WIRELESS NETWORKS
Finding Wi-Fi hot spots
Lisa Phifer
08.30.2004
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Before I leave home on a trip, I gather all the info I might need
while traveling: my flight numbers, my hotel address, the location of
the nearest Starbucks and a list of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots.
Finding hotspots in advance saves me time and frustration later by
predicting whether I'll have high-speed Internet access at the
airports, hotels and cafes that I expect to visit. Reviewing provider
lists and pricing helps me to figure out the most economical way to
obtain Internet access when I'll have several options. When my best
option is a café, carrying that establishment's phone number and
hours with me can be handy.
This information can often be obtained from provider-supplied
"Connection Managers" used to access commercial Wi-Fi hotspots. If you
have an all-access account with one carrier, Connection Managers are a
great way to locate hotspots where you'll find "free" (that is,
previously paid-for) Internet access. Here are some common provider
hotspot lists:
Some travelers may want to consider further options like other
commercial providers, free hotspots offered by retail establishments
and open-access community WLANs. You can find those hotspots by using
general-purpose Wi-Fi search engines like:
Wi-Fi hotspots are a great way to obtain convenient high-speed Internet
access on the road. Just exercise caution when providing your credit
card number to a provider that's unfamiliar, and always use security
measures (VPN clients, SSL encrypted sessions, personal firewalls,
secure connection managers) when sending sensitive data in public
hotspots.
About the author: Lisa Phifer is vice president of Core
Competence, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in network security
and management technology. Phifer has been involved in the design,
implementation, and evaluation of data communications, internetworking,
security, and network management products for nearly 20 years. She
teaches about wireless LANs and virtual private networking at industry
conferences and has written extensively about network infrastructure
and security technologies for numerous publications. She is also a site
expert to SearchMobileComputing.com and SearchNetworking.com.
Do you have comments about this article, or suggestions for Lisa to
write about in future columns? Let
us know!
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