Some questions on internet for a mac laptop.

[Punked Out Comp]

My friend has a mac laptop, not sure which one but when I find out Ill post it. He got kicked off AOL and I told him to get verizon dsl. I just rethought it and desided that optimum online is better but looking on thier site it lloks like its not for mac so back to verizon. Any way this is all great but since its a laptop it would be better if he didnt have to keep it plugged into a modem which is plugged into a wall so he can only use it when he is near one. So now I'm considering Wi-Fi and I have a few questions about that. First of all does he also need an isp or does it just connect using whatever isp it finds available within a certain distance? Also, where do I/He get it and for how much it total? Finally what hardware does it use and how do I hook it up?
Thanks, answers to some or all of these questions are apreciated.

[glc]

Wi-Fi is used to connect wirelessly within a couple hundred feet to a wireless access point, which must be connected to some kind of ISP. He will need a modem and an ISP (either cable or DSL, doesn't matter) - and a wireless router. A wireless router runs about 50 bucks, and he will need a wireless adapter for the Mac if it doesn't already have one.

He can use OOL with a Mac, it's just straight DHCP. Plug their modem into the Mac's Ethernet jack and go surfing (once the account is set up, this may be a lot easier to do with a PC).