Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
Figure 14-3:
A wireless
WAN router,
a backpack,
and solar
power —
the mobile
access
point.
EV-DO card
Solar panels
Power-adapter cable
and fuse holder
1.2-amp-hour battery
Getting online with your own car PC
Junction box
Cigarette-lighter
adapter
Charge controller
Pretty soon, downloading audio or video to the car won’t be enough — you’ll
want a full-fledged PC on board. Luckily for you, some cool, wireless-capable
auto PCs are now on the market.
With a PC in your car (we don’t recall seeing any of those plastic traffic signs
in any car windows saying “PC on Board” — do you?), you can mimic your
wireless home network in your car, almost in its entirety. You can sync with
your PC for audio and video to play over your car’s radio and video display
system. You can play computer games over those same systems. You can
access your address books and calendars, just like at your desk. You can
use wireless keyboards. You can link to your wireless cellular router to surf
the Internet.
Colloquially known as a carputer — a computer designed to be installed in a
car — these small-footprint devices use less power and are better prepared
for the rugged car experience. When we say small, we mean it: We’ve seen