thanks ian, these will probably help a lot!

another really cool site is http://www.meshnetworks.com/index.htm. check out their flash demos of their tech

also a bunch of really useful stories on slashdot.. http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=hotspots&op=stories&author=&tid=§ion=&sort=1

wireless friendly ISPs http://www.eff.org/Infra/Wireless_cellular_radio/wireless_friendly_isp_list.html