In the movies, it seems that all you have to do to find your true love is yodel across the valley. In today’s world, you have to have a mailbox. Yodels just don’t get you very far anymore.

When taking your life on the road, you have to create "paper trails" for people to track you down. You need to be available by telephone and mail. You also need to establish residency, even though your place of residence may change from week to week. Where your telephone is based, where you get your mail, and where you establish residency may or may not be in the same state, which can make answering the question of where you are from really interesting.

Credit Cards: It Doesn’t Matter Where You
Are As Long As You Can Be Found

Creating a paper trail to justify your existence to the world, government, and those who want to be paid, can get complicated. There is little information out there to help you understand all the minutia involved in taking your home on the road. It isn’t a matter of having a phone or cell phone combined with a mailing address. If you shop on the Internet or buy mail order, their security check system is designed to send a “red flag” warning if the phone number doesn’t match the physical address listed with your credit card company. We’ve explained over and over again how we live on the road and have our phone number with Brent’s parents and our address with an office a few miles away. We’ve even checked to make sure that the phone number and address are correct at the credit card company so they can verify our “residence” there. Unfortunately, until recently, many large mail order companies used a backwards trace on the phone number, which would return the physical address of the phone registered with the phone company, and not bother to verify the information with the credit card company. We’d simply not get our mail order and they would send us a letter (to the address listed by the credit card company, by the way) saying that the order could not go through because they could not verify our address. We pointed out the flaws in their system, but few people are willing to change the system or make allowances for one person.

As cell phones improve and proliferate, it will become acceptable to have your “resident” phone be a wireless number and the need to connect a telephone to a physical address will be gone. Until then, do what you can to explain your situation and ask them to modernize their system.

The battle between life on the road traveling and the credit card company doesn’t end with mail order companies. Credit card companies have sophisticated systems for tracking purchases. It is programmed into their database where your “home” address or business address is and then a virtual circle is drawn on a map as to where you can justifiably shop. You are assigned a geographic area. If you shop outside of that area, it will trigger a warning. You will go to use your card again outside of your jurisdiction and the merchant will tell you that the card is refused and there is a warning or block on your account. This is fine for the normal stay-at-home person, but we once covered eight states in two weeks. ALL of our purchases were out of our assigned geographical area because we never entered out geographical area during those two weeks. We hadn’t been “home”, as the credit card knew it, for six months. After three days of purchases in Florida, we were suddenly making purchases in Arizona. And our card was blocked.

Getting your card unblocked means calling the credit card company, often while your purchases wait on the check-out counter and a line forms behind you, to confirm that you are who you say you are, you are indeed using your own card, your card has been with you the whole time, and list and verify for them the last three or four purchases you have made – where, what and for how much. Usually within a few minutes the block is removed and you can continue your purchase, but it can take twenty minutes, depending upon where you are and how advanced their computer systems are. Always carry a book.

Here are some tips for prevention and handling a credit card block, loss or theft:

Call the credit card company before you go

Before we go anywhere, especially if we have been somewhere for a while, we call the credit card company and ask them to make a note on our account that we will be traveling outside of our geographical area and to not put a block on our account. We tell them where we are going, how long we are going to be there, and when we are expected back “home”. When we fled to Spain to avoid Bush’s war on Iraq, we advised the bank that we would be in Spain for three weeks. We extended our trip because the war wasn’t over. The day we were expected back in Israel according to our original schedule, our credit card was blocked while trying to purchase food in Spain. We had forgotten to call the bank to tell them that we were still in Spain. We extended our trip a few more times and then decided to fly to the states. In the fuss, we forgot to call the bank and one day after arrival in the “residence” of our credit card, there was another block on our card. We called the company to tell them we were home, really home – according to them – for the first time in two years. Keep your credit card company and bank advised on your travel plans, just as much as your travel agent, to keep your credit card open and functioning.

Where is your card?

