I'm totally a newbie regarding laptops. I'm thinking of buying one to take
on an extended tour to the Mid East. I'm wavering between buying a new one
for maybe $475 or so, and one on Ebay for half that.

My questions involve the huge volume of laptops for sale on Ebay. If it
doesn't say its wireless equipped, does that mean it probably isn't?

With wireless equpped laptops, is it as simple as turning the laptop on and
then connecting to the internet, if I'm in an area with wireless hot spot
coverage?

What about the cards I read about that some seem to require? How do I know
what kinds and how many I need?