Tips on using your wireless connection outdoors

By Lisa Phifer

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You're lazing on the beach or hiking in the mountains when the urge to communicate hits you. Perhaps you’d like to take a peek at your in-box. Or maybe you want to chat with on-line friends or Google a good restaurant. Whatever the reason, you're itching to reach the Internet from the great outdoors. What are your options?

Find a Wi-Fi hotspot

For many, the easiest way to connect outdoors is a Wi-Fi hotspot. All laptops now include built-in 802.11 wireless, as do many handheld PDAs and smart phones like the iPhone. While Wi-Fi is more common inside, it can be used outdoors too. The trick is being close enough to a Wi-Fi access point that provides public Internet access -- known as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Most Wi-Fi hotspots are relatively small. A small hotel's poolside lounge may require you to sit within about 300 feet of a single access point. But Wi-Fi hotspots can also use multiple access points to cover larger areas including city parks, college campuses, even entire neighborhoods. The latter is referred to as metropolitan area Wi-Fi.

To use a Wi-Fi hotspot, locate a nearby coverage area. You could just fire up your Wi-Fi connection and let it search for available wireless networks. Many hotspots use easily-recognized names -- for example, tmobile and Wayport_Access. But hackers can create fake hotspots with these or other enticing names like FreePublicWiFi, and frequently do so in public areas.

It's much safer to search a reputable hotspot directory such as Jiwire or to use a hotspot connection manager such as Boingo. If you're not sure a network is really a public hotspot, don't use it. Or at least don't send anything a stranger shouldn't have, like your credit card number or password. Fortunately, many resorts now offer free Wi-Fi to guests, requiring no password or a temporary password supplied at check-in. Hotspot connection managers also make payment easier by billing monthly instead of each time you connect.

Tap your cell phone

Although Wi-Fi hotspots have grown ubiquitous in populous areas, your travels may take you elsewhere. To get connected in remote locations or stay connected on-the-go, use a wide area wireless connection. Fortunately, you probably already carry this kind of wireless in your pocket or purse: a cellular telephone.

You might not think of your cell phone as providing Internet access, but most do. Smart phones are designed to provide outdoor, on-the-move wireless Internet. If you carry an iPhone or Blackberry, that handheld has an embedded Web browser and e-mail client that automatically connects to the Internet as needed – so long as you’re within your carrier’s “wireless broadband” coverage area. But you’ll also pay for this privilege – in the area of $40 per month.

If this is too rich for your needs, you can still use an ordinary cell phone to access the Internet in two ways:

• You can use your phone's micro-browser to access selected Web sites or a mailbox provided by your carrier. Micro-browsers reformat ordinary Web pages to fit your phone’s small screen, but some sites cannot be used this way. However, many companies create mobile sites to facilitate cell phone access -- for example, Mobile Google.
• When the task at hand requires a laptop, your cell phone can be used as a wireless modem. This takes a bit of set-up -- you'll need to download software from your carrier and/or phone manufacturer and pay a monthly fee plus airtime. But this can be very helpful for occasional laptop Internet access from cars, trains, and rural areas where Wi-Fi is rare but cellular coverage is solid.

The sky is the limit

You may be pleasantly surprised by cellular coverage in remote locations. But many places still either lack coverage altogether or deliver service too weak or slow for Internet access. If you find yourself in this situation frequently, consider satellite Internet.

Satellite Internet is often used by stationary devices as an alternative to wired broadband. Picture a satellite dish on your home in the mountains where DSL and cable aren’t available. But satellite Internet can also be delivered through portable devices called satellite modems: paperback-sized boxes that connect to your laptop via USB or Ethernet. Unlike dishes, satellite modems are designed to be packed in your suitcase or briefcase and powered up only when access is required.

So why doesn't everyone carry a satellite modem? For starters, they're more expensive than cell phones. Mobile satellite Internet providers such as BGAN also charge more for airtime; several dollars per megabyte is common. And satellite Internet is slower than Wi-Fi -- sometimes even slower than high-speed cellular. However, if you'll be at sea for weeks or work in disaster areas, a satellite modem could be well worth the investment.

The bottom line

There are many ways to reach the Internet from the great outdoors. Wi-Fi hotspots are a good choice for as-needed use in populated venues like resorts and city parks. If being tethered to a hotspot grows tedious, spring for on-the-go cellular Internet -- but you may still use Wi-Fi indoors. And if your travels regularly take you to places where neither Wi-Fi nor cellular reach, splurge on satellite Internet.