Wi-Fi, Where Art Thou?

On my daughter's last day of gymnastics class, I got carpool duty by default. The girl whose mom was supposed to drive was sick, and no one else could make the trip. But, remembering there's a Panera Bread restaurant down the street from the gymnastics place, I knew I could get some more work done while waiting for the girls' class to end. The Panera chain offers free Wi-Fi access.

It would be nice if suburban New Jersey could be wired like San Francisco will be, but I'll settle for a few coffee shops, libraries, restaurants and bookstores here and there to stay connected while on the road. Unlike Panera, most businesses charge a fee for Wi-Fi access. Starbucks offers T-Mobile service for fees ranging from $6 per 60-minute log-in to $9.99 per day to $39.99 unlimited per month.

Looking for a nearby hotspot? Check out jwire.com and this Wi-Fi finder.  

Public hotspots are great for convenience, but don't forget that your connection is not as secure as your secure wireless network at home.

As the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg told a reader, you are sharing a network with strangers at a public hotspot. "So you can't entirely guarantee your security and privacy from prying or malicious people in the vicinity," he warns. His advice: Make sure a firewall is running on your PC, turn off all file-sharing features on your laptop and don't do any financial transactions online.

Here are some more tips from Microsoft for turning on a firewall and working securely from hotspots.

Where are your favorite public hotspots to stay connected on the road? Do you worry about security or figure the convenience outweighs any privacy threats?