There are different brands, but generally, they look something like this. They might also be made so as to be stood upright.
@Ken Anderson I have a little thingy plugged into the side of my laptop which allows use of a wireless mouse. My laptop communicates wirelessly with a box plugged into our landline. Is that box a wireless router or broadband modem? Frank
I am not familiar with that, Frank, so I can't say. In most systems, there is the broadband modem, supplied by your ISP. Hooked to that by way of an ethernet cable is the router, although if all someone intends to connect to the Internet is a computer, they may not have a router. I don't know if it's common for ISPs to include the WiFi router these days or not. As I remember it, our ISP offered us a router but the one we had was better.
CenturyLink provides me with a little box thingy that must be my Wi-Fi. It doesn't have an antenna, though. That must be built inside.
Almost every public place had a wi-fi connection for use by Joe public and has done for many years.. cafe's restaurants, museums, trains.. including libraries, in fact very much libraries, to the detriment of new book stocks unfortunately
I loved taking my laptop when my grandson was young and liked the McDonald's play places. It was something to do so he could play longer. It was also handy after our hurricane a couple of years ago when it was one place you could actually get WIFI. @Hal Pollner
True, which is why it's important to have personal protection on your own computer. There is a larger threat on public WiFi, particularly that which doesn't require a password, but I've never had a problem. Most people probably have a hotspot option on their smartphone, which allows you to use your smartphone as an ISP. Some plans have limits on the amount of data you can use so it's important to know what your cellular plan allows for, and what happens if you go over. It could be expensive. On my plan, I am never billed for overages on data use but there is a point, which I haven't yet reached, where it will throttle my data usage, which means that my Internet connection slows. But I have used my phone as my ISP for a few days at a time, powering a couple of computers and a couple of televisions, with no problem.
We've had all of the above types in the past with and without antennas ... we've had this one for a while now... its very small and flat.. we have it positioned in the hallway table next to the downstairs landline...., it serves upstairs and down very easily from there. I took this picture a few moments ago...
Wifi is wireless connectivity. You simply open your computer/tablet network settings, find available servers, and click "connect." Unless they are private, password protected you will connect to the internet.
@Ken Anderson Your phone, in becoming the ISP, assumes the task of what my ISP performs, while knowing certain of my personal information, while charging for that service? Can you make the phone ISP work as a roving ISP ID? Mine is fixed, and is used often in attempts to identify me, I believe. Plus, what guarantee exists from my Provider that it assure privacy? Frank