iPad: The Missing Manual, 7th Edition

Chapter 11. Getting Online

The iPad’s concept as an all-screen machine is a curse and a blessing. You may curse it when you’re trying to type text, wishing you had real keys. But when you’re online—oh, baby. That’s when the Web comes to life, looming larger and clearer than you’d think possible. That’s when you see real email, full-blown YouTube videos, hyper-clear Google maps, and all kinds of Internet goodness, right in your hand.

So many of its miracles, however, depend on its ability to get online. And how likely it is to succeed depends on which model you bought: the WiFi-only model, or the WiFi+Celluar model.

Either way, it might help to explore your options.

WiFi Hotspots

WiFi, known to geeks as 802.11, is wireless networking, the same technology that gets computers and phones online at high speed in any WiFi hotspot. All iPad models can get online through WiFi hotspots.

Hotspots are everywhere these days: in homes, offices, coffee shops, hotels, airports, and thousands of other places. Unfortunately, a hotspot is a bubble about 300 feet across; once you wander out of it, you’re off the Internet. So, in general, WiFi is for people who are sitting still.

When you’re in a WiFi hotspot, your iPad usually gets a fast connection to the Internet, as though it’s connected to a cable modem or DSL. Even if you bought the cellular keyboard model, it looks for a WiFi connection first and considers connecting to a cellular network only if there’s no WiFi.

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