Does DSL work on a Laptop?

[Columboy]

Thinking of getting away from dial up and graduating to DSL. All I have is a laptop. Can this work? Local Cable provider can do a basic service for $6 more than I pay for dial up. Videos would be much faster than waiting for dial up. What would it take?

 

[Mako247]

yes the dsl should work on a laptop
they have a port of the back or side for the dsl plug and they almost all come with wireless capability so if you get a wireless router you can take the laptop anywhere within the range that you set

if you are in the US you can most likely get a great deal on a new puter next friday

 

[sheep]

So you are the guy that still has dial up. What where u thinking?

 

[tornZorak]

Thinking of getting away from dial up and graduating to DSL. All I have is a laptop. Can this work? Local Cable provider can do a basic service for $6 more than I pay for dial up. Videos would be much faster than waiting for dial up. What would it take?

Uhm, I may be slightly confused. You are asking about DSL (provided by a telco provider) but talking about your local cable company (uses DOCSIS compatible cable modems). These are generally mutually exclusive.

If you are talking about DSL then this will come in over your existing copper telephone wiring. The wiring will go to a terminal adapter (TA) that converts it into ethernet. Typically the TA requires your laptop to communicate using a protocol called PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet). Oddly this is a left over dial up protocol from the dial-up days. They continue to use it because it allows the telephone company to require authentication (username/password) to connect to the DSL line. Assuming your using Windows XP, PPPoE is directly supported by Windows.

If your talking the cable company then you will be using a DOCSIS compliant cable modem. This modem will have an ethernet port that your computer simply connects to and poof your on-line.

However this begs the question - are you planning on connecting your computer directly to the DSL TA or cable modem? This is a bad idea. You should always have some kind of firewall (protection) between your computer and the internet. Why? When you were using dial-up modems you were mostly not on-line. This means hackers generally speaking didn't attack you too often because you weren't connected to the internet. However with broadband you are always on-line. So if your computer is on and directly connected to the internet then some hacker will be attempting to break in. Guaranteed.

You should go get a Wireless Router (think Linksys, D-Link, etc) and place this between your TA/cable modem and the computer. This will prevent hackers from being able to directly attack your computer. Plus you will get wireless access (pretty much for free) so your shiny new laptop won't even need wires (other than power).

BTW - I get status reports from my router than shows about 400 probes per day. If my computers were directly connected to the internet then all of those probes would turn into attempts to break into my computer. If even one of those succeeds then poof - your computer is now a zombie sending spam, etc. Don't do this to us!

 

[nudemagzineday]

the modem has an automatic firewall get zonelabs

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I think regardless of whether you are talking about Cable internet or DSL (through the phone line) both will still require an external modem that will then connect to your laptop with an ethernet cable. so as long as you have an ethernet port on your computer you should be ok. if you don't have an ethernet port, you can get an card to plug into your laptops PCMCI slot that will have an ethernet port. here are some to give you an idea of price if you end up needing one. looks like some are about 10 bucks and others are 40. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=588

the ethernet port looks like a regular phone jack port but a bit larger.

you could give us the make and model of your laptop and we could look it up for you.

 

[tornZorak]

the modem has an automatic firewall get zonelabs

Windows and Mac OSX do have a built-in firewall. However this assumes there are no bugs in the implementations. For instance, if you turn on Windows File and Printer sharing you will be compromised if your computer is directly on-line.

By using a cheap ($50) wireless router you add a layer of security that substantially improves your ability to defend hackers.

P.S. - MAC OSX folks, people don't claim you can't get hacked. I don't need a flame here - currently your just not the target of hackers... but that does not mean you can't be hacked.

 

[wenn-es-passiert]

I think regardless of whether you are talking about Cable internet or DSL (through the phone line) both will still require an external modem that will then connect to your laptop with an ethernet cable. so as long as you have an ethernet port on your computer you should be ok. if you don't have an ethernet port, you can get an card to plug into your laptops PCMCI slot that will have an ethernet port. here are some to give you an idea of price if you end up needing one. looks like some are about 10 bucks and others are 40. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=588

the ethernet port looks like a regular phone jack port but a bit larger.

you could give us the make and model of your laptop and we could look it up for you.

Yeah, few laptops (in fact I doubt any) have a built-in (A)DSL decoder. I've never seen one any. Nearly all broadband/PC companies expect you to use an external decoder. This also has other advantages (e.g. a shared connection doesn't need one computer to be on at all times).