While at first glance this question might not seem to make sense, it actually is a valid question that many people ask every day.
The confusion comes from the fact that there are actually two different types of wireless or wired internet access that people talk about. And many people often variously exchange the sames terms when talking about either type of access.
When you talk about connecting to the internet, there are actually two very distinct types of connections that have to be made. Let’s start at your computer as it is how we think about connecting. The idea of course is to hook up our computer, in some way, to the internet. This is the first connection that has to be made.
Connection Type #1: Connecting Your Computer to a Local internet Source:
The local source inside your home that your computer is connected also is called by different names. If you only have one computer and do not have any other need for a network inside your home, your computer will connect to an ‘internet modem’ in your home. There are many different kinds, but an internet modem’s job is to convert the internet signal coming from some internet Provider outside your home into a signal that can be used by computers inside your home.
In the past, and in the most basic systems, your computer was hooked up by a wire from the computer to the internet Modem. This is where the term 56K modem comes from. Back in the old days, your outside connection came through your telephone line and connected to the back of an 56K phone modem. You then hooked a wire from this modem to your computer to make your local in the home connection.
Today, there are a lot more options. In just about all cases, your local in home access to an internet signal still comes from a modem. There are many different kinds of modems today however, and go by different name. Today you probably will hear the term cable modem most often as this is the modem where you can get local in house internet access that comes to your over your cable TV lines.
We’ll talk more about types of modems in the second section, but what you need to understand now is that no matter where you are and you want to connect to the internet, you need some kind of ‘local’ access that your personal computer can hook up to.
Today we typically have more than one computer in the home. If we just had our single modem that only allowed one hookup, we would not be able to add more computers. So to do this, we need another piece of hardware called a router. Simply put, a router takes the signal from your local in house modem, and routes it to up to 4 or more computers. The router takes the signal from your modem and ‘splits it up’ so more than one computer can be connected.
Here is where the terms ‘wired’ and ‘wireless’ start to come into play. Again, in the distant past of internet connections, computers did not have a built in wireless connection system. It was necessary that you run a wire from your computer to your modem or router in order to get your internet connection.
Today, many computers have built in wireless capability. You don’t need a wire anymore. All you need is to have a router in your home that broadcasts the internet signal into the air rather than running it over a wire to your computer. If your computer has wireless reception built in (as most do nowadays) the computer will ‘recognize’ this signal and automatically connect to the internet when you turn your computer on in your home.
So this is the first of the two types of wireless internet access that people talk about. This type of wireless access refers to a local connection between your computer and a modem in your home.
Connection Type #2: The Connection From an internet Service Provider to Your Local Access Point:
The second part of the internet connection equation is getting a connection from an Internet Service Provider, or ISP, to your Local Access Point (typically your home router as discussed above).
ISP’s provide the connection between the world wide network we call the internet and a local access point in your home (usually their modem). They charge you a fee for the service they provide in delivering the internet signal to your home. There are many types of ISP’s. Most of these use wired connections to get the internet to your home.
The typical ones are the phone companies who now days deliver DSL service over the phone line to your home, and the cable TV companies that send the internet signal to your home over their cable lines. They both provide you with a modem in your home that you can hook your router up to.
The phone lines and cable lines are wired connections. There are, however, wireless connections available from different types of ISP’s. The two most common types of ISP’s that give you a ‘wireless’ connection between them and your home are Satellite and WiFi providers. Satellite internet is similar to satellite TV.
You don’t have a wired connection to receive the internet signal. It is beamed to you from the ISP’s satellite. And WiFi providers send the signal to you over the airwaves using wireless network technology usually from amplifiers and repeaters placed on cell phone towers.
Both of these types of services are called ‘wireless’. However, you will still need to have a modem provided by these companies in your home that takes the received signal and converts it so it can be used by your personal router and computers. So…
Do You Need A Landline For Your Wireless internet?
Now that we’ve seen that there are two types of connections that can be called ‘wireless’ or ‘broadband internet without phone line’ we can now answer this question.
Regarding the first type of wireless connection, the connection between the local modem in your house and your computers, we’ve seen that this question does not apply. Whether or not your connection between your computer and your router and modem in your home depends only on whether or not your computer has built in wireless capability, and if you have a wireless router that sends a wireless signal into the airways of your home.
In regard to the second type of internet connect, the connection between your home and an internet Service Provider, the answer to the question posed by this article is no. No, you do not need a landline or a phone line to have wireless internet access.
You can use one of the other internet Service Providers such as cable, satellite or WiFi and then you will not have need for a phone landline. Many people refer to this type of connection as broadband without phone line or wireless internet without phone line.
And, if all you want is wireless internet in your home, then it does not matter who you get your internet service from. Just get yourself a wireless router for your home and hook it up to your modem. If your computer or laptop can receive a wireless signal it will go on line and you won’t need any kind of wired connection in your home.
Now when you are talking to people about wireless internet, you’ll know to stop and make sure which connection they are talking about. If people are looking for high speed internet without phone line support, you’ll be able to tell them what they will need to do to achieve this. And with this information, you can help them sort through the many options that new technology has made available for us today.
Mail this post