Clearing Bottlenecks and Roadblocks

Intel s goal is to help clear the bottlenecks and roadblocks that make using wireless networking more difficult than it needs to be. Centrino laptops help achieve this with

• Preinstalled Wi-Fiyou're ready to go.

• Built-in features to correctly find the right wireless station (SSID) to connect to. In Chapter 3, I'll show you how to set up your computer to take advantage of them.

• Support for all major wireless security initiatives. In Chapter 17, "Protecting Your Mobile Wi-Fi Computer," I ll explain how to practice safe mobile computing.

The good news is that the wireless computing from anywhere situation is getting better day by day. All the time, more and more access points are becoming available, connection speeds are gradually getting faster, and it is becoming much easier to use wireless networking (thanks, in part, to books such as this one).

I can't create a seamless national Wi-Fi network overnight by snapping my fingers, but I can show you how to configure your computer to best find wireless networks (Chapter 3), tips and techniques for finding wireless access points (Chapter 9, "Finding Hotspots"), and pointers on working with national Wi-Fi networks (Chapter 10, "Working with National Wi-Fi Networks").