Hotspots Get You Going

Hard to believe? This scenario is not very far off. Hotspots will soon enable you to do all these things in public places.

The waiting is over, literally! If you are a highly paid employee on the
move, it becomes all the more important for you not to waste your valuable time
waiting for something or someone. Fast, easy wireless access to the Internet is
the promise of Hotspots for anyone with a properly equipped laptop.

There are over 15,000 public Hotspots in the US and the number is increasing
daily. The trend is also catching up all over the world. Once the Hotspots are
in place, all you have to do is ensure that your laptop is equipped to handle
wireless Internet.

What
are Hotspots?

Hotspots are nothing but places where Internet connectivity is available on
a wireless LAN. It´s like a cyber café with no wires and no computers! You
carry your own laptop to log on to the Internet. The signal is in the air–if
your machine can sniff it, it can catch it!

Wireless LAN allows anyone with the proper equipment to log on to the
Internet as long as you are within the physical area over which the signals from
the wireless access point can be received.

In the USA, companies like T-Mobile and Boingo provide such wireless
Hotspots. In India, the trend is fast picking up and progressive hotel chains
like the Taj are providing such Hotspots to their guests.

Connecting is easy

If you are at a place that provides Hotspots, you can connect to the
Internet from anywhere in the premises, if your laptop is equipped with a
wireless card and an operating system like Windows XP. Windows 98 or other
operating systems can also do the job when provided with suitable software
drivers.

The wireless card plugs either in to the laptop’s PCMCIA slot or in to a
USB port. Adding the wireless card is easy if your laptop has the Windows XP
operating system. Windows XP automatically detects when you insert the wireless
network adapter card and, in most cases, will automatically install the
appropriate software drivers for that particular make of the card.

After installing the hardware and software, the next task is to connect to
the Hotspot. With Windows XP, that requires little more than starting the
computer.

Just like a mobile phone with roaming facility seeks the service provider´s
signals and latches on to them wherever they are detected, your laptop too can
identify Hotspots.

When it detects a signal, the software automatically asks you via an
on-screen message if you want to connect to that Hotspot provider´s network. It
records the WLAN’s unique service set identifier (SSID) and then it can
communicate with the network.

For some laptops, you must enter the SSID manually. It can be obtained from
an employee in that Hotspot. Coffee shop chains like Starbucks in the USA now
have such Hotspots in all their locations and have the same SSID for all the
locations.

Boingo provides downloadable software that help older laptops to operate like
Windows XP laptops, searching for a signal and telling you when a Hotspot is
detected.

Pay and play

Unlike the mobile phone, you must log on to the Hotspot service to get
online. And if you are not a regular subscriber of the service provider, you
must pay for the usage, like you do in a cyber café.

A word of caution is necessary here. WLANs are not very secure. An expert
hacker logged on to the same Hotspot can track what you are doing and capture
your keystrokes. The Simplest solution to this risk is to avoid sending and
receiving sensitive information via a Hotspot.

You can also get a personal firewall for your laptop, if you are a frequent
traveler and use Hotspots regularly to carry out your business while on the
move. If your company has a VPN, it becomes all the more necessary because you
may need to access the company VPN from public Hotspots at airports or hotels.

Give me a Wi-Fi

The Hotspots work on the 802.11b standard, an international standard from
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for wireless local
area networks (WLANs) that operates at speeds up to 11 mbps and has a range of
100-1000 feet. This is popularly known as "Wi-Fi". Laptop computers
from major PC manufacturers now come with built-in Wi-Fi.

Public Hotspots are Wi-Fi public networks using unlicensed frequencies. The
main equipment you need to put the wireless signal into a Hotspot area are
wireless access points (AP or Wi-Fi wireless hub.) A Wi-Fi AP has a maximum
typical range of 500 to 1000 feet, which is good enough for a coffee shop.

For larger areas like a hotel, you need many such access points spread over
the entire area in overlapping circles. A typical hotel may have 250 to 500 such
access points, converting the entire hotel premises into a huge Hotspot!

Users who want to convert their homes into private Hotspots can buy cheap
Wi-Fi hardware to extend their DSL or cable broadband Internet access to the
entire house without wires.

Users of Hotspots may initially have to go through some trouble spots like
settings of "SSID" and "WEP." So you must do your homework
properly before getting into a Hotspot. If you are in a Hotspot where the
operator provides little or no technical support, you are on your own! And in
such a case it is better to be armed with adequate knowledge, than go tinkering
about, wasting the very time you want to utilize.

Ashok Dongre is a technical consultant