The Wi-Fi reception in my laptop simply isn't good enough to bring in many hotspot signals unless I move very close to the access point. What can I do?

Many notebooks have rather wimpy Wi-Fi reception, although some newer models with wrap-around antennas pull in very strong signals. If yours is in the first category, the best advice is to add a long-range Wi-FI card.

A card with a high-power or directional antenna can make the connection to the router stronger and faster. Two good ones are the Hawking Hi-Gain Wireless-G Laptop Card and the Netgear RangeMax Wireless PC Card WPN511.

The Hawking card is a plain 802.11g solution, while the Netgear RangeMax card is a "super-G" version that can operate at up to 108Mbps with a matching router. It will extend range even when used with a regular 802.11g router. You will also see so-called "MIMO" or "draft-N" cards on the market. We don't recommend these unless you have a matching router at home, since they are twice as expensive and won't do any better than the Hawking or RangeMax cards at a hotspot.