Wireless question from the States

pooy1

First time poster..Live in America and visiting the UK next week for a month and bringing my laptop with me. Where I am renting they don't have a phone line so installed a wireless Lan Cardbus PC Card(802.11b). Mostly going to be in the Eastbourne area and checked the hotspots and there are a few nearby, between 0.5 miles to one mile away..Is this likely to work? Also would I have to download UK drivers(or something..bear with me not to technical here )as the system is probably totally different? Or could I simply rent a card for a month, provided it reached me? Just not sure how this works?
TIA

muddyfox470

There are some cafes that give you free access when you use their cafe, VIA is a good one plus they don't pester you to buy more drinks.

however onto your question, supposedly there is a slight incompatibility between wireless due to different regulations, however you can try it and see and you should be able to buy a PCMCIA card for around £20 if your current wireless in your network doesnt work

Ian

pooy1

I wasn't very clear.........................without having to visit different hotspots such as Cafe's and bars etc..wanted to use 99% of the time at the place I was renting, therefore don't want to spend extra if I am out of range and wondered how one goes about checking this out and what exactly is the maximum wireless range from a "hotspot"

Thx.

christopher

Buildings will knacker wireless signals. Expect to get 30/40metres MAX, it all depends on line of sight (you can get more, all about finding the sweet spots).

Maybe you could make a cantenna to boost your signal reception (just search for 'Cantenna').


You might also have luck with Fon hotspots, check the Fon site (you can sign up as a user and get free access via the Fon hotspots, people run them from their homes like I do or sometimes shops or cafés will run 'em too) - or go search for "free wifi london". I'm sure there's some wifi networks around that area which are free to access...

If your wireless interface is a/b/g compatible then you should be able to access everything, there's no difference in the standards between the US and the UK. The draft N spec can differ slightly but that's why it's still draft spec

pooy1

Do you have a link for fon hotspots.....I will obviously try www etc, and google this, but as in the US, not familiar with this. Thx.