The Trouble with Wireless Travel

Once you get out of the city, finding wireless access is not quite as easy as you would imagine. I pretty much live this fact every day, as I live in a relatively rural area. I’ve yet to encounter another access point within range of my home, and in doing some pseudo-wardriving, I hardly turn up a thing until I get up toward the more densely-populated areas of the suburbs.

If you’re going to be taking a road trip with your Linux box/laptop any time soon, check out “Wireless on the Road” by Akkana Peck. It’s got some great tips on finding access, as well as several of the gotchas you’re likely to run into. For example, a hotel proclaiming “High-speed Internet” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be able to surf from the (relative) comfort and security of your room.

The only thing I’d add to the article is, as a last resort, to inquire at the desk about local ISPs. Small places such as the one I work for are happy to provide temporary access for short periods for a nominal fee. We did this frequently for visitors to a local hotel before they just bought ten accounts outright for customer use. Small ISPs like mine and some of our neighbors (I don’t call them competitors because we’re in different calling areas) also often have local access numbers that won’t incur charges; if you want to dial AOL or Earthlink from our town, for example, you’re going to wind up with toll charges. That adds up to your hotel bill quick.