Wireless hot spots are those wonderful places where you can take your laptop or netbook and surf the web for free. “Free WI-FI” signs have gone up in a number of restaurants, cafes, libraries and other public places over the last few years to draw people who want to be able to get online. Even some fast-food restaurants now boast wireless hot spots, with McDonalds, Burger King and other restaurants jumping on board the free Wi-Fi bandwagon.

When you go somewhere with Wi-Fi like a restaurant or a café, you’re welcome to use your laptop and enjoy the service. While it’s not very good etiquette to go and order one coffee and sit there for 8 hours, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying your food and/or drink and sitting for while to use the free Wi-Fi.

Some places like Borders want you to stay for a long time. Borders is a bookstore with a built-in café where free wireless is available. Because the longer you stay in the store, the more likely you are to buy books, they’re known for their wireless hot spots and actively advertise them. Coffee shops and cafes that offer free wireless typically expect people to stay longer than they would in a typical restaurant or café because of the hot spot.

Local libraries typically have hot spots, too. You may need to ask at the desk when you go in for special password as some libraries change it each day. This is to keep people outside the library from being able to use their wireless connection. An unlocked wireless connection will often spread farther than the building, allowing people outside the business to tap into their connection for free. Most companies, however, who have wireless hot spots advertised have them set up so that they don’t reach beyond their walls far enough for that to happen.

Everybody loves free things, but sometimes it’s better to pay for something than to choose something free and get exactly what you pay for. Emails accounts can be one of them. Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) give you an email account as part of your Internet access plan. Those are typically the most reliable email accounts. But a free email account like one you get from Yahoo, Hotmail and Google have their place, too.  

If you want separate email accounts for things like family members, friends, “hobby” friends and work then free email accounts can be helpful. You might have your typical ISP email for family and close friends, one for people you met who have a similar interest in your hobby where you can have a bit of fun with the email address, and one through your ISP or a free email account just for work.Free emails are good for things like your online acquaintances. You might have an email called PartridgeFamilyFan@some free email account.com or WorldofWarcraftMasterNo1@some free email account.com. You can have a lot of fun with this.

Choosing free emails for things like work might not be such a good idea. First of all, free accounts often have little support and fewer guarantees of service. If everything in your inbox suddenly disappears, you may not get much help from a free client. Through your ISP, however, you’ll download the emails and have them on your machine, instead of keeping them web-based in most cases. From there you can back them up if you choose. Free emails can be filtered into a client like that, it takes a little work.

You can also go overboard with free email accounts and end up with more than you can manage. Don’t splinter them too much or try to use too many for too many different things. Many free email accounts will clear out your account if you don’t login every couple of months, which could be frustrating if you’ve simply been forgetting to check one of your many email accounts.