For young professionals, aspiring business heads, and anyone who has jumped into the remote work game thanks to the influx of companies that understand wireless internet means working from home is easy, there are plenty of reasons to take a job where you are your own office. And in cities like Chicago, where more and more twenty-somethings are actually making ends meet freelancing in this fashion, there are starting to be various different work spaces set up in cafe environments, as well as countless other establishments boasting numerous Wi-Fi networks or places to plug in.

In a bustling city like Chicago, having a place to go and work means more than just escaping from your apartment. It also means finding a spot that is quiet enough to actually get some work done. After all, if you’re simply fleeing the distractions of your own apartment but walk into a loud and stressful pub, you aren’t going to be any better off. And at the same time, there’s something to be said about the fact that a cafe with free Wi-Fi sometimes isn’t the best choice for anyone with serious work to be done. When a ton of different people are trying to use the same signal, or a cafe doesn’t password-protect its network, the speed of data transfer can slow to an unmanageable crawl.

One solution is to simply stay home, or to rent a work or office space with friends so that you can have a dedicated spot to work. And while this might be a must-do step for some people, most aren’t ready to throw that kind of money down on a second rent, essentially. There is always the option of just going with places where you can plug in, but these are often copy-style places, and aren’t the best working environments. However, if you decide to consider switching your net connection rather than your location, you’ll quickly find that the options present themselves a whole lot sooner.

With WiMax, you do not have to worry about whether or not where you are going has a Wi-Fi network, because your signal literally can be connected to from anywhere. This means that you could be in a bustling cafe where everyone else is fighting over the same connection, but you will be sitting contentedly, surfing the web on something that is fast and reliable. This is because towers and not routers are in charge of how you are able to get online, and this means that your signal area is not a few feet, but dozens and dozens of miles. And for someone who takes working outside of the home seriously, this is a major step in the right direction for productivity and flexibility alike.

For those exploring Chicago who are more attune to things like checking one’s email on the go and taking laptops into coffeeshops  to get a little bit of web surfing or freelancing done, rest assured that you are in good company. Whether it’s a growing population of twenty-something freelancers who spend their days wearing carefully distressed jeans and scowling over their MacBook Pros or the 30-something well-coiffed yuppies who take their lunch breaks in downtown restaurants, enjoying salad while recapping the morning’s deals and transactions, laptops are a big part of life in the windiest of cities.

One of the reasons that so many people are wired is because the city has definitely been forward-thinking when it comes to things like wireless internet. Many of the public buildings have been wired longer than other spots around the country, and Wi-Fi is practically ubiquitous. However, everyone is aware of the shortcomings of Wi-Fi connections. Sometimes, the password doesn’t work, even though the barista swears she gave you the right one. Other times, your favorite table at a restaurant is too far away from the router, meaning that your connection is lagging. And of course, if every broke college student living in Wrigleyville is poaching your wireless internet connection, it’s going to move as slow as molasses.

However, since Chicago is so forward-thinking when it comes to technology, it’s no surprise that it is one of the first cities in the United States to really get on board with WiMax. Unlike Wi-Fi, which depends on a router that basically magnifies a regular broadband connection to cover a couple of feet, this version of wireless is known for sending its signals via towers. The towers can actually provide a solid amount of coverage to numerous people for an area of over 30 miles, and towers can bounce signals from one to the other. This means that it would be possible for you to get all the way from the heart of Chicago’s south side to the leafy suburbs of the north side and not have to worry about dropping your internet connection once along the way.

With WiMax, it’s possible to be truly wireless while exploring Chicago. And in a city with so much to do, and so much thought towards technology, there’s never been a better spot to get along, knowing full well that your wireless connection will be there with you no matter where you choose to head next.

But the trouble with business travel isn’t keeping in touch on your phone; cell phones are actually extremely reliable devices and work in most areas, except for remote regions where you wouldn’t be planning a conference, anyway. No, the trouble comes when the internet enters the equation. Especially, unfortunately, in the case of hotels and their desire to provide wireless internet.

In most business hotels in Dallas and Chicago, wireless is a given. It is one of the reasons that business travelers choose an establishment. After all, no one wants to get off of the plane, get onto a train, and check into a hotel, only to traipse right back out to find the nearest place to get online. Business travelers rely on these in-room connections because they need to do their work in the room. Whether it’s having a pre-conference call conference call or researching last pieces of data for a presentation, there is a lot to get done.

Only sometimes, it just doesn’t seem to work out with wireless internet. Either the signal keeps dropping, or it doesn’t even reach your room to begin with. Calling down to the front desk often does nothing, because what more can an employee really do than just unplug the router and hope that the signal is stronger the next time? It’s a sticky situation, and one that has resulted in more than one frantic run to a 24-hour Kinko’s, at the cost of precious beauty sleep.

For business travelers who are in need of a better option, though, the time has finally arrived for something that is actually an improvement. Using the technology of towers, instead of the small and limited power of a personal router, WiMax is able to provide a network that offers fast internet no matter where you go. With expansion to major cities including Las Vegas, Chicago, Portland, and Dallas, a wider area is being covered now than ever before. This means that if you’re on the road for business, chances are you are within 30 miles of one of the towers. And this means that you can get right online.

The reason that WiMax is so successful is that it brings together two effective forms of technology and makes them work for a purpose that anyone can identify with. After all, you don’t have to keep turning your cell phone on and off for it to pick up a network, nor do you end up waving it out of your hotel room in frustration. The network is based entirely on the way that cell phone companies are able to provide service, but with an eye for what is needed for anyone who does business–or gets online–from multiple locations. And with more and more people opting for the internet on the go, it makes sense that a company finally realized a fast speed and a network that travels where you do is far more important than any other type of bell or whistle that makes the internet look new while actually accomplishing nothing.

