Where to Wi-Fi?19 June 2006
It seems as if all of a sudden Wi-Fi hotspots are cropping up everywhere, with window stickers and leaflets appearing in a plethora of public places encouraging us to whip out a laptop and connect to the internet. From plush hotels to roadside cafs, the entire nation is catching onto the wireless phenomenon.
What?
So what exactly is Wi-Fi? The term is short for wireless fidelity, which refers to the 802.11 standard of networking it uses to operate wireless local area networks. Anyone with a Wi-Fi-enabled device may connect to the internet via various access points - or hotspots. Given the fact that laptops, personal digital assistants and mobile phones can all be equipped to connect, that means that a lot of people in the UK are making use of this wire-free way to get online through services such as BT's Openzone.
The technology can be useful in a static environment as it is an easy-to-install and relatively cheap way to allow several computers to communicate without the hassle and mess that laying wires can cause. But the boom in popularity of Wi-Fi as a way to use the internet on the move, means that hotspots and their location are increasingly important.
Where?
According to a survey from IT website Silicon, the place that most people in the UK can see themselves taking advantage of Wi-Fi and accessing the internet is the pub! Regardless of your opinions on how much work could be achieved in the good old British boozer, the poll found that 35 per cent of respondents would be where they would work best.
You may not have noticed, but a number of fast food restaurants now offer Wi-Fi - allowing their customers to work while lingering over their burger and fries. Nobody polled by Silicon thought that they would work well in that kind of environment, however.
Hotspot locations like these may seem extreme, but there are a number of places where the internet can be accessed wirelessly that are very useful. Travellers can wile away the hours created by a delayed train or flight doing some work on the laptop - or shopping/gambling/emailing online for the less conscientious among us. Stopping off for lunch or to kill some time before an appointment in any one of a number of cafes and restaurants now offering Wi-Fi also means that there are fewer wasted hours in the day and citywide Wi-Fi is now becoming a reality, with access points on lampposts and street signs offering blanket coverage.
But, if you are finding it hard to identify where exactly will offer you wireless internet access, there is now a gadget available that will help you to track one down. Wi-Fi detectors are pocket sized devices that can scan the vicinity and locate a hotspot - so you needn't hunt for window stickers again.
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