All you need is a Wireless card for your PC. There are two widespread standards right now 802.11b and 802.11g. 802.11b transfer data at 11Mb/s while 802.11g transfers data at 54Mb/s. To put all this into perspective your DSL connection is between 1 and 2 Mb/s. For websurfing, telecommuting, writting e-mail, etc... an 802.11b card will suffice (that's what I have). Once you have your wireless card installed in your laptop you have to look for a wireless access point in your vicinity. They have programs available on the 'Net that will do this for you. What you are looking for is Wireless access points that are available to the public. Here in New York City they have many publicly available places where you can go on-line and do your on-line business. You need to check where you live where you could get on-line. Usually Starbucks, McDonalds, etc... charge you a couple of bucks to use their connection for an hour. There's a website where you could check to see what's available in your neck of the woods:
http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/