Be aware of where your credit card is at all times. Check before entering a store, before paying, after paying, and upon leaving the store. Check before you leave the RV and upon your return. When you are traveling, it is very difficult to “go back” to retrieve a forgotten credit card, and a lot of trouble to report a stolen one and get it replaced when you are in the midst of traveling from place to place. Stay aware of where it is and the recovery time is shortened.

Keep at least one week’s worth of receipts with you

As you make your purchases, keep an envelope or place in your wallet, purse, or backpack where you put all purchase receipts. Keep at least one week’s worth – and if space is limited, keep at least three days’ worth. When calling the credit card company to verify your transactions and purchases, you will not need to rely upon your memory and have all the information right in front of you. We’ve often been traveling so hard and fast, we can’t remember what we did that morning let alone three days ago, so this helps us to prove to the credit card company that we were there when these purchases were made.

Frequently remind yourself of your passwords

We have so many passwords in our lives now. For instance, we have our security password name for each bank account. We have a PIN (Personal Information Number) for the two cash cards we carry plus two more to remember for our two different credit cards. Our email requires a password, our Internet Provider needs another password, everyone wants a password from us and there are a lot of numbers and letters and combinations thereof to remember. Keep written proof of these passwords separate from the cards themselves and put backup copies in safe deposit boxes, a lawyer, or with friends or family who help you take care of your life off the road. Make sure there is someone who can tell you the password or code word if you forget and don’t have access to the papers. Avoid using common numbers and words if you are choosing a password for yourself. The most common password numbers are “1234″, “1100″, and “4321″ and other simple and easy to remember combinations. Whatever you choose, remind yourself of the passwords and numbers frequently so you will remember then when under pressure, like reporting a stolen card or needing money in a busy and noisy location.

Know where you are and where you have been

We often travel great distances in one day, stopping to get gas and food along the way. It’s hard to keep track of where we are, let alone where we’ve been. Do keep track of where you are. When you enter a town, pay attention to the name. We keep a running record of every stop for gas, recording the location and mileage from our odometer. This helps us to track where we are along our way. When you are calling a credit card company to fix a block or report a loss or theft, you have to know where you are and where you have been recently to help them track and stop any illegal purchases, or to help you trace your route to where your last purchase was and where your lost card might be. Be aware of where you are as much as possible so you can think faster on your feet when the stressful moment comes.

Tell the merchant your story

Merchants and sales clerks get nervous when a credit card won’t go through. They can often think there is a problem with your account, you are a criminal, or other negative thoughts. Your first job is to not get angry at them or at the bank. Ask that they try again, and if they do get another block report, reassure them that this is normal. You don’t have to cry on the merchant’s shoulder, but explain calmly that blocks on your card are common and they are for security reasons, their security and yours. Explain how the bank monitors your purchases and blocks transactions when you leave your geographical area. Tell them you are on vacation, traveling, or whatever and that the bank is just doing their job. Ask them to hold your purchases and ask permission to use their phone, or tell them that you are just going to step outside to use your cell phone (or pay phone) to call the bank and find out what is going on, and reassure them that you will be back for your purchases. The process usually takes only a few minutes, and do return if you do get verification and the problem fixed.

Be prepared to pay cash

There have been a few times when we have been on hold with the bank for thirty minutes or more. Or we can’t find a telephone, or the situation just isn’t conducive to the process. Be prepared to pay cash if it looks like the process is just going to be too complicated and then call the credit card company when it is safer or more convenient. There are just times when it isn’t worth the fuss.

Mail Services

When you live on the road full-time, you may stay in a single location for a month or two, or you may stay for a day or so before resuming your travels, making it difficult for mail to catch up with you. The United States government requires people to have a "home address", a base from which to call "home" for tax purposes, but also for registering vehicles, paying insurance, and many other forms of paperwork a US citizen is required to supply. Once you decide on which state is your home "residence", you will need to find a mail service company which will receive and forward your mail to you.

