Free Wi-Fi & Hotspots
A hotspot is a location, usually a business, that offers a wireless internet connection (Wi-Fi). You connect to broadband internet using a wi-fi adapter. For more information about setup, see “WiFi with Laptop”.
Once you have your laptop setup for Wi-Fi, you can access the internet at the hotspots and enjoy a broadband connection (~11M bps).
In the Topaz Lake area, the nearest free hotspots are the Holy Grounds Coffee House (next to the post office) and the Douglas County Library in Gardnerville. The Holy Grounds Coffee House is one of the best with nice tables to sit at and for the price of cup or tea, surf the internet. The library is also good except it is somewhat restrictive on sites you can visit and allows no uploads at all.
If you are traveling, there are several directories that list free hotspots. Here are the ones I find most useful:
http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/
There is also http://www.jiwire.com but it tends to miss many of the “free” hotspots. However, if you are willing to pay, its lists are good.
You can also type “free wifi” followed by a zip code into http://maps.google.com/ and get results on the a map.
If you are looking for a free hotspot in a specific area, the best bet is to try all the directories since no one directory will give you all the “free” hotspots in an area.