Q. The #1 Matt said on his 18 June Post; “WiFi is pretty much a given these days, I want to see a website about which airports have the best power outlets.”

OK, That wasn’t really a question, but it’s reminiscent of one I’ve been asked many, many times. Because its not enough to know the airport has WiFi if your laptop battery is going to be dead an hour before you board.

A. First of all, let me just say: someone has, Matt. The Air Power Wiki is a little thin right now, but it’s growing.

My answer? Will have to incorporate more than just power outlet bounty. For me to feel good about an airport, I like a steaming side order of free WiFi and a sensibility tuned to the wired traveler - with public workstations, for example.

And the unexpected discovery here is that I rarely find that in a large airport. For example, LaGuardia, JFK, Chicago, Atlanta, heck - practically ALL Wisconsin airports, have fee-based WiFi, are riddled with non-working outlets and working havens are rarely found outside the premium lounges. Boston actually fought against freeWiFi providers in their airport.

Truly, it’s the smaller airports that seem to ‘get’ the wired traveler.

Without further ado, here are the best of those I’ve traveled:
East Coast - #1 Pittsburgh, PA (PIT): Free WiFi, strong signal, lots of outlets - even in the gate areas near the seats. #2 West Palm Beach, FL (PBI). Free WiFi (which is true in most Florida airports, bless them). I also found powered outlets in each gate area. #3 Manchester, NH (MHT) This Boston-area Southwest Airlines favorite has Free WiFi with fairly strong signal at most gates. Power outlets at most gate areas, too. Honorable Mentions; Blue Grass Airport (LEX) in Lexington, KY has free WiFi in the terminal, in the parking lots within 300 feet of the terminal and on the tarmac (if you and your plane should be parked there). No wireless card? You can borrow a patch cable from the airport information desk and use one of the wall sockets that convert wireless to a high-speed plug-in connection.

Middle US - #1 Grand Rapids, MI (GRR): Free WiFi and power outlets at most gate areas, plus two centrally-located complimentary public business centers with work surfaces, electrical outlets, and LAN connections. #2 Kansas City, MO (MCI):: Free WiFi, good coverage. A goodly number of open outlets, and the way gates are set up there is usually a fairly quiet place to type or surf. #3 Quad Cities (Moline), IL (MLI): Chicago-area’s 3rd busiest airport is the only one with free WiFi and dependable outlets, which are available in each gate area as well as in the food court. Honorable Mentions; Lubbock, TX (LBB) is one of the few Texas airports with free WiFi and available outlets. It’s about a 6-hour drive (4, if you rent something more powerful than a Geo) from Dallas. Many of the smaller resort-area Colorado airports (like Colorado Springs, COS) have free WiFi and powered workstations.

West Coast - #1 Las Vegas, NV (McCarran, LAS): The largest airport in the US to offer free, public WiFi. They are in the process of installing more power outlets and workstations - in the meantime, if you’re desperate, they usually have one in the restroom. #2 Portland, OR (PDX): Free WiFi that covers most of the airport - they even have coverage maps at customer service. Plus newer workstations with power outlets. #3 Sacramento, CA (SMF): I happily found an outlet at my gate and free WiFi, as advertised by the airport. But in the interest of disclosure, I read recently that there is a pay-for-the-day WiFi provider in some spots, and that some travelers find a lot of the outlets are dead.

A couple of wired-travel tips? Tuck a small power strip in your laptop bag because if you do find power, it’s always good to share. And if you find one that someone is already using, then you can get them to share.

Also - JetBlue gives its customers free WiFi so if you head to their area of an airport terminal, you can usually get signal. USA Today did an article with more great tips here.

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On Fridays, MoGo Mobility’s Elizabeth will seek to answer your MoGo (and non-MoGo) technical questions.

Elizabeth is a professional writer & geek with most of the last decade spent in senior management at a leading global IT provider. Thousands have attended her seminars in the US & Canada on subjects ranging from basic TCP/IP networking to high-end data storage solutions.

Got a question? Ask Elizabeth.

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Q. Seriously, is it really a risk to use the free WiFi at the coffee shop? Is anyone REALLY spying?