There are many business which specialize in serving as a post office box and will forward mail to wherever you are. Some have restrictions in what they will accept and forward, usually not forwarding third class mail such as magazines and junk mail, and some will not accept boxes past a certain size. They all have different rates for their services, with some working on a flat rate and others charging by the piece.

The non-profit RV organization, Escapees, handles mail for travelers. Their setup is invaluable to the RVer, whether they stay put or move around a lot. A call to an 800 number allows the member to leave a message with their current location and mail handlers forward the mail to them. If the RVer will be traveling, the Escapees mail service will hold the mail until they get a call. They are very familiar with the life of an RVer, helping them stay in touch on the road.

Whichever mail service you choose, make sure you have adequate access to them and they are flexible enough to work with your needs. Be clear about your plans and ask questions about their services to make sure they will be able to handle your mail requirements. Will they send it at your request or are they limited to a particular schedule (forwarding mail only on Tuesdays and Thursdays)? Will they accept and forward packages? What are their size restrictions? What about magazines? How do they handle "return to sender" items coming back to you? How often can you change your forwarding address before encountering high fees? How will they bill you? By bill or by automatically charging to your credit card? How will they charge you? By weight, volume, size? If you will have monies being sent to you through the mail, are they bonded and insured for your protection and theirs?

Having family or friends handle your mail is wonderful for you, as you’ve established a trust with them and if there is an emergency piece of mail you are eagerly waiting for, they can open it for you and maybe read the contents to you over the phone or overnight it to you. They can handle your special needs and help you to filter your mail down to what you really need. But it is a burden to put on anyone. Make sure the person understands the responsibilities and is willing to work with your crazy schedule and special needs.

Whatever way you decide to go, question them thoroughly. Once you leave town, it will be much harder to change your mind.

Faxes, Computers, and Bells & Whistles

I feel like a carnival hawker: laptops, desktops, faxes, modems, pagers, voice mail and switches. Get them while they’re hot! For life on the road, a computer of some kind is a must for staying in touch, and for maintaining your business. It can be a complete office in a small package. The reality of using the Internet on the road isn’t as easy as it could be, but it’s improving all the time and we discuss it more thoroughly in our article about the Reality of the Internet on the Road.

Hook up your computer to a phone and all things are possible. Call, fax, email, and chat to others all through your phone line. If only E.T. had such easy access. Set up an address book program to dial the number for you. You can even input your calling card numbers and do away with that hassle. You can sign on with any online service or Internet provider and email to anywhere, saving long distance phone calls. Or even retrieve files, maps, and all the information you need from the Internet about wherever you are going or whatever you are doing.

A friend here in Israel has a lot of opinions on how terrible and frustrating email is. He expounds on how he hates reading the screen and how a letter will never be replaced – the list is long. He’s never had email, though he is getting it soon, but he represents a lot of people. Don’t let fear of new technology keep you from trying something that is fun and such a pleasure. For travelers, staying in touch can be really challenging. Getting email is like mail call. Packages arrive in the form of computer bytes from all over the world as people share their lives with us, helping us keep up with what is going on back home and elsewhere.

Technology is available to communicate instantly via the Internet, with "chats" and with voice, like a telephone. Phone calls over the Internet are a part of the future available today. With the right equipment and access to the Internet, you can communicate easily and cheaply with people on the other side of the world. It brings the world closer together, breaking down all kinds of barriers, expanding the horizons for the traveler to stay in touch on the road.

Don’t Forget Those Left Behind

I’ve traveled most of my life, sometimes gone for a year or more. Returning home can sometimes be a shock to the system. While you’ve had all these exciting experiences you want to share, when you ask your friends what they have been up to over the past year, the response is often, "Same old, same old." Life back home, while not geographically inspiring, is still exciting and should be honored. Make the transition back home easier for everyone by not staying a stranger while you are gone. Don’t forget those you have left behind. Remember friends and family through the holidays, birthdays and special events. With the ease of the Internet, it is simple to spend about 10 minutes online to send flowers to someone for any reason, even if it is to remind them you are thinking of them. Many web businesses recognize this and provide a wide range of services for ordering gifts online. Some examples we use are listed under our Connect the Dots links to the left.

