I have an Inspiron B130 laptop that I shortly plan to take on its maiden journey outsde the home. It has both the wireless and the ethenet cards. So far I have only used the wireless access and it is configured for my router. The ethernet card has not been cinfigured fior anything. I have olso used some stray wireless network that I occasionally get in my home. I would very much like to have some advice on the following:

Wireless access - I assume that this will be picked up automatically in airports, hotels, etc. The computer is secured for router access, but I have no clue how to secure it for use on public sites. Can it in fact be done?.

Ethernet access - I will have DSL ethernet access at my daughters, and possibly in some hotels. How should I configure the ethernet card?. Separately for each access point?. I know how to use ipconfig and in fact have little program that does it for me. My doughter has a Mac laptop, will settings be any different for it?.

Any other matters I should look out for?.

I will be grateful for your comments.

Inspiron B130; 1.45 MHz Celeron M; 512 RAM; Windows XP/SP2;
Dell wireless 1470 Dual Band WLAN Mini PCI Card; Broadcom 440x10/100 Integrated Controller; Broadband Connection Microsoft Wireless Base Station.