A. Seriously? Yes.

I was in Raleigh-Durham working on a WiFi-enabled client site a couple of years ago when the security director leaned against my desk and asked me who ‘TigerBear83′ was.

My blood ran cold - it was my GMail password.

His employees regularly run sniffer software to make sure that employees are following security protocols and clearly, I’d failed the test.

Sniffer software is easily found (freeware versions are all over the web) and there are legions of hackers who spend hours nursing lattes and data trolling at WiFi hotspots.

Bottom line, public WiFi has no built-in protection. The security of your data is a a do-it-yourself proposition. A fact too many users are blithely unaware.

Will this change? Yes. But at this moment in WiFi’s evolution, the technology is just not there yet.

The safest option you can take to send/receive sensitive information is to get thee a patch cable and plug in. A secure, hard-wired network connection is your best port in the storm.

But before you give up coffee altogether, let me say that there are some security measure you can take to minimize risk on a public WiFi. The effectiveness of these measures is equivalent to whispering your private information versus shouting it across the movie theater.

The best up-to-date instructions I found on protecting yourself were at About.com, written by Mary Landesman. I recommend her post here.

The soundest advice I can give youon the subject - assume that anything you send & receive on an open WiFi can be seen. So never type anything on an open WiFi connection that you wouldn’t tell a stranger on a bus.

Q. I took your seminar years ago and you said if I spilled something on my keyboard and disabled it, I could run it through the dishwasher. I thought you were nuts. But now the situation’s come up and I was wondering…

A. Am I nuts? Yes. But that’s besides the point.

Over 10 years ago, I spilled Diet Coke on my keyboard and killed it dead. No knowing any better (which is usually the preface to every great discovery) I borrowed my neighbor’s dishwasher and ran it through - figuring I had nothing to lose and a keyboard to gain.

It worked. And it’s worked several times since then.

A new keyboard is cheap and easy to get these days but if you want to attempt a last life-saving procedure then run it through the dishwasher on a cool, unheated, short cycle. Make sure the keys are facing DOWN and don’t use any soap or detergent.

Afterwards, let it dry on a towel or a rack for at least 48 hours - until it is truly bone dry through and through.

Unconvinced? Well, Nell Boyce at NPR did it recently heard about this and tried it out. Read about her experiment here.

Just promise me you won’t try this on your optical mouse.

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On Fridays, MoGo Mobility’s Elizabeth will seek to answer your MoGo (and non-MoGo) technical questions.

Elizabeth is a professional writer & geek with most of the last decade spent in senior management at a leading global IT provider. Thousands have attended her seminars in the US & Canada on subjects ranging from basic TCP/IP networking to high-end data storage solutions.

Got a question? Ask Elizabeth.

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When you’re on the road, it’s easy to take for granted most of the open WiFi connections - in the airport, the hotel , the coffeeeshop in the lobby of the building.

However, it is becoming more and more important that you know where your WiFi is coming from, and if you are rightfully allowed to use it.

This sage warning comes on the heels of another felony arrest for hi-jacking (or ‘piggybacking’) an open WiFi meant for customers.

ars technica is reporting that Sam Peterson has been arrested and charged with a felony for unlawfully using the WiFi connectivity of the Re-Union Street Cafe of Sparta, Michigan. Peterson used to drive up each morning and check his email from his car - never actually entering the cafe or buying anything there.

Because he wasn’t a customer, he didn’t the right to use their WiFi. In 1979, Michigan made computer hacking illegal (way ahead of their time). In 2000, they updated the law to make it a crime to access a computer system without authorization.

The management of the cafe didn’t know it was wrong for Peterson, and in fact Peterson himself didn’t know.

It was a police officer who observed Peterson’s daily habit that thought that it wasn’t quite right what he was doing. A little research ended up in a warrant.

And the moral of this story?

On my recent road trip, I opened my laptop one day to write a post for this blog. Frustrated by the slow response time of the WiFi, I hunted up a land connection to the network. In my search, I was unnerved to discover that the WiFi I had been using belonged to a private citizen in another building.

It’s too easy. And? Illegal.

Know where the WiFi comes from. And, for God’s sake -just to be on the safe side, buy a muffin.

