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Have you seen the signs?

Perhaps when you were driving by a bookshop, airport, coffee house or a motel, you noticed a sign that said, "We Have Wi-Fi Access."

One of the more popular (and convenient) new ways to access the Internet or a wireless local area network (WLAN) is by using a wireless technology that is called Wi-Fi or "Wireless Fidelity."

In 1997, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created the first WLAN standard. They called it 802.11.

This is the standard protocol folks are using to send those bits and bytes (1's and 0's) over the airwaves when they are using Wi-Fi.

This is also called "wireless networking."

The Wi-Fi "hotspots" have a range of around 100-300 feet. This means that when you take your laptop computer within range of the Wi-Fi transmitter, you will be able to access this wireless network, start up your web browser, and hop onto the Internet to check your e-mail or read this column.

Since I bought my new laptop computer, I have accessed some, of these Wi-Fi areas. I noticed that some like Dunn Bros Coffee shops, have "unsecured" Wi-Fi access, meaning that you do not need a password to log on and use the service. I did note that at the Brainerd Caribou Coffee shop, they have a Wi-Fi contract with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and that, for a small fee, you can access their "secured" Wi-Fi network.

Most though, are free, as the owners of these places of business hope that the offer of free Internet access will encourage you to visit their place of business and spend some of your money there.

I know it works for me, but I need access to the Internet to send in my column every week. This week, I am e-mailing my column from the Ramada Inn in Brainerd. The motel here has free Wi-Fi for the rooms, so using my laptop computer, I was able to connect to the motel's wireless network.

When I did that, I started my web browser and, before you knew it, I was online on the Internet. I went to AOL and accessed my e-mails and then after I complete this column, I will e-mail it in to the newspaper. Pretty neat, huh?

Under my computer's "Network Connections," I show that I am currently connected to a wireless network and the speed of the data is around 10 Mbps, which is pretty fast.

I added a Wi-Fi amplifier box called an iBridge, which is made by Telkonet. This gives me a maximum broadband signal. I did not need this, as I was able to access the Wi-Fi network, but the motel had the iBridge available so I took it with me and with an

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