Is wireless and Wi-Fi one in the same?

[George Kimery]

I bought the Trac-phone Hot Box at Walmart so I can have high speed internet in addition to my dial up, which is fine for e-mail, but not much else.

The instructions say I have to have a device that will accept WI-FI. I have a MSI Notebook that a friends widow gave me. One of the features it has is wireless. It does not say WI-FI, only wireless. I am wondering if they did not use the word WI-FI to get around some copyright infringement or if wireless and WI-FI are not the same thing.

I am pretty green at this kind of stuff. I don't even know what WI-FI means, but I assume the WI means wireless. I don't have a clue about what FI means.

I am in over my head in trying to set this Hot Box up myself, so I will have to get some help from somebody that understands computer terminology. I get lost when they go to what seems to me, a foreign lanquage on terminology.

Thanks for answering this basic question so I know if I am going to have to buy a different laptop or not.

[Jim Cohen]

Yes, George. It's the same. You should be fine, once you figure out how to set it up properly.

[George Kimery]

Thanks, Jim. I am glad that I don't have to buy another laptop.

George

[Rick Campbell]

George,

They are the same thing. I do this all the time with my iPhone or motel Wifi when I'm traveling. It should be straight forward and you should have been provided a password for your computer to recognize the Hot Box. Just click on the wireless symbol in the lower right hand corner of your computer and let it find the signal. You might have to open your browser for it to ask you the password. If I can do anything to help let me know.

RC

[Doug Clark]

I don't mean to complicate George's project any, but could there be any compatibility issues between the Notebook, if it's an older one, and the Hotspot? Meaning all that 802.11 g/n/AC stuff.

[Dave Potter]

I don't mean to complicate George's project any, but could there be any compatibility issues between the Notebook, if it's an older one, and the Hotspot? Meaning all that 802.11 g/n/AC stuff.

I don't know the current status of this, but all he actually asked was if "wifi" and "wireless" are synonymous.

It's a legitimate question, since the term "wifi" is frequency-specific, and "wireless" isn't. Anything "wifi" is wireless, but anything "wireless" isn't necessarily "wifi".