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Office-bound workers should assume that every keystroke they type is being recorded and intermittantly audited .

At the very least, most companies - no matter what size -  scan internet page visits, length of time in programs, and what files employees save to their hard drives and shared server space. MP3’s, movies, pictures, and raw text files are tracked as a routine part of most backup and virus scan packages.

However, the content of what occured over the corporate cell phone (beyond call numbers and times) was still a place of expected privacy.

Until now.

On May 10th, Retina-X Studios, LLC, announced their application “Mobile Spy”.

It’s an activity monitoring software for Windows Mobile based smartphones. The software allows users to monitor SMS and call details online in real time.

After being set up on the phone, it records all SMS text messages and call information and uploads that information to a web-based log that can be accessed by the company from anywhere online.

Furthermore, Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode  on the phone and is undetectable to the user.  In addition to its use as a corporate montoring tool, Mobile Spy’s press release gives other possible benefits of their package:

• This new technology gives parents the ability to remotely monitor the family’s text and call activities by logging into a web site.
• Cell phone customers can use the software as a record of all important communications.

The product is available now at http://www.mobile-spy.com.

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As recently as a few years ago, I had my name on cubbies in two different countries.

My position with a ranking IT firm had me assigned to several of our global customers. If it was Monday, I was in Richardson, Texas. If it was Thursday, I was in Ottawa, Ontario.

My ‘office’ was in a Chicago suburb, until a funny thing happened.    The same funny thing that is happening to thousands, and soon to be millions, of workers worldwide: I stopped going into the office.

When not on the road, I worked from home.   Cut off from the corporate high-speed network aand all it represented; gone were the ‘pushed’ security patch updates , endless data storage,   and easy access to the corporate intranet  and peripherals.

My technology needs evolved.  Like other members of this growing generation of ‘mobile workers’ .

From my hardware, I needed flexibility and durability.  My laptop, for example, became my sole processor. No longer was there a docking station connected to a beefy PC to do the heavy lifting back at the office.

My software needs evolved, too. I needed mobile real-time conferencing that included video, audio, o apresentation and whiteboarding -  all available from anywhere by anyone. Also part of the my Mobile Worker’s must-have software kit? Easily updated security software, globally available instant messaging, pack-aand-go presentation applications,  and email/intranet with web  availability.

On this  blog, I’ll be taking time out each week to talk about the technology for the Mobile Warrior - not just what works great on the road, but what also works for the home-based mobile worker. You can find these posts uner the new “Mobile Warrior” category.

And I’m inviting you to share with me - what do you want to know? What works or doesn’t work for you? What needs to get better? What wish-to-haves are we waiting for?  Drop a line,  I’m interested in what interests you…

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You know when you’re walking around downtown, or on a subway, or in the grocery store and the person next to you starts talking to you, but when you respond you find out they really weren’t talking to you at all, but to someone on their headset? Yeah, I’ve always wanted to be one of those people, only cooler than those people. That day, my friends, is here.

Makers of the MoGo Mouse just released the world’s thinnest, ultra-light Bluetooth headset, and man oh man is it cool. My favorite part about the whole thing, in true MoGo Mouse fashion, you can charge it by clipping it to a cell phone, or, yes, sliding it into your laptop. Get this, you can now talk, gossip, jabber, yak and spill all those beans for up to 6 hours of talk time on a single charge. People of the world, prepare to look like you’re talking to yourself all over the city!

The ability to stay mobile is paramount in the world today and in that quest to be mobile, what good is it if all the “mobile” products you’re carrying are heavy, require tons of cables and power strips and adapters to work, and actually make you dread being that Road Warrior you know you want to be? No good friends, no good at all. This new product is so cool, it even won an award.  Veteran industry observer Andrew Seybold, presented Newton Peripherals with his “Most Imaginative Product” award last night and even went on to say, “The Headset is unique in both design and concept.  It will store conveniently on the back of a cell phone, ready to be used at a moment’s notice. Newton Peripherals’ approach to simplifying the use and storage of phone headsets is novel, and deserving of recognition.”  Here is the official press release of this sweet new product…live it, love it: Read the rest of this entry »

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