How Residential Wireless Internet Service Works

Your Internet service provider (ISP) simply allows you to access the Web. You may do that through either a wire running into your house via a cable jack or a nearby transmitter that delivers the signal to you wirelessly. A growing number of providers in urban areas are using land-based transmitters to send the Internet signal farther and farther away. If your home falls within range of this signal, you're good to go.

Assuming the wireless Internet signal being transmitted by your provider is reaching your house, you'll need the proper equipment to receive the signal. That's where the modem comes in. This small device sits inside your house, taking the signal being broadcast by your ISP and allowing you to access it directly by means of an Ethernet cable, except, if the system ended there you would be anchored to using your computer in a limited area only as far as the cable stretched. To achieve true residential wireless with multiple computers, you need a router.

The router is a device similar to the modem in size that plugs into the modem and then rebroadcasts the Internet signal throughout your house. Any computer, laptop or other technological marvel that has a wireless card built in can access the signal, which means you can easily surf the Internet laying in bed, sitting at the kitchen table or running up and down the hallway. The router is what creates a small home wireless network that makes accessing the Internet so easy.

Almost all laptops sold today have wireless cards built in. If you have a desktop model that doesn't, all is not lost. For about $50 you can buy a receiver that plugs into a USB port and picks up the home network signal from the router that way. With all these components in place, no computer has to be physically plugged into the modem to access the Web. The state of residential wireless Internet service is simple, versatile and reliable.