Travelling with a Laptop

This was published at Taking the high-tech road. Thanks to Wayne Cosshall

Essentials

  1. Buy a laptop that has international warranty, or where the vendor is an international vendor. Finding “Fred-in-the-Shed” laptop manufacturers in India is probably minimal. I only travel with Dell, and where required for the job, Apple laptops. This gives you a degree of comfort if the electronics (screen, motherboard, cards) fail in the laptop. Obviously, there are other well-known brand names that have service facilities in other regions.
  2. The next most common problem is a Hard Drive failure. Always take your backup CDs with you. I constantly travel with a current OS install CD (Windows XP) and core applications install (Office XP, Adobe applications) This will mean that if the hard drive fails, I can restore my HD and at least communicate with the world. As I backup my data to CD (manually), I take the most recent backup of data too. DVD burners are also affordable, so instead of taking 5-6 CDs, take on DVD containing the bare essential installers.
  3. Ensure that the power supply you take with you supports a “wide range” of voltages (V) and current (A). In countries like India, the power supply fluctuates wildly, and even in 5-star hotels gets cut off at the most inconvienent moments.
  4. Always arrive at the airport with the laptop having fully recharged batteries. In some countries, airport security will require you to boot up your laptop to ensure that it is a laptop. Its best to be able to do this without needing to plug into power. Secondly, if your flight is delayed you can at least startup and do some work. If there is a phone line around, you can check the news, mail and other essential things.
  5. As my laptop has an internal CD burner, I carry a few blank CDs (just in case). As it also has a Firewire (IEEE1394) connection, I also carry an external 10Gb hard drive for emergency backup.
  6. NEVER install new software whilst on the road. NEVER buy pirate software in whatever country.
  7. Be careful with hardware purchases in other countries. Incompatible power supplies are usually supplied, and support is sometimes limited to the country of purchase.
  8. Choose an ISP that gives you a local dial-in number in the country you are in. Taking a laptop with you means that you are not relying on Hotmail-style email accounts, and therefore need to get onto the Internet. Again, in the absolute worst case, enable data communications on your mobile phone and use the Infra-red capabilities to use your mobile as a 9600 baud modem. My Nokia has IrDA and Bluetooth, as does the laptop. I can use this as a modem to at least get connected to the internet, get and send mail. Due to the cost of doing this, especially overseas, use it rarely.
  9. Purchase a good bag to contain your precious cargo. Ensure that it protects the laptop and contains the essential elements needed to be working. Assume that your main, checked in luggage is going to get lost.
  10. Modem communications was once a black art. Now its just a grey art. You still hit strange problems in some hotels. For instance in New Zealand, some older hotels have digital telephone exchanges requiring you to use a special cable to connect from your RJ11 on your PCCard/Laptop to their phone system. I am finding a majority of hotels have “data port enabled” telephones in their rooms that permit laptop style connections. Sometimes I disconnect the cable coming from the wall to the telephone and use this in my laptop when all else fails. In Thailand recently, I had to use the business centre’s computers as the ISP’s phone lines were down for many hours. Thankfully, the RJ11 connector is reasonably universal in the places I visit. If you travel to RAR Australia, I suggest taking the old PMG style connector.

Pleasures

  1. I have recently subscribed and used Skynet Global. In Qantas Clubs, this gives you extra connectivity whilst you wait for your flight. Using wireless cards, you can connect to the Internet, get your mail etc.
  2. Singapore Airlines (and others) have in-seat power. With the purchase of a ~$250 Targus style power supply, you can use your laptop in-flight without draining batteries. The sooner Qantas do this, the better.
  3. Hotels with high-speed internet access such as Intertouch (http://www.inter-touch.com/) This is a godsend if you are an internet junkie.

Wishes

  1. The US would use GSM in the same frequency as the rest of the world.
  2. Every hotel and public telephone had highspeed/ethernet style access
  3. laptops were smaller and batteries lasted longer
  4. a combination mobile phone, PDA and digital camera – that doesn’t make you look like a nerd.
  5. Universal, wide-area 802.11. Wireless everywhere, always on!