Let's face it, we don't all have mega expense accounts to which we can charge Wi-Fi access, especially with it costing as much as $20 a day in hotels and airports, among other places. That doesn't leave a lot of options for road warriors on a budget. But what about free Wi-Fi? Here are some pointers to lead the way to wireless bliss.First, if you think you can fire up your laptop and stumble on a free hotspot, the odds are against you. Even if you have a Wi-Fi sniffer, the chances of coming across a free access hotspot that isn't password protected are slim. While it's true that 2 years ago up to 10 unprotected hotspots would appear on my Wi-Fi dashboard when I was sitting in my office in Manhattan, that number dwindled to zero by mid 2006.

The best way to go about it is to do your homework ahead of time. If you know you're going to be traveling to a particular city or place, you can generally find out before you go if and where free Wi-Fi is available. Performing a Google search for "free wi-fi" turned up a number of results, among which were websites and services (WiFiFreeSpot, AnchorFree, Jiwire) designed to help you find free hotspots in hotels, motels, airports, etc.

(If you were totally hip, you'd already know about war driving and war chalking. I won't spill the unwritten code here, and besides, those symbols don't work well in Word.)

One option is to only stay at hotels that provide Wi-Fi connectivity free of charge, even if it is only in the lobby. This site goes so far as to rank hotel hotspots. If you are staying in a downtown area of a city that is rife with hotels, its likely you can grab some connectivity from one of the chains listed in this article.

Also, for the next three months, T-Mobile and Microsoft have launched a joint promotion offering free Wi-Fi to Vista-equipped laptops until April 30th. With the number of T-Mobile hotspots numbering over 8000, you should be able to find access for your nifty new Vista laptop.