Turn Key Web Providing Hot Spot Access in many areas near you.                         

Wireless networks are everywhere. As more and more locations roll out wireless hot spots (zones of coverage for wireless networking), business travelers are seeing a proliferation of service provider choices. You can find hot spots almost as easily as you can find gas stations, ATMs, and public phones. See Turn Keys Hot spot map coming soon.

Free is good

Many businesses offer free wireless hot spots to draw you to their locations. The owners of these coffee shops, restaurants, and bars hope you'll choose their location over a Wi-Fi-less location, and therefore offer the wireless hot spot for free to entice you into other purchases (coffee, snacks, cocktails, etc.). This philosophy of treating Wi-Fi as an amenity is no different than providing clean bathrooms or attractive decor in a restaurant, or offering a high-quality gym or swimming pool at a hotel.

Another source of free Wi-Fi is the proliferation of community wireless networking. Several cities, including Seattle, New York, and San Francisco are seeing incredible growth in wireless deployments by hobbyists and other altruistically motivated community service groups.

Open access point prudence

Just because a network is available doesn't mean you have permission to use it. A built-in feature of Windows XP is the ability to show wireless networks in your vicinity. Wireless access points are configured, by default, to broadcast management beacons, usually every 100 milliseconds. Windows XP collects these beacons and generates a list of available networks. The only way to identify a network is by its network name (also called the Service Set Identifier, or SSID).

Although some argue that open access points might be there as a convenience to users, unless you have permission or the SSID clearly indicates you do, look for a different wireless network. Because most access points install insecurely by default, many system administrators don't have the time or skill to lock down their networks. Poor system administration isn't an excuse (or legal defense) to exploit network resources for your own benefit. The point is: If your use of bandwidth is unauthorized, you may be unwittingly breaking the law, so use good judgment. If you aren't sure, you can always check a Wi-Fi directory.

Who's listening?

When using any kind of public network, keep in mind that your data conversations may not be private. There are well-known vulnerabilities in Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP) encryption and you shouldn't rely on it exclusively for highly sensitive data. Further, most public hot spots don't employ WEP at all.

Always operate under the assumption your session could be compromised. If your data is sensitive, be sure to use a virtual private network (VPN), secure shell (SSH), secure sockets layer (SSL), HTTP over SSL (HTTPS), or other encryption methods. Because Wi-Fi relies on radio waves that travel through the air, anybody with a wireless card and easily attainable software tools can listen in on your session. Using a public network (wired or wireless) is a lot like talking in a crowded restaurant. If you don't want your conversation to be heard, use encryption and keep your voice down.