For business travelers who are on the road in either Philadelphia and Raleigh, there can be a bit of a daily grind to deal with while traveling for work. After all, it is common knowledge that most people on the road for work end up spending half of the day trying to find a reliable wireless internet connection. Because of the fact that  so many hotels promise wireless and then the network is cutting out at best or nonexistent at worst, business travelers are well-accustomed to spending part of their time on the road trying to figure out whether or not they are going to be heading to Kinko’s or simply trying to find a Starbucks where there might be a Wi-Fi connection.

But now in Philadelphia, Raleigh, and countless other cities around the country, there is a new method in getting online that puts your old wireless internet connections to shame. This time around, the wireless signal is coming from towers that manage to cover miles, rather than routers that only cover a few different feet. And because of this, you don’t have to worry about finding a single place to plug in your laptop when it’s time to get online. Instead, you can take advantage of the fact that with WiMax, there is a truly wireless, truly mobile way for getting online.

Understanding how this works might be initially confusing for business people and regular travelers alike, but it should make sense after thinking about it more in terms of how your cell phone is able to connect immediately. With this new version of wireless, consider your laptop the cell phone, and the network in place will make more sense. Because it is able to transmit a signal over a wider area, and because towers are allowed to bounce signal from one to the other, leading to a larger area of coverage, it makes sense that that you have to do to get online is simply turn on your computer. After all, when you take your cell phone on the road, you don’t have to turn it back on again and re-configure a network when your plane touches down in Philly or Raleigh: the network does that for you.

So if you’re looking for a better way to surf the internet or get last-minute work done while you travel for business, look no further than the world of WiMax. Finally, there has been a technology that actually takes the internet a step forward, rather than pretending to do so. And whether you are getting online for serious business or simply want to check in with loved ones at home, it makes a lot of sense to get on board now and start seeing the advantages immediately.

With all of the snags in travel and technology on the road, both businesses and their employees have a couple of options to choose from. They can either accept the roadblocks and find a way to resolve problems during normal business hours, they can spend significantly more money on hotels where these problems don’t occur as much, or they can find a better technology that can serve employees on the road and in the office equally well. Considering that the first two options are improbable and expensive, a search for better technology has been a leading concern for many forward-thinking businesses who are hoping to make life on the road a little less stressful.

For most business owners, a fast solution to the stresses of dealing with less-than-stellar technology on the road is investing in WiMax, which allows for the exact same internet, just as reliable and speedy as ever, no matter if your employee is sitting in the office or in a hotel across the country. Workers who spend a lot of time traveling also find themselves more content to go on the road, knowing that there will be less time spent frantically trying to find a Kinko’s or internet cafe at odd hours to prepare last-minute details to presentations. And for anyone who get stuck in an airport for hours on end, the free wireless offered is usually bogged down with thousands and thousands of other frustrated travelers, so using WiMax means that it’s equally simple to keep your family and your employer updated about the situation.

But the ease and options of a truly wireless internet aren’t just beneficial for those who are out on the road. Many businesses are finding that it is much simpler to have a form of the internet that is just as fast as it is highly mobile, especially when so much of contemporary business is being wired and understanding the latest technology and how to implement it towards just about any job around. With the ability to keep an entire company online, no matter where they go in the country, a business is prepared to find new creative ways to integrate technology and work, while ensuring that there are no missed signals or dropped emails just due to the fact that sometimes, a bad connection or a faulty network can lead to some serious miscommunication.

The truth is that some of the biggest travel complaints could be solved rather quickly if people stopped looking to their Wi-Fi as the solution to all of their connectivity problems. When it comes to wireless as most people are used to experiencing it, the truth is that the technology in place is not the best out there. And this means more chances for failure, and more disappointments. But with new innovations on the horizon, including the new WiMax technology, you can avert most disasters associated with trying to get online from the road. Here are five typical travel complaints that can be solved or made more tolerable if you switch to the new way of Wi-Fi.

1. The signal that keeps cutting out. With regular wireless internet, this is a problem of distance. The signal is going to drop in and out because you are further away from the router, and unless you move a lot closer to it, this will keep happening. So heading down to the business center might help, but if you are in pajamas and want to stay that way, it’s one more reason to switch to the new world of Wi-Fi, rather than dealing with the old guard.

2. The signal that isn’t. For all of those times that the hotel says you have wireless, but the network never shows up. Instead of spending an evening in your room arguing with the front desk via telephone, simply accept that even if they think there is a signal for you, there just isn’t going to be, due to router troubles. But if you have your very own portable network that travels where you do, this will no longer be a concern.

3. The internet cafe. Sure, it can be fun to head to an internet cafe, but most of the time, you’d rather be spending your vacation outdoors in sunlight, or your work time someplace other than where people are frantically trying to play online games. If you have WiMax, the signal comes with you no matter where you go, so you can turn any cafe into the internet cafe of your choice, easy.

4. The slow or lagging shared connection. When too many people get on a network that is based on a regular router, then you are going to see the signal slow to a crawl. It’s just how things happen to work. But if you get away from that network model and move to something that is national, and based on a stronger and sturdier presence, then you’ll see no more problems. With the new Wi-Fi, you’re using a 4G national network at the same time of thousands, and your downloads are staying just as speedy.

5. Wireless internet at airports. Sometimes, free wireless in airports can work great–and other times, if a lot of people are delayed and all using it at the same time, it can be a nightmare. Excuse yourself from the crowd with the new version of wireless, and the only problem you’ll have is finding a place to charge your laptop so you can keep puttering around on the world wide web.