Travel Technology - International Laptop NET Access

This is probably a dumb question, but here goes.
I finally will be dragging a laptop with me to places like HKG, BKK, SIN, etc. For US use, when there is no WiFi or high speed access in the hotels I am in, I simply fall back on my old AOL accout, where they seem to have plenty of "free" access numbers everywhere at dial-up speeds.
In planning for Asia, I notice that using an AOL number usually means a $4-6 per hour extra charge.
So the is there an alternative to avoid this when I am not able to get to a WiFi or high spped connection for a daily fee in my hotel?
Thanks
Ed

$4-$6 an hour isn't bad actually, many other providers like ipass charge more...

This comes to about 8-11 cents a minute, which isn't bad. Do you just use access for email or for web?

An alternative is to use web based email at a net cafe (always cheaper than ipass), Bear the cost of Ipass or use a wireless email device like a blackberry (not cheap either but only billed for roaming data sent/recieved not daily power on time)

In the past I used a GRIC or iPass affiliated ISP. Overseas though you'll be dealing with unreliable connection and unpredictable speed. You end up spending way too much time troubleshooting. I gave up and now just spend a few minutes a day at a nearby Internet cafe. There's plenty of them in the cities that you mentioned.

Besides, Wi-Fi is already ubiquitous in the cities you're visiting so I doubt you'll ever even need to visit an Internet cafe.