in a place with free wi-fi which should i use my cricket broadband service or the free wi-fi?

You can use either. You may find that your computer will try to connect to the Wi-Fi, depending on your settings. If you wish to connect to the Internet via your Cricket Broadband modem hit the “connect” button on your desktop Connection Manager and proceed to the Internet as normal via Cricket Broadband. If you wish to connect to the Internet via an alternative Wi-Fi source, make sure that your Cricket Broadband connection is disabled so that your computer does not try to connect to both at the same time.