[iBook] really (dumb?) question about Airport

[Michelle]

Hi again everyone,

Please know that I am not a *total* idiot... it's just that all this 
wireless stuff is totally new and foreign to me. My current online 
configuration is that my iBook G4 has the lovely phone-line cord 
stuck in its port, then said cord snakes across the floor to my 
kitchen where the main home phone line is (we have a VERY old 
farmhouse with limited phone jacks) and it plugs into the wall there.

This is of course inconvenient and probably by all current technology, archaic!

So I need this help. I understand that my iBook came "with" some 
"Airport" stuff loaded on it. I think that means it just needs the 
"Airport" "station" to plug into the wall, then my iBook can talk to 
that, which will then connect me to the internet? Is this even close 
to being right?

I should mention that we have dial-up internet service (again, 
because we live in the boonies on a farm) - with VERY slow dial up 
service. Can I even use "Airport?"

I am just wanting to be able to actually USE my laptop as a portable 
computer - and yet still be online. To be able to sit on the couch 
(in another room, imagine that!) and still be online... without 
dragging this hideous phone cord along with me.

Please advise - I see ads and articles all the time now for "Airport 
base station" and " Airport Express" - but to be honest, I don't 
really know what the heck those things are, what the differences are 
... and which, if either, will work for me.

Thanks so much - please be easy on me!
Michelle & Herd