(+) Traveling with Wireless Internet Access

With today's technology, you do not have to give up your e-mail and various web sites when traveling. You can easily access your favorite genealogy sites as well as your preferred online bank account, stockbroker, news sites, sports scores, airline sites, and even the weather reports from many locations. Do you want to change your reservation for tomorrow's return flight home? Pull out your laptop and check all the possible alternatives from wherever you are. You can also communicate easily via e-mail with family and friends. You can make free long distance voice calls to friends and family back home if you have Skype installed. You can do all this from your laptop Windows or Macintosh computer or even from a handheld computer.

I recently spent seven weeks traveling during a ten-week period. I never missed a beat: I was online every day from hotels, cruise ships, coffee shops, and numerous airport waiting areas. Today's wireless networking technology makes such access easy, although not always cheap. I thought I would write about my experiences. I will also describe the methods I use to save money although my methods may not work for everyone.

The laptop-toting genealogist first needs to understand that there are two very different types of wireless Internet access. I'll start with a description of each.

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