This trip (Greensboro, NC to Santa Clara and back) has made me a believer in the iPass service - again. If you travel even a little bit, you know the issues involved in connecting to the variety of internet access systems in the different locations you find yourself. This week I've been in 4 airports, a hotel with 3 different internet providers in different areas, and a coffee shop. In all those landing spots I was able to connect without entering a password, providing my credit card, or even signing on to a free account. iPass took care of finding the available networks, connecting, and logging in. Not quite magic, but close enough for me.

The heart of the service is a contract with iPass.com. They have a variety of levels that include wireless cards and WiFi services. They even have (though I've never used them) dialup facilities. And what makes the service ubiquitous is the series of contracts iPass maintains with the complex patchwork of WiFi provider networks. They take care of maintaining the network agreements, and all I need to to is maintain my iPass agreement. 

In practice, I simply boot my notebook and let the iPass client discover available networks. I can select one from the list that also shows a signal strength meter by clicking the network name, and iPass connects, logs in, and disappears to the background. In a case where there is no WiFi signal, I insert the wireless card provided by iPass (in my case that's a Sprint card, but the carrier name isn't even mentioned), and iPass authenticates the connection.

On this trip I didn't need to use the wireless card, but I've used it in the past, and, like any wireless connection, connectivity is as good as the local service. But the great thing about having an iPass account is the ability to be connected by whatever means available, supplied by (and paid to) a single contract.

Highly recommended.

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