Constantly need to reboot?

[bmjabber2]

I hope I'm in the right spot....not too knowledgable about wifi!

At home I have a linksys router, new modem from Embarque. I use outlook express for mail.

I constantly have to reboot to get on the internet even though my secure internet connection shows as being connected.

Any help appreciated.

Also if I travel from FL to NJ and stop at a hotel that has wifi, how can I use this? I understand there is a code that you have to type in.

Thanks
Barbara

[M/Q]

As for the rebooting problem, it typically is one of two things. First it might that there is another relatively strong wireless network in your vicinity. Try different channels as far away for its channel if possible. Second is that the hardware maybe bad. Consumer grade equipment has the reputation of having worse odds than Vegas of working correctly. That is my opinion, but the number of trouble shooting threads seems to back it up.

As for associating with other networks (ie hotels and hotspots) one has to be extremely careful in doing this. First some questions, though. Is this a work notebook? If so do you need to VPN into the work network? If that is the procedure I am less worried about your security. If you do not use a VPN and you are associating with a free hotspot all of your traffic is sent in the clear and visible to anyone within range. I just wanted to point this out as many people are not aware of the potential for identity loss or interception of sensitive information.

At these locations you need to ask the party sponsoring the wireless access if they require a login or not. If so they will give you the correct encryption information to gain access. If not and they mention that you should just be able to automatically access it then I would avoid it unless you indeed use a VPN.