Most new laptops sold today have a built-in wireless adapter card that can send/receive radio signals in the 2.4GHz band. This is the band that folks use to create a wireless local area network, called a WLAN, which can connect computers together via radio in their home and enable them to share high-speed access to the Internet. If your laptop doesn't have a wireless card you can always add one to plug into your Cardbus PC Card Type II slot or get one that plugs into your USB port.

Not knowing much about wireless networks I sent a message to NBCUG members asking what I needed for my Windows XP laptop to connect to the Internet like my daughter's laptop. I got lots of answers. Someone commented that my daughter might be poaching on a nearby private network.

After seeing my message my good friend Charlie Gould dropped by and handed me a card and told me to plug it in my laptop and see what happened. The card was a NetGear 54Mbps Wireless PC Card about the size of a credit card that plugged in the side of my laptop. I quickly installed the software, clicked on the NetGear icon and, lo and behold, I was able to connect to the Internet. Who was I connected to? Was I really intruding on somebody's wireless network?

The next day I put my laptop on the front seat of my car and drove around River Bend scanning to see if there were other hotspots or wireless networks around town. The surprise was that they existed all over town, some with strong radio signals and others quite weak. The other surprise was that most of the networks showed up as encrypted with WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). Attempting to piggyback on them required an ID/Password sign-on. Who did the networks belong to? With a few exceptions that displayed the owner’s name, most displayed a default name such as Linksys, the name of the wireless equipment company.

So what did I learn about hotspots and do I really need a wireless card in my PC ($40 - Staples)? Despite the fact that some residents have not secured their wireless network, it's not proper to be piggybacking on them even though the owner will likely never know someone is using his Internet access unless you start doing some heavy downloading. But there's something else you can use a wireless card for. If you travel a lot with a laptop, many motels have a wireless network that can be used to connect to the Internet. Using Webmail you can then send/receive e-mail. Also I discovered numerous free public hotspots in practically every town. See http://www.newberntg.com/wifi.htm for hotspots in New Bern. For nationwide, see http://www.jiwire.com. What's the range of a hotspot? It's generally under 300' unless the network router is in a tall building.

By the way, if you take your car to Coastal Carolina or Riverside Chrysler Dodge for repair take along your laptop with a wireless card and you can connect to their wireless network for free and access the Internet. That's what they say it's for while you wait for your car.

I sent an e-mail message to everyone in the vicinity of my home on Portside Lane to inform them that someone needed to secure their wireless network but received no reply, so I still don't know whose wireless network my daughter and I accessed to get on the Internet. Hopefully somebody will see this article and secure their network.