Off the clock, but not offline

King’s summer home in Harwich Port, like many old Cape Cod houses, doesn’t have an Internet connection. But the Brooks Free Library offers free wireless Internet signal, pulsing out the door even when the doors are closed. King drives to the library parking lot nearly every day, joining other vacationers looking for a quick jolt of home, via the free Internet connection.

“You come here at 10 p.m. at night, and there’s a couple people sitting in the parking lot,’’ said King, who travels from Maine to live on the Cape for two months each summer.

On a peninsula that prides itself as a place away from time, Wi-Fi - especially free Wi-Fi - is hard to come by. Vacationers are used to speedy Internet access at home, but relatively few are paying for it at their rental. Instead, summer visitors gather around libraries, chambers of commerce, and other public buildings, searching for a quick, free signal to check in with the office or home.

Representatives from the Truro Public Library, Dennis Public Library, Brewster Ladies’ Library, and the Public Library, among others, said people frequently sit on the libraries’ stoops or idle in their parking lots, using the wireless connection.

“Even when we’re closed, we have people lying all over the lawn,’’ said Lisa Sherman, circulation supervisor at Edgartown Public Library.

So much for the carefree getaway. Today’s got-to-be-in-touch ethos extends to the Cape.

“I haven’t had a vacation without a call in 15 years,’’ said Jerry O’Leary, an information technology manager from Saugus. After a power outage knocked his Bedford office offline while he was on vacation last week, O’Leary used remote access to back up the server. He did it all from his laptop in the Brooks Free Library.

Virginia Hewitt, director of the Brooks Free Library, said 140 different users might connect to their network on a busy day. Hewitt said the wireless signal has become hugely popular since they added it around three years ago. To keep the shared resource from being inundated, the library caps the size of downloads and restricts users to eight hours per day.

“The day we limited people to eight hours, they came in and chewed out the reference desk,’’ she said.

Theodore Weldon, a real estate developer from Chicago who vacations in Harwich Port, said he comes to the Brooks Free Library every other day to catch up on work.

Earlier this week, Weldon sat on a wooden bench outside the library, cradling his laptop. He checked his work e-mail and then set off for the beach with his family. Weldon said he has a BlackBerry but still needs a computer for many things, like downloading floor plans.

“You can get it done quickly and then get back on with your day,’’ he said.

Spyro Mitrokostas, executive director of the Dennis Chamber of Commerce, said the growing number of Wi-Fi hotspots on the Cape reminds him of the spread of HBO decades ago. “Will this prevent folks from looking up and enjoying the natural scenic view on the Cape?’’ he asked. “I guess to some degree, it’s human nature.’’

For Steven Howard, a tourist from Ottawa, Canada, free Wi-Fi is about convenience. Visiting the Cape for the first time, Howard sat in his car in the Dennis Chamber of Commerce parking lot, checking his e-mail and looking up activities for the day.

“I’m not touching the work stuff,’’ he said. “That’s why I’m on vacation.’’

The Dennis Chamber of Commerce added a free wireless connection three years ago. “It became extremely popular, and we just kept doing it ever since,’’ said Mitrokostas, who added that visitors pull into the parking lot to use the connection day and night.

“You can’t say to people, you have to come to the Cape and look at the ocean,’’ Mitrokostas said. “If they want to bring their computers and laptops, they’re going to.’’

Not everyone welcomes the encroaching nip of the outside world, though.

Daniel Sovie of Derry, N.H., said there was no Internet connection in the house his family had rented near White Pond. “Thank goodness,’’ he said. “I don’t want it.’’

Waiting in his car outside Eldredge Public Library in Chatham last week, he fiddled with his laptop, unable to catch the Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, inside the library, his wife signed their daughter up for a soccer program - on an old-fashioned hardwire connection.