What Do I Have Here?

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Hal Pollner, Oct 29, 2021.

  1. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    There's an underground trench with a fiber optics cable going from the alley to a box on the outside of my house.

    On the inside, there's a coax cable going to my modem, which has an antenna on it.

    Finally there's a yellow USB cable going to my computer.

    Does this mean I have WiFi?

    Hal
     
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  2. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    As long as the yellow wire is hooked to your computer and not the toaster oven, you probably have WIFI.
     
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  3. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    you may have wifi...if you pay for it
     
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  4. Joanna Newton

    Joanna Newton Very Well-Known Member
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    I don't know what kind of computer you have, but there are ways to find out if you have wifi and if it's on.
    One option is to go to internet/settings.
    For me, the easier way is to look at the wifi section of my modem- I disabled wifi, so the light is off.
     
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  5. Joanna Newton

    Joanna Newton Very Well-Known Member
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    Not necessarily. I don't know if all companies are the same, but wifi is automatically included with my internet.
     
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  6. Bibbi Wright

    Bibbi Wright Very Well-Known Member
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    @Hal Pollner Normally if you have fibre coming into a box in your house you should have access to WiFi. I don’t understand that you have a coax cable from the box to the computer unless things are different in the USA. A coax cable was what you had from a tv antenna to the TV. Normally you have what’s called an ethernet cable. Anyway, WiFi is wireless transmission of the signal from the box to your computer. Really similar to your ordinary radio in that you need a transmitter and a receiver. Your box may have a built in transmitter. If not you have to buy a WiFi transmitter and couple it to the box with a cable. Your laptop should have a built in receiver. Then you have to make sure that the transmitter and receiver are both connected to your home network and connected to each other. Then you have a WiFi connection.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 29, 2021
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  7. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    I don't have a coax cable from the FIOS box to the computer...I have a coax cable from the FIOS box to the MODEM.

    I don't have a laptop either...I hate those things!

    I have a proper DESKTOP computer.

    Hal 015 (3).jpg
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I used to be the same way regarding laptops. I've built 3 desktops yet have never cracked open the case of a laptop. I changed my mind on laptops when the technology improved (CPU and hard drive speed) and when my employers went to them as standard issue. I bought my first one through an employee purchase program and have never looked back.

    Right now I have a cheap 24" Walmart flat screen TV/monitor set on a tv tray in the living room that's hooked to the laptop that is on the floor out of the way. My keyboard/touch pad combo sits on my lap and communicates wirelessly with the laptop.

    Now, if you're saying you find using the laptop without and external screen and keyboard to be a useless endeavour, we'd be in agreement.
     
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  9. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Sometime in 2005 my buddy pondered: Why do we have these desktops, with the endless wires, cables, mice, etc. ? What a pain if you have to take it back for warranty work or whatever. Why not get a laptop?

    Wow, blew my mind. Why not indeed?

    So I bought my first LT in February 2006 and have never looked back, although I have DT in my shop.

    Aside from the living room where I usually have it, I can easily take it out on the porch in the summer, or anywhere else I might want it. I spend *A LOT* of time in the summer sitting on my porch.


    Porch 5-18-21.JPG
     
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  10. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Bobby often sits outside on the porch with his ipad also, and he enjoys being able to take it everywhere he needs it. When I travel with my daughter, I always take my iPad along, and it is much smaller and easier than if I had to pack even a laptop, and of course, a desktop would be totally useless for anyone who traveled at all.
    But the good thing is that we have these devices available in just about any size that a person wants to use, from the largest desktop, to the little tablets, like the iPad Mini.
     
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  11. Joanna Newton

    Joanna Newton Very Well-Known Member
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    I'd like to know why they're called laptops when they're too darned heavy to pick up.

    I do have an old one that I'd like to use again, but neither the person who set it up for me nor I know Admin. passwords, and most websites won't come up because it needs to be updated.
     
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  12. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    All true!

    In addition: I got my first true smartphone about 4 years ago, a $60 Android from Wally's. I really didn't know what to expect, but after a day or so of monkeying with it I realized it was in reality a hand-held computer. With the option of calling people.

    Two years ago I got an iPhone (a still-new 6s) and though it was very illogical to figure out how to use, I like it now. Sometimes I don't bother opening my email program (Thunderbird) on my laptop, cuz it all comes in on my phone anyway.
     
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  13. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Nice Señor Hal, hahaha! So you, one of the forum's foremost electronics and communications experts asked if that box hooked to the internet cable with an antenna is WiFi. No, it is a commie spy box monitoring your every move. You told us you were in assisted living and sold your guns yet that spy box caught you shirtless with a menacing face holding a "Tommy" gun in a concerning way in your former home, El Rancho Halberto. That modern commie-made shortwave receiver "rice box" is a dead giveaway as I recognize it from previous posts.

    So what gives? Are you in assisted living or not? Are you getting bored? Do you have a cat named Blueberry? Are you being sequestered in your apt for playing paparazzi photographing all those old babes' feet? Why don't you start a musical group at your new place?

    Is that box with the antenna WiFi :rolleyes:!!!
     
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  14. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    The last thing I want to do in the world is take that stinkin’ high tech ‘puter crapola outside with me.

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Why do you even have it?
     
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