if your laptop has WiFi, you could buy a WiFi-to-serial network adapter. Expensive but plug and play. Available as DIY modules or as in-a-box ready to go.
modules
Lantronix WiPort - I’ve used it. works well. WiBotics.com sells a breakout board. Mouser Electronics sells WiPorts. http://wibotics.com/whb01.html sells the breakout board or both. The WiPort is about $120@1ea. With a good antenna and line of sight you can get 200m. It’s the usual WiFi story on RF. You can run the WiPot in 802.11’s ad-hoc peer-to-peer mode or have it associate to an access point to be network-accessable. For the latter, it can appear to be a virutal COM port to a PC. Or you can telnet.
Digi makes a module like WiPort
The WiPort-like modules, in a box ready to go cost $250 or more. These are available from
Lantronix, Digi, Moxa
and some lesser known ones. bb-elec.com catalog lists some.
MaxStream’s (now owned by Digi) XBee modules are just $20 and are super easy to use and have a serial port emulation mode. BUT, you’d need one on the PC side too. Their XBee-PRO-PKG is an XBeePro module in a box ready to go. Less expensive than the WiPort-like approach but not as generalized. But with XBee and all the many equivalents modules based on 802.15.4 you avoid sole-source vendors and you can expand to use ZigBee later, if you have a multi-node system in mind. In addition to MaxStream, for modules, there are 8 or so others, including Panasonic, OKI, Silicon Labs, Jennic, …