My new Toshiba laptop… the one with the crappy speakers… supposedly has built in Wi Fi capability. Of course it doesn’t work anywhere because to use those “free” hot spots at Starbucks, the airport or McDonalds you have to subscribe to some Wi/Fi service. Has anyone done this? Is there one service that covers most of the hotspots? What does it cost? I do travel a lot on business and would like to be able to get my email during the day…
To be honest, you probably won’t be able to take full advantage of the WiFi facility in your computer for another few years unless you have a WiFi terminal in your home or office.
The WiFi dream will be that you can access the Net from any of these locations (Starbucks/Mcdonald’s/Airports/Hotels etc) either for free or very close to that. However, WiFi penetration is still fairly low and it needs some consolidation before it will become really practical for the average consumer to benefit.
If you want to subscribe now, you will have to do it with each individual outlet/retailer and it will cost you a small fortune (although these costs are coming down) - I think that Starbucks is about $50 per month. Some hotels offer WiFi access for free but this is still pretty rare.
As far as the quality of the service is concerned once you do subscribe, I expect it is very good. I believe that there are now three different WiFi standards, 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. I believe that they correspond to an increased wireless bandwidth but I am sure that somebody here will correct me shortly. I have WiFi in my office and I believe that the limitation in terms of bit rate transfer is actually in our T1 connection to the net and not the WiFi device.
My estimate is that it will be two or three years before you can use the WiFi facility effectively in several major public places at a reasonable price.
You’re asking how to tap into Starbuck’s/McDonald’s WiFi network without their permission. Sorry, but that’s stealing. We do not provide assistance in violating the law on this board.
This is closed.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
Oops. My bad. It seems that I read the OP too fast and jumped to the wrong conclusion.
I apologize and this is re-opened for discussion.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
I’ve got the same Toshiba.
I’ve used a few, including from Verizon, T-Mobile, Wise and whoever’s the vendor in the Baltimore airport. Because I haven’t found a single one that covers most of my places, I haven’t gone with a monthly plan, choosing the more expenive (per use) pay-as-you-go plans. So far, none of them has ripped me off for more usage than I bought, and reliability has been high.
Your best bet is probably to spend a couple weeks just noticing where they are and who the vendors are for each place – it may turn out that one vendor has enough hotspots in places you go to justify a monthly account. You can find a list of Intel-certified hotspots (whatever that means) in your area here.
Better still is if someone else pays for it, of course. 
A lot of Courtyard by Marriott hotels offer free wired or wifi with a guest room – they seem to be the leader so far in that, though others won’t be far behind as their contracts with prior (probably defunct) vendors expire.
And in your area, it appears that if your travels take you by Bossa Nova Grill or The Coffee Depot, those guys will give you access for the price of a cuppa joe. I was surprised not to find more free hotspots in your area; here, a lot of the city parks are wi-fi. Perhaps you can find better resources locally.
Quick note: Wi-Fi, and in particular free wi-fi, are security risks. You’ll want to be well firewalled if you’re going to use the product a lot.
Oops. Forgot to mention. The going rate for pay wi-fi seems to be about $.10/minute with a 4 or 6 dollar minimum for pay-as-you-go. If you’re gonna use a single providor a lot, count on about $30/month. Many providers offer “day passes,” so if you’re gonna be stuck in an airport for several hours you can pay $10-15 and use it for 24 hours.
My partner MrDude uses the hotspots in San Francisco. He likes them quite a bit. I do not believe that there is an integrated system linking all of the public areas where you can pay to use wifi.
You can sometimes Google for Wifi hotspots and get an area map as to where there are free wifi hotspots hosted by non-chain cafes.
Best of luck to ya.