Connecting to the Internet: Services
Okay, now I am really lost. There are so many options for so many devices and so many apps and so many programs that I am completely confused when something goes wrong and I have to address an issue. Just how things connect to the internet is fraught with wrong turns and double meanings.
For one basic example, take the difference between cable access to the internet and wireless access to the internet. Intuitively you are correct to think one comes through a cable and one comes through the air. Seems simple enough. I have a city wireless service as my home internet access and so I have wifi (wireless) service, just as the coffee shops do. It comes through the air. I am lucky to live in a city that developed this kind of network citywide, but I find that it is a little clunky and that any videos I try to watch on the internet, which are available through the streaming of bits and bytes to your computer screen from the saved version that is on the internet, are buffered (they stop and load more bits and bytes every few seconds before proceeding). A movie would be impossible to watch, although a young expert friend says that if you order one to download (transfer to your own computer hard disk) and go away so the video buffers itself completely into your machine, you can then watch it because it is already inside, not outside on the internet any more. I have not tried it. I rent DVDs at Redbox.
The result of this experience, along with my publishing background (i.e. big and eccentric graphic files) makes me cautious about sending things through email to others, so often I will ask someone what kind of connection they have. Several of my friends in distant locations have told me they have wifi and that they don’t experience any problems with buffering like I do. I was feeling quite sorry for myself and called up my service to come tweak me, but so far it is only better some of the time. This is because the air is full of the signals, if you are not tuned well to the node where the signals are emitted you will get interference. I understand this pretty well as analogous to radio and television signals and I am old enough to remember endlessly screwing with the rabbit ears.
But my friends had none of these problems and I was really feeling stupid, so finally during a visit to one, I left her with her laptop in the living room and went to her office, where I found the cable. It has become standard for cable services to put a modem (receiver/translator) on the end of their cable into your house that sends to a router (broadcaster), which is another piece of equipment that you must buy, that sends the information through the air to your laptop, so you have a private network that is indeed wireless, while your network service provider is cable. My network service provider is wifi. My friends to a person did not know the difference but thought they had wireless providers–and in a sense they do, but the definition of provider is a technical one having to do with the company that gets you access to the internet. My friends have cable providers, and the signals through the cables are not subject to as much turbulence as mine through the air are. The wireless private broadcasting does not have to go very far to get to the living room.
Adding to the confusion is the smart phone. These have, in addition to the phone service (also wireless), their own wireless internet networks, but they are called 3G or 4G or some such that has to do with their speed and not their connectivity. When you sign a contract with AT&T or Verizon, you are buying a network service provider to give you an internet wifi network. Smart phones also offer a Setting where you can turn this direct network off (as you are paying for how much time you spend on it) and the smart phone will access the internet through your local wifi that you are already paying for from your cable or through-the-air service provider. If you don’t have an internet service provider at home and you only have a smart phone, all your connectivity costs are through that contract.
The newer Kindles offer the same connectivity to a wifi network, for yet another contract with Amazon, so if you have one of those you might have a third wireless network that operates from the tablet. These networks are always available to your device (if you pay your bill) except in very remote locations. However, other tablets can be purchased that offer no 3G or 4G networks (no option for monthly service for wifi networks purchased in addition to the cost of the tablet) but use your home internet connection, so you can Set it up to automatically jump on your wireless network (either cabled in to you or through the air) to get full access to the internet that you are already paying for. However, if you leave home and are riding the bus or the train or such, that signal will disappear when you move away from it and you don’t have any connection at all. You can use these wifi enabled tablets in coffee houses, airports, hotels, and businesses that offer free or inexpensive hourly access through their own wifi networks by choosing whatever local wifi network is in your vicinity in the Settings folder of the tablet (they automatically show up there). The same is true of your smart phone if you want to save money by disabling it’s own network access.
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