She either does that or jeopardizes sending the computer on the walk-through security conveyer belt, with the possibility of it being stolen.

At least 30 kiosk suppliers and high-tech services nationwide are determined to solve these problems, easing the pain for road warriors who need to check e-mail, log into their office computer or find information on the Web without having to be a pack mule or worry about broken machines or dead batteries.

These kiosks, designed for high-traffic areas, are popping up in airports, hotel rooms, bars, restaurants, malls, convention centers and even truck stops. They sport high-bandwidth connections through T-1 or 128-Kbps ISDN connections, voice synthesizers, fax options, games and general PC functions.

"Businesspeople need to communicate with their office regularly. But finding a phone jack for their laptop is sometimes difficult," says Pam Shelpuk, vice president of marketing and communications for Denver-based CyberFlyer Technologies. She notes that travelers wait in airports an average of 60 minutes each trip. The CyberFlyer Netstation enables them to be more productive." Additionally, the kiosks offer flight information, banking services, stock quotes, maps, directories, free fax services -- you name it.

Typically looking like a futuresque phone booth or computer station, most Internet-ready kiosks are dual sided, and usually are outfitted with a Pentium/120 or 133 megahertz PC, a 17- to 20-inch color monitor, customized browsers and e-mail packages, and access to the on-line services America Online, CompuServe and the Microsoft Network. They also have data jacks for those wanting to use their own notebook computer. They begin operation at the swipe of a credit card or phone charge card, costing an average of 33 cents a minute, plus whatever you pay to your Internet Service Provider.

With their first installation at the Norfolk International Airport in Virginia and a contract with Host Marriott Services, CyberFlyer plans to install 30 units in restaurants and airports beginning this summer, doubling the installations by year end.

U S West's Advanced Technology Group in Boulder is currently under way with trials of their Cyberbooth in Denver and Seattle. They're teaming with San Diego-based kiosk developer ATCOM/INFO, which manufactures the hardware and software and sells the booths for approximately $11,000 each and charges a monthly upkeep fee. The pyramid-shaped stations, built for rugged, vandal-proof use with industrial, bolted-down, spill-proof keyboards, are in 50 sites in Seattle and Denver, including Champion Sports Bar and the Auraria Campus.

Companies such as U S West and CyberFlyer are soliciting advertisers to subsidize kiosk costs by putting banner or click-through ads on the display. Thus far, only a few have signed up, but kiosk developers are hopeful that once people use the applications in big numbers, advertisers will jump at the chance for visibility. But what's the prognosis?

"We'll do well when people are accustomed to paying for the value of public access. We're seeding the markets so people can start recognizing them and are determining what locations are profitable, what we should charge, what works and what doesn't," says Greg Kissler, technical lead for U S West's Cyberbooth development.

"Airports are the clear winner so far," notes Steve Dennis, new products general manager for U S West's new products and services in U S West's Seattle division.

"Any transportation hub is good, where people have a lot of wait time. The verdict is still out as to whether people will use the stations in movie theater lobbies or truck stops, for example. But the main item people pay for is e-mail. If you can target to the e-mail user, these things will succeed," he says.

At Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, for example, where ATCO is teaming with GTE, the terminals average 50 users a day who connect for about 11 minutes primarily using e-mail. Dennis says that each of the U S West trial screens average about 100 log-ons per day.

To promote their service, U S West gives five free minutes (as does CyberFlyer), after which they charge $3.95 for 15 minutes and $1.95 for each additional 15 minutes. "It's a good compromise price. It gives us a good amount of revenue, and it's what people are used to paying per minute on a pay phone," Dennis adds.

Although Internet-ready kiosks are generally getting high marks from analysts, not all agree that they'll be a big hit.

Blaine Berger, an Internet consultant with Electronic Oasis Consulting in Longmont, says "kiosks don't have enough functions (such as word processing or spreadsheets) to make people want to leave their laptops at home. For many, if you don't have all your key systems, applications and data with you, you can't get much work done. Travelers tend to use their personal, wireless devices, such as PSC phones, to get their e-mail and messages, to communicate whatever they need all in one place."

Reliability and security also pose dilemmas.

"At least 50 percent of the ones I've seen at airports are frozen up," says Bradley Feld, a Boulder-based heavy Internet user and venture capitalist who invests in high-tech ventures.

U S West's Kissler says their software is designed to report problems to their control centers if there are problems. "Our internal monitoring systems are quite good and can fix problems instantaneously. We haven't had many complaints about this."

What about security?

"When someone can look over your shoulder and see you enter your password, it's not likely you'd want to risk it. Road warriors are already outfitted, can dial into multiple networks, need to carry their laptops for other business reasons, and are pretty picky when it comes to how they send and receive e-mail," Berger contends.

For those reasons, both CyberFlyer and U S West are looking into Smart Card technology, where you plug in the card, the system verifies who you are and reconfigures your preferences.