[Skypat]

Hello. I will be soon coming to San Francisco and Las Vegas with my PowerBook 12 (airport equiped). Are there places where I can check my e-mails for free ? Apple Stores ?

Of course I saw McDonald's and Starbuks, but it seems to be a little expensive just to check emails during 5-10 minutes.

Second part of the question:
1- Do you have experience with hotspots ? What's your favorite place ? How much do you pay ?
2- How does it work concretely ? Does the PB detect the network automatically ? And then ?
3- How do you feel using your PowerBook in a public place ? Are people staring at you ? ;-)
4- What about security ?

Thank you

[brother337]

I'm sure people actually living in SF and LV will be able to better give you some locations, but try the WiFi hotspot finders listed on this page:

http://www.apple.com/airport/hotspots.html

From what I've experienced, if you go to a place with free wireless, just as long as your airport is on and set to DHCP, it should pick up a signal and get you right onto the internet. If it's not a free hotspot, you'll probably get some sort of dialogue box asking you if you want to set up an account. Other places might give you a message once you open a web browser where you can purchase internet time.

As far as security goes, I think it's a good idea to have the firewall activated on your powerbook. You can do this by going into the "Sharing" preferences pane. I've been to hotspots before and looked at my network and it was surprising how many other people's hard drives I was able to see.

[Skypat]

Originally posted by brother337:
I've been to hotspots before and looked at my network and it was surprising how many other people's hard drives I was able to see.

Oh wow. Thank you for sharing your experience

[ginoledesma]

You might want to check out WiFinder, a website showing the known hotspots in a given city/country. Its not exhaustive, but its a start.

[SFZoll]

I downloaded a program called Macstumbler that just scans for wireless networks and tells you all the relevent details about those networks. Then you can try to join. Works quite well. Do some google on it and you'll find it.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by SFZoll:
I downloaded a program called Macstumbler that just scans for wireless networks and tells you all the relevent details about those networks. Then you can try to join. Works quite well. Do some google on it and you'll find it.

Also illegal to join networks that are not meant to be public.

[ccsccs7]

I've used T-Mobile HotSpots in SF. You can check the prices. Just go into a Starbucks (or any other location) displaying the T-Mobile HotSpot logo. Just open your Powerbook and check the Airport menu (or control strip module if using Mac OS 9). The network should be listed. Open your browser and put in a page. You will be taken to the login page where you can login if you already have an accout or set up one.

Please be advised: Once you set up an account, you can only change it by calling T-Mobile. I made the mistake of relying on outdated account info (I'd signed up long ago) and didn't realize which plan I was on.