lets just start from the beggining

[kylenls]

i know absolutley nothing about wireless internet, never used it before and have no idea how to. I know there has to be a wireless modem and I am pretty sure that I can gank the internet from my neighbors because my roomie has been doing it for the past few months with his PC. I asked him to show me how I could get wireless and he said he said wireless net is different with macs. I know I read that my ibook G4 came with an airport card in it but I dont know what kind it is and I have no idea what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jeff]

Start by going to System Preferences > Internet & Networking > Network and check first to see if you even have an Airport Card. If you do, it will be listed there. If it is there (make sure it's on), you can click on that and configure it for your nighbor's network and so on. It sounds like there isn't a password, so you shoul just be able to select it, click "Connect" and you should be good to go.

 

[eric]

note that doing this without your neighbor's permission is illegal (depending on where you live, but most likely so).

now if they are running an unsecure network, they most likley won't be checking in any way to see if anyone is hijacking the connection, but if they start, you could get yourself into trouble.

 

[cazabam]

Wireless networking for Macs is just like Wireless networking for everything else; they'll all work together nicely and use the same standards. Usually, when somebody says "X is different for Macs" it's their way of saying "I don't know how to do X with a Mac" without the admission of fallibility

If you click the little wireless symbol in the menu bar (the sort of fan shaped indicator) a list of networks it can see will be visible. Click the one that corresponds with the wireless modem you have.

 

[swifty]

plus you have to be wary about open networks anyway... they may be used to phish information from you. It takes all of 1 minute to decrypt packets' data on unsecured/unencrypted open network.

Be very careful.

 

[christm]

Wireless networking for Macs is just like Wireless networking for everything else; they'll all work together nicely and use the same standards. Usually, when somebody says "X is different for Macs" it's their way of saying "I don't know how to do X with a Mac" without the admission of fallibility

very true !. gd post