Sprint recently announced they will, be implementing WiMax technology. WiMax is longer range wireless data tecnology in comparison to WiFi technology found in airports, some cities, colleges, coffee shops and many homes. They are planning on spending billions of dollars and indicate this new service will be designed to accommodate heavy data-usage activities like video streaming without clogging up the cellular network people rely on for phone calls.

As usual Intel is making a big deal about one of their newer CPU chips. If the truth were told most people don't not care, just as they don't care who manufactured the engine in their autombile.

One of their claims for this chip the Internet from anywhere already upon us.

“Centrino” is Intel speak meaning your notebook includes: a Pentium-M, is of the 855 chipset family, and it has a Wi-Fi chipset.

This means you can connect to the Internet without wires. However, this must be from a hot spot. These are not universal and are found today in airports, coffee shops, people have set them up in their homes, universities, etc. It will be years before it is universal.

Centrino also means slimmer, lighter notebooks with longer battery life, which is truly the biggest improvement we will see from this chip.

It delivers better performance at a lower CPU speed and draws less power. Less taxing on power consumption and hence you will get improved charge time from the same battery technology.

Don't despair hotspots are starting to catch on. Here in Mountain View, CA Google has is building a city-wide wifi hot spot for the city. Recently, a group in Silicon Valley has let out a bid for wifi for the entire valley. The say it will be here in a few years. So, eventually this built-in wifi chipset in Centrino will be of benefit to all who happen to live in one of these major metropolitan areas that has wifi.

I suggest you buy one that will provide the best possible signal and the most reasonable cost. Manufacturers that make quality products are Netgear, D-Link and Belkin.

I read an article in the June 2006 Computer Shopper that recommended the Netgear WPNT934 RangeMax 240. The list price is around $200 and they seem to be selling on-line for closer to $100. We have been buying Netgear PCMCIA wi-fi cards for several years and have had good success with them. According to the article it was about the fastest routers available, especially at short range.

I search to find a reputable supplier with reasonable prices. You can find a link on our Affiliates Accessories Page if you want to buy one.

When in a public hot spot you never know who might be lurking and trying to steal your data or the private information on you laptops.

You might consider buying the $40 SpotLock from jiwire. It provides Wi-Fi Security, secure e-mail delivery, a world-wide Hot Spot Finder, a Personal Firewall and a wireless connection manager. You need Windows XP or 2K and a compatible wifi card.

Certainly a good investment to protect your valuable data.

Older laptops are perfectly cabable of supporting local area wireless capability. Pentium 2 and later laptops include PCMCIA card slots. These are slots that are slightly larger than a credit card and standard on laptops. Manufacturers make wireless cards that will slide into these slots and provide software on CD and/or downloadable that will allow you to connect to local area wireless networks. If you want to do this in your home and you have DSL or a cable modem you will need a wireless router to transmit the signal to these wireless cards in the laptop.

Some cautions: You should make sure that you have the latest version of software and make sure your firewall is turned on and configured correctly. Snoopers or worse yet criminal might get access to your files. If you are using your laptop in a public wifi site make sure it is a legitimate location, as they most like have their own security in place. When using your e-mail instead of sending and receiving it from a program use an web based provider like GMail or Yahoo Mail to send and receive messges, as they have security that protects data transmissions.