The Ideal Wi-Fi HotSpot

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What do you look for in a Wi-Fi spot? I was thinking about this the other day as I was camped out an undisclosed cafe sipping a green tea latte that had a suspicious afer taste of algae.

Here are my preferred criteria:

1. It's free! Why pay, when so many are offering it for free?

2. Plenty of seating that allows me to have my screen facing away from the windows to avoid blinding sun and preferably with a back wall to avoid snoopy folks passing behind me.

3. Good eats. Good drinks. But no pressure to buy either after the first round. I do think it's ill-mannered to tie up a table and not buy anything. This is one time it's nice not to have wait staff.

4. Padded chairs. A hard wood seat gets old really quick. But please, no overstuffed chairs too comfy to get work done.

5. A cafe within a book store is nice. It's always handy to jump up for additional reference materials and current magazines, as needed.

6. An open area, so that I can scope out the other folks with laptops sizing up who may be a hacker at the table next door. If you get a hinky feeling; split!

Other tips:

- Don't wear out your welcome. If its a busy time and the place is packed; pack up and leave. It's not fair to tie up a table and besides, that's a lot of prying eyes.

- Keep your beverages far enough away from your laptop to avoid nasty outcomes to nasty spills.

- Go to the bathroom one last time before you set up camp. Otherwise, you'll be sooorrrrry!

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio