I'll be on the road and my cable modem does not offer me a dial-up number. They did for awhile and then kaput! no more.

So I'm checking into Wi-Fi. T-Mobile lets you log on at Borders, Kinkos, and Starbucks, but ouch! $40/month. Or you can have a one-day 60minute minimum pass for $9/day.

I could look for free wi-fi hot spots but I'd rather not be spending my time in parking lots trying to check my email. Anybody know any good deals out there? I'll be on the road for two weeks.

I remember reading some online articles recently about wi-fi hotspots, free wi-fi, etc. It could have been at komando.com, or maybe that OTHER company with travel books, magazine, and website: "Fr------.com" I did a google using "wi-fi hotspots" as the search and got quite a few hits, but didn't look at them.

I can't vouch for this ... I came across it when someone asked me about dialup on the road, and I'd NEVER put AOL on a pc ... so I found vtisp.com which is $29.40 a year, paid in advance, with 30 hours per month allowed, and alledgedly a lot of dial-up numbers/locations. And works with simple pc dialup connections, no proprietory software. It looks like a decent deal if you can live with dialup.

I usually look for Kinko's when I'm traveling and seldom bring a pc with me.

Do you have a cell phone? You might be able to use it to put your laptop on the net - or you might be able to get a new phone that can.

For example, I have a Nokia 3589i with Verizon's "America's Choice" plan. This gives you something called "National Access" free - meaning, you can put your laptop on their high-speed digital network and use up only voice minutes. I don't like to eat up minutes during the day, but I have unlimited evening/weekend minutes, so I tend to use it then. It's not all that fast - maybe about as fast as a dial-up modem (despite advertisements that it can do up to 128Kbps), but good enough to check your email or surf a little when you can't get high speed WiFi or something.

Whether you can get such service with your cell phone depends on the phone, the service provider, and your calling plan.

I do also use T-Mobile at Starbucks. I got the year subscription, because I was travelling a lot and using it. Note that you can sometimes ask for a free day pass at Borders - might do in a pinch.

Andrew

MaGlobe offers dial up prepaid internet service and has local access in every community I have visited, even tiny communities.

Sign up for MaGlobe Traveler for $14.99 and you get about 25 hours of access. You can also use it for local access in other countries at a higher charge.

Keith

If your T-Mobile phone is bluetooth capable you just need a bluetooth adapter for your PC/laptop and you can surf the net wirelessly for free using the WAP gateway on the phone. It's very slow but if you just need to check email and get news...