was getting hectic trying to write papers and all that and I figured with one of these I would be able to focus more easily on the work that I was doing at the time, i.e. paper, notes, project etc. I figured I should get one now so that I am used to it by the time I start law school in the fall.

So I bought an HP that has a lot of features, this thing even came with a remote control! Another handy little device that came inside of it is a wireless access card. So I set up the wireless connection in my house and had a blast all weekend checking my email from the bathroom, garage, backyard and living room. I am at school today and working on a paper in the quad, it is so awesome to be able to work on a computer and not have to wait in line, when the little balloon pops up to say that there is a wireless access point nearby and would I like to get on the internet! So here I am at school sitting under the shade of a big oak tree surfing the internet! I don't have a little clock in the bottom of the screen telling me how long I have until I get kicked off the workstation I am on, I got my iced tea and my smokes right here, I am listening to music on earphones and writing a paper about contemporary issues in American Politics. This is AWESOME!


Just wanted to share my good mood!

 

[GearHead_1]

A wireless laptop is an awesome tool. Make sure that you are using adequate security. It's not terribly difficult for someone that is sitting close to you to establish a network and take a look at anything that is on your PC. That's one of the drawbacks.

 

[Dans Detailing]

I could not dream of a perfect life without wireless. I have an associates degree in computer science and my fulltime job has been in technology. I joke around all the time that I have found the end of the interent since wireless allows you to hop on the 'net anywhere that there is an access point. In fact I have a laptop mount in my explorer and a high gain -12db antenna to seek out wireless access points while I am driving. This is called wardriving and its a BLAST! I also hook my GPS up to the laptop and run mappoint or whatever software I care to run that day and it draws me a detailed map much clearer then the best GPS out there.. I love technology too!

 

[Jngrbrdman]

Its a blast when you are traveling too. Nothing is better than sitting in your hotel room after working and just surfing the web while watching crappy hotel TV. I don't know how I traveled before... Oh, wait. Yes I do. I plugged into their slower than crap dialup connection. blech! Wireless rocks!

 

[aceshigh73]

Wireless is pretty damn cool... as a Network Engineer that specializes in wireless networking I can attest that you have to be careful with wifi connections, but ultimately you can only really be as secure as the AP that you have to connect to. If its "OPEN" its open.. you cant encrypt your packets if the other side isnt encrypted.....
I guess you can put on some "software firewalls" on your laptop to stop some intrusions, but sometimes they are more hassle then they are worth...
Just make sure you turn off "internet sharing" and other sharing and remote access....
Last I checked, one thing that was totally "in the clear" (uncrypted from the app end) was AIM passwords.... I dont know if that has changed...
Certain pop-based email passwords might be in the clear as well...

 

[TiredNGrouchy]

Its a blast when you are traveling too. Nothing is better than sitting in your hotel room after working and just surfing the web while watching crappy hotel TV.

Get a Slingbox (or add Slingbox-like functionality to your home PC). Then you can watch crappy TV from your home while you're on the road. It's great for watching porn^H^H^H^Heducational channels that aren't available on the hotel TV.

 

[TiredNGrouchy]

you cant encrypt your packets if the other side isnt encrypted.....

My ISP, as well as my employer have Cisco 3000 VPN concentrators. When I travel, I always fire up an encrypted tunnel to my employer or my ISP first. All traffic is routed through the VPN tunnel and encrypted. No traffic is allowed to go directly over the locally attached network, it all goes through the VPN "virtual network adapter". I'd never use a public access point any other way - for someone with access to the AP it's trivially simple to snoop all network traffic and pick up all kinds of passwords, email messages, etc.

 

[aceshigh73]

My ISP, as well as my employer have Cisco 3000 VPN concentrators. When I travel, I always fire up an encrypted tunnel to my employer or my ISP first. All traffic is routed through the VPN tunnel and encrypted. No traffic is allowed to go directly over the locally attached network, it all goes through the VPN "virtual network adapter". I'd never use a public access point any other way - for someone with access to the AP it's trivially simple to snoop all network traffic and pick up all kinds of passwords, email messages, etc.

Yes.. Exactly TiredNGrouchy hit the nail on the head.... you can in theory encrypt your own traffic with a site to site VPN. We do this in a couple of our locations that we provide wireless access to the internet to vendors..... We keep it somewhat "open" and tell them they are responsible for their own encryption... Meaning.. use your company VPN if you have one....

 

[hooked]

I'm just waiting for someone to perfect the power supply that pulls energy from the air so that you don't have to worry about batteries or plugs. Then we'll be truly wireless!!!

 

[Jen@autogeek]

I'm just waiting for someone to perfect the power supply that pulls energy from the air so that you don't have to worry about batteries or plugs. Then we'll be truly wireless!!!

LOL!! I agree!

Congrats on the new laptop! :yay Wireless rules!

 

[Koop]

I'm just waiting for someone to perfect the power supply that pulls energy from the air so that you don't have to worry about batteries or plugs. Then we'll be truly wireless!!!

Ahhh if only Tesla hadn't died.....

 

[Shaun Carollo]

If you have a pda, you can tether your cellphone and be trully wireless ANYWHERE, as long as you have a data plan and service of course. Similar to those "aircards" that they all sell for your laptop but if you already have the plan and the phone, then you don't have to buy them. I use it to have customers pay through paypal, check email when im on break, or just use it for school when I'm somewhere that doesnt have an access point for free. Customers who don't have a paypal love having me do it all for them.