Internet Access Away From Home
Without Your Own Computer -- Boston is a wired city that, paradoxically, doesn't have many cybercafes. Your best bet if you're away from your hotel and just want to check e-mail is probably FedEx Kinko's, which offers computer stations with fully loaded software as well as wireless access. Aside from formal cybercafes, most youth hostels and public libraries (including Boston's) offer Internet access. One business that offers access by the hour is Tech Superpowers, 252 Newbury St., 3rd floor (tel. 617/267-9716; www.newburyopen.net).
Most major airports, including Boston's Logan, have Internet kiosks that provide basic Web access for a per-minute fee that's usually higher than cybercafe prices.
With Your Own Computer -- More and more hotels, resorts, airports, cafes, and retailers are going Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), becoming "hotspots" that offer free high-speed Wi-Fi access or charge a fee for usage. Wi-Fi is even available in some Boston parks and in some Avis rental cars. To find public Wi-Fi hotspots at your destination, go to www.jiwire.com; its Hotspot Finder holds the world's largest directory of public wireless hotspots. Other resources are the Boston Wireless Advocacy Group's directory (www.bostonwag.org/projects/hotspots.php) and Hotspotr (http://hotspotr.com/wifi), a Google Maps mash-up that indexes user-generated listings.
For dial-up access, most business-class hotels in the U.S. offer dataports for laptop modems, and a few thousand hotels in the U.S. and Europe offer free high-speed Internet access.
Wherever you go, bring a connection kit of the right power and phone adapters, a spare phone cord, and a spare Ethernet network cable -- or find out whether your hotel supplies them to guests.