Emailed journals of your trip make great ways to keep people informed of what you are doing. Tell them stories of your adventures, don’t just list dates and times of arrival and departures. Or keep them up to date with a personal web page they can visit when they have time, following your adventures. Don’t forget the card or postcard as a good token of remembrance. Brent’s grandmothers would show them to everyone who came to visit, putting them up in visible spots in their homes, proud of their adventurous grandchild. People really feel important when they get a bit of email or a postcard from you. You took time out of your adventures to remember them.

Staying in Touch in 2005

Arriving in Mobile, Alabama, in December of 2004, fresh with the news that cities like San Fransisco, Singapore, Seattle, and others are in a race to become the first totally WIFI (Wireless Internet) city, we were really excited about coming back to the states and getting the chance to experience the wide spread and easy access to the Internet we’d heard about for so long living overseas. After all, we’d been able to connect to the Internet fairly easily in the remote mountain villages of Spain and throughout Europe at Internet cafes and libraries, so here in the US, it must be easier. Unfortunately, again, reality did not meet expectations and rumors.

We drove all over our area of Mobile and found nothing. After five days of looking, I finally got to a library, eager to check email and check in.

Just turning to look at the vast bank of computers, a security guard demanded I sign in on a list.

“Can’t I just look around for a minute?”

“You have to check in first.”

Okay, so no looking around. I did as I was ordered, then paused as the large letters across the page informed me that my time on the computer was limited to EXACTLY 30 minutes. I tried to explain that I just wanted to look around the library first, before I got online, but the guard gave me a fierce look and shoved the clipboard at me.

I signed in and then jumped on the nearest computer, giving up on any “look arounds the library”, thrilled to find that there were no passwords or registration to waste time with. This should be easy!

First things first, and eager to catch up with my email on hold for two weeks, I tried to bring up Hotmail and “Betsy” popped up on my screen informing me that this was a forbidden area and I needed permission.

Wasting precious 30 minutes, I found a librarian and she told me that she had to sign in to get me through some filter set up that would prevent all access to Hotmail. Once signed in, she warned me, I was only allowed 10 minutes on Hotmail. She wouldn’t explain why, but did tell me that as old and slow as these machines, gifts from Bill and Melinda Gates a few years ago (low income area library recipients), ten minutes would allow me to “look” at my email but not time enough to actually read an email or send one. Again, she could only tell me that this was the rule – 10 minutes.

And she was right. I barely had time to look with the slow loading of the over coded Hotmail service and my ten minutes were up. Giving up on my Hotmail account, I went to check my web mail through my website and found that this also wouldn’t work. A quick chat with my server host company online techical support taught me that if there are filters or firewalls on the computer or router, they might not allow me to bring up the web page to access my web mail. Screwed on both accounts.

I finally asked another librarian who told me these filters and protections were in place to protect children from pornography and child molesters. How accessing Hotmail (a Microsoft subsidiary also owned by Bill and Melinda Gates) or my web mail has anything to do with porn and child molesters…I’m not sure. When I interogated her more, she about slapped me in the face with the verbal rebuke about how people using the Internet in public libraries exposed children to porn and that it was their responsiblity to prevent children from such sick and disgusting monsters. Honestly, I still didn’t see the connection between Hotmail and porn. I tried, but it’s beyond me. Sure, there is spam that gets through, but most of it wants to sell me viagra and urge me to play the online casino games, and I can’t remember the last time anyone sent me graphic naked people doing the wildthing that weren’t friends of mine forwarding jokes, something I often think is more criminal than online porn.

The “ease” of the Internet for the traveler is still not easy, at least in the United States.

Expectations

We used to think figuring out the right exposure for a photograph was the most complicated part of photography. Now, we know differently. Staying in touch while taking your camera on the road full time can be extremely challenging and exceptionally frustrating. It’s costly, and often complex. It’s not just a matter of finding a phone or mail service. There’s much more to put into the mental cooking kettle.

