How do you stay connected?

In many years of traveling, I have yet to pay extra for internet. Often I am taking shared housing, and these days everyone has internet service. Apartments many times have neighbors with open wifi networks. I often pick the location based on local networks. In fact the last apartment I rented overlooked a coffee shop with open internet. When all else fails, I use my smartphone phone (I've used dumb phones since 2000 to connect my laptop as well), and then time visits to coffee shops or the library (and even many grocery stores now) to do some work, or load up browser tabs for later reading.

A smartphone is your friend, and even if your cellphone service provider does not allow tethering (ways around that of course), you can use file sharing apps to get documents on your phone from your laptop for emailing your agency/hospital. There are also budget providers that provide unlimited voice, texting, and data for as little as $40 a month. Often 4G is faster than wifi anyway. I was at my sister's this evening and their wifi was significantly faster than my wifi at about 14 Mbs. I thought that was pretty cool until I connected LTE through Verizon and it was 33 Mbs!

Often paying for internet service gets you a significant price break for three months, as low as $15 a month. While that is really a trivial (and tax deductible expense), frankly I just don't like the hassle. But I understand many want internet all the time and anything less is a greater hassle for most. And if you have to drive to a hotspot, you haven't saved any money at 50 cents a mile real cost of the trip. I always walk or bicycle to hotspots.