Q My wife and I travel together with our laptops and like to share an Internet connection if there is a charge for it. I have a small pocket wireless router that works fine when we're in a hotel that uses a wired Internet connection.
But sometimes we stay at a hotel that has a Wi-Fi Internet connection that can only be used if you pay for a user name and a password. Is there any way for the two of us to share this Wi-Fi connection so that we don't have to pay twice for a user name and password?
MARC BURTON, MINNEAPOLIS
A It's possible, but it may not be practical.
When you use your own wireless router with a wired Internet connection, you are creating a Wi-Fi access point, or hot spot, which has no restrictions on the number of users.
But when you use a pre-existing Wi-Fi hot spot that requires a user name and password, you're limited to one PC per user name/password -- unless you're willing to try a fairly technical solution.
How does it work? It's possible to use one PC to receive the Wi-Fi signal and rebroadcast it to other nearby PCs. But you'll need some technical savvy, an Ethernet cable and a wireless router. For details, see tinyurl.com/ydxtfqa.
An easier solution: Buy a cell phone that can create a Wi-Fi hot spot so nearby PCs can share its cellular Internet connection. Phones that can do this include Sprint's HTC Evo 4G and Verizon's Wireless Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus.