In order to fit into our modern society, you have to have a permanent address. Where you fix that address determines how much you want to pay in income taxes, property taxes, personal taxes, licence fees, insurance, vehicle registration fees, and numerous other costs. A few states charge about $20 for auto registration and licenses, no matter the size, while others charge hundreds of dollars for the same vehicle. Some states have income taxes, while others don’t. Some have high or low insurance rates. Whatever state you choose to establish an address in, you become liable to their rules and regulations, whether or not you actually reside there. You still have to pay to support that community.

If you are giving up your home for the road, it’s important to understand the benefits and restrictions of each state in order to choose a permanent address that will be most beneficial to you. Trailer Life Books, Trailer Life magazine, Good Sam’s Club and Escapees feature books, articles and information regarding state residency issues to help you make your decision.

Some full time travelers pay their taxes in one state, register their automobile in another state and then their motor home or trailer in another and get mail in a fourth. In some states, it’s illegal to have more than one “residency”. Be very careful and research your decision very carefully.

Traveling all over the country, camera in hand, does not have to be expensive. But sometimes, staying in touch with the rest of the county can be. Maybe it would be smarter to stay at home…nah! Catch you on the road!

Leaving the Country Behind You

You think finding a residence on the home range is difficult, try leaving your country behind you. Living and working as an “x-pat” outside of your citizenship country can be as easy or complicated as your local country bureaucrats can make it. In some countries, it is easy with easy-to-access government employees who speak your language and helpful, easy-to-do forms to fill out. In other countries, like in Israel, you are constantly up against ever changing rules based upon the current “expert” in front of you holding your life on the road in his or her hands, as well as frequent government strikes and changes in political control. Everytime we go through passport control, there seem to be new rules and regulations and whatever we have isn’t good enough, but it gets us through with delays and arguments.

If you are visiting the country, usually for less than three months, you have got it easy entering the country on a tourist visa. In most European countries and elsewhere in the world, the price of a tourist visa for a US citizen is non-existent or cheap. If you are a non-US citizen, or traveling to a place that isn’t very friendly to the US, it can take months and a lot of money to get a tourist or entry visa. Research this thoroughly before you go, and be aware that the rules might change between buying the ticket and arriving.

In places where the US is seen as a potential money source or not liked, you can pay more than a hundred dollars per person for a tourist or entry visa. Do not argue with the passport control officials upon entry. They have no responsiblity for making any changes and they can refuse you entry if you act in any way they don’t like. In smaller, less controlled countries, like some in Africa and Southern Asia, you can negociate, but only if you know what you are doing, as some of the border crossings are run by local outfits with some leeway. For more “civilized” countries, just know before you go to be sure you have the cash necessary as few will take credit cards. If you are staying longer, you may require a residency permit, which leads to bureaucracy. If you are working at all, you will require a work permit.

If you are a non-US citizen coming to the United States, it used to be easy but it isn’t any more. The US is currently developing and changing their foriegn entry rules and regulations. For some countries’ citizens, it can take three to six months to get a temporary entry visa to the US. Fingerprints, financial records, and other personal and private information may be required along with an investigation into personal histories. Many foriegners are finding this time-consuming intrusion into their lives to be more pain that it is worth to visit so they are avoiding travel to the US, which hurts the tourist travel industry. Some rules and regulations are smart and even wise, but the US tends to over-exagerate their precautions, insulting many in the process before they finally get the clue that they are out of control and then they change the rules and become more conservative. It just takes a long time for the process to normalize itself.

In many countries, the money you earn as a non-citizen is exempt from local taxes, but not all. Some countries demand income taxes that range from a small percentage of what citizens pay to even more than they pay. Luckily, the United States has many agreements with international countries to avoid double taxation. Usually, you will not have to pay taxes to the United States if the amount you pay to the local country meets or exceeds the amount you would normally pay to the US government, with a generous overseas tax exