With wireless hot spots popping up in airports, coffee shops, hotels, and neighborhoods across the United States, you can now wirelessly access your corporate LAN, send and receive e-mail, or surf the Web for the latest sports and stock market news. How do you make the wireless dream a reality? For starters, you'll need to outfit your computer with a wireless adapter, which comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Before you buy a wireless adapter, you must first decide on a wireless standard. Currently, you can buy an adapter that support 802.11b, 802.11a, or the 802.11g draft specification. There's also a separate class of wireless adapters known as dual-band cards, which offer support for multiple networking standards. (For more information on each standard, including reviews of adapters, see the right-hand column.)

Once you decide on a wireless standard, you'll need to select the right type of adapter for your hardware. For example, notebook owners will most likely want to stick with PC Cards, while desktop users can choose among PCI cards and USB devices. If you want to use your PDA or handheld to surf the wireless Web, you'll need to find a compatible CompactFlash adapter.

Other things to consider: Microsoft Windows XP includes the drivers for many popular wireless adapters, but the manufacturer should also provide software. Besides drivers, the software may contain useful diagnostic and management utilities. For example, you can usually monitor signal strength, power consumption, and encryption settings. Also, some PC Cards offer an external antenna connector, which lets you add an indoor antenna to increase your wireless range.

If you have a question about wireless adapters, just e-mail our experts. For more information on mobile wireless networking, please visit our Hotspot Zone.