2.7. Key advice about using the Internet while travelling
by Edward Hasbrouck
- Don’t bring a computer with you unless it’s essential. Computers are expensive,
fragile, heavy, and theft-prone.
- If you have to bring a computer, bring the smallest and lightest one that will
meet your needs. Don’t assume that a full-sized laptop computer is the only portable
Internet access device until you look at what you can do with smaller devices.
- Whatever you’re going to want to do while traveling, try it before your trip from
a friend’s house or a public Internet terminal in your home town. Problems or
complications you only discover on the road can be much harder to deal with.
- Plan carefully how to deal with your e-mail while you are traveling. If you can’t
empty your mailbox, and it fills up, you may not be able to get any more
messages even short ones.
- Don’t count on finding any particular hardware or software on a public computer.
The more types of computers and standard programs you’re familiar with, the
better your chances of getting your work done wherever you find yourself.
- Don’t count on a fast connection to the Internet while traveling. You can find a
connection anywhere, but it might be much slower than you are used to.
Familiarize yourself in advance with how to get your work done over a slow
connection.
- For convenience, consider bringing a couple of floppy disks with your e-mail
address list and Web bookmarks or favorites for use at public internet terminals.
- Make sure you have at least two backup copies of all your important electronic
data, including the information on your laptop, your e-mail address list, your
electronic organizer or PDA, your cell phone speed-dial list, and any other data
you are bringing with you or might need. Carry your backups separately, if possible in
different pieces of luggage.
- Test your backups. Make sure you have them in a form that will be usable when
you need them. Think about exactly what you will do when (not if) your hard disk
crashes or your computer is stolen and you have to continue your trip without it.
- If you’re bringing a computer oand/or cellphone, check charges for using
them before you go, to avoid large unexpected roaming charges.
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"Don't believe anything just because you read it on the Internet. Anyone can say anything on the Internet, and they do.
The Internet is the most effective medium in history for the rapid global propagation of rumor, myth, and false information."
(From The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace, 2001)
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