Wireless technology is constantly evolving and the number of “hot spot” operators is growing almost daily, increasing the availability of wireless Internet in many areas around the world. Hot spots signify a change in where and how you compute. Whether at work, at home, at an airport or a mall, mobile technology ushers in an era of being unwired, an era of freedom and flexibility.
“But do you know enough about hot spots not to be in hot waters over it?” asks Samir Al-Schamma, Intel’s general manager for the Gulf. “In the simplest terms, a hot spot is a modern communications facility that eliminates the need for cables, telephone lines and dial-up modems,” he explained during his visit to Jeddah last week.
The popular term for a public access network location, a hot sot allows you to make an instant Internet connection, using any computer or personal digital assistant that is based on mobile technology. “This means that you can walk up to a hot spot, check your e-mail or surf the Internet without plugging in anything, without linking any cables and without spending any time waiting for the right connection,” he says.
Where do you begin? You must first invest in a laptop computer powered by the mobile technology, which allows you to connect wirelessly to the Internet at Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) certified access points or hot spots. You can choose from any brand of laptops available in the market.
Wi-Fi hot spots are increasingly being installed in high traffic public locations like airports, coffee shops, shopping malls and hotel lobbies. You can recognize one easily by the universal Wi-Fi “hot spot zone logo,” no matter where in the world you are, and what is more, the Wi-Fi card in your computer or PDA will automatically find one of these hot spots and report its strength with an icon on your computer screen. —K.S.R.
