Connecting on the road?

[Pony Express]

Hello everyone, I,m going back out after 8 yrs of local work and would like to know the how, when and where's of connecting to the internet.
I will be purchasing a laptop soon but how do I connect? I know about wifi, but is there a list of truckstops that have this? Is it free?
I also heard someone mention a sky card, what is that and is it expensive?
I appreciate any help on this.

[Jumbo]

I just bought my first laptop and wireless card. It is basically about half the size of a deck of cardsand plugs into one of your usb ports. Mine was from Sprint and it works great. $60 amonth for unlimited use and I haven't found anywhere it won't work. I also bought a wireless mouse, because I got tired of tapping on the pad to click on stuff. I was told to stay away from the free wifi (not very secure and alot of viruses)

[Pony Express]

Great, thanks for the info. I appreciate it!

[Syncrosonix]

there's free wi-fi access at the space age truck stop in hermiston, oregon. i haven't had any viruses on my laptop by using their free service. however, there's a catch to it: they watch what you're looking at and don't allow the use of bandwidth hogging programs such as online games like world of warcraft, quake 3: arena, starcraft, etc... i would also suggest that you don't download pr0n while using their service.

other than that, i only use t/a and flying j's wifi when i'm in the middle of nowhere and cannot get high-speed access on my sprint card.

[Pony Express]

there's free wi-fi access at the space age truck stop in hermiston, oregon. i haven't had any viruses on my laptop by using their free service. however, there's a catch to it: they watch what you're looking at and don't allow the use of bandwidth hogging programs such as online games like world of warcraft, quake 3: arena, starcraft, etc... i would also suggest that you don't download pr0n while using their service.

other than that, i only use t/a and flying j's wifi when i'm in the middle of nowhere and cannot get high-speed access on my sprint card.

Ah thanks man, "pron" is not a problem, I don't have any use for it whatsoever. I would like it for the forums here and to play Trukz.
Something to kill the time when I have to lay over.

[Uturn2001]

A few truck stops here and there have free wi-fi. Some rest areas also offer it. You can also find free wi-fi at some places like McDonalds.

Most truck stops that offer it though charge. Some you can purchase as little as an hour or as much as a year. Most, if not all, of the major truck stop chains have wi-fi service (Flying J, TA, etc). If you purchase time at one of these locations you can use that time at any of the same chain as long as your "subscription" has not expired.

For connection at almost any place however the way to go would be getting service through a cell phone company. You will need to purchase an air card to plug into your computer in order to access the service, but for the most part you will be able to connect most any place you have phone service.

[Pony Express]

I already have Sprint PCS for my cell, so I guess call them or go to their store for the air card?

[pd]

Either of those options should work Pony.

[trux]

I use a Sprint air card and have discovered that it will stay connected all day in the eastern half of the country. So I can listen to internet radio while I fly down the highway. I can also listen to bball games on my mlb.com subscription.