You can get on line away from home in two ways:
1. connecting to your mobile phone. Very expensive and slow (usually)
2. By connecting to a wifi hotspot. These are sometimes free - at Village Hotels, for example, more often you have to pay by using a service such as OpenZone.
http://www.btopenzone.com/
or Cloud
http://www.thecloud.net/About-us/
A third, illegal way, is to drive around until you pick up somebody's unsecured network and park outside their house. Not advisable.
I am assuming your laptop is wifi enabled. If it isn't you will need to by a wifi adaptor from any PC store or Maplins.
A very expensive way of connecting is via satellite broadband
http://www.brownstoneit.com/products/satellite /mobile_broadband_satellite.asp