[PLUG] Devices mentioned at the PLUG clinic

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2025 at 11:48:41AM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> All my laptops (except the very earlist ones) have Wi-Fi built in so I am
> curious when an external WAP would be needed.

0) WAP is "wireless access point", typically not a client
device that RF-links to a WAP cabled into the internet.
That said, some USB WIFI devices with the right drivers
can convert a laptop into a wireless access point serving
other clients ... inefficiently and expensively.

1) Some of us dinosaurs prefer older laptops (for 4x3 screens
instead of 2x1, for example.  I'd love a 4x5 screen, but...). 
USB wifi adapters can use the newest wifi protocols and
current distros with those older full-screen laptops.

2) A USB wifi plug can be unplugged.  Internal wifi can 
allegedly be disabled, but without an RF meter I cannot be
sure that some clever snoop hasn't turned the internal wifi
back on, in some baroque way that I don't (yet) know about.

3) If I am NOT using the wifi (and I prefer cradle+wired
ethernet when available), I unplug the wifi dongle.
I don't want to pollute the radio spectrum with extra
useless energy.

4) I am amused that, decades ago, NIMBYs protested RF
emitters owned by others, especially for-profit others.
Now they demand emitters for themselves, and emit more
RF from their personal devices than any local broadcast
or microwave link tower. 

Ah well, jerks is jerks.  Which includes me, sometimes. 
Let him who is without RF sin, -cast the first broad-.

Keith L.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com