Can someone tell me how Wireless Internet works?

I hope this is the right forum for this. The loung is for non-computer stuff, so I figured this was the best place for it.

A friend of mine from work is getting a Dell laptop from her father and it's already all set up for wireless internet. He's a truck driver so he gets on the net on the road.

What I'm trying to figure out and can't seem to find any answers on is do you have to subscribe to some kind of wireless internet service provider in order to access the web wirelessly? If so, are there some that are better than others, and if so which ones? Will she be able to find out if her area is covered by a coverage map much like cell providers have in the stores? She lives in the country so I'm wondering what the odds of her being able to access it out there are.

Also, would you recommend a wireless network for two computers in one house, or a regular wired network and why?

Does anyone have any sites they can recommend for equipment needed to network both wirelessly and wired and how to do it?

Thanks for your help.

 

I can answer some but not all of your questions. By being wirless ready means no more than that laptop has a network card that passes traffic to an access point or wireless router. Now, with that said, someone has to pay for that A.P. or router that is providing the internet service. That laptop also has to be within the range of that signal. I have not personally tested distances but I think the range of an off the shelf router is anywhere between 100ft and 100meters. Some hotels, airports and businesses like Starbucks coffee with let you slave off thier connection to check email and what not.
There are some wireless services out there that will broadcast high power from one of those 300ft type towers with either a directional antenna or an omnidirectional antenna to maximize a paticular area in the city or county. Those type of services usually need propriatary equipment that has to be supplied by the service provider and paid for by the user. Those type of services will have some type of coverage maps.
Getting back to home use, there are literally thousands and thousands of people who go out and buy wireless routers and broadcast thier service unsecured. I have 6 other wireless routers in my neighborhood alone that I could use. The problem is they are just not educated in wireless security or think that its not worth the effort to get into the router to apply some basic security measures. Bad news for them because either someone is going to use thier broadband for free or simply use a few keystrokes and pull anything off that home computer that they want.
For a simple two computer home network, I say why not go wireless. But please, learn a little about WEP or WPA, broadcasting your SSID, DHCP vs Static and MAC filtering. All these things are huge subjects themselves so I cannot cover them in this thread. I have seen a user here Cat5e give a great link www.ezlan.net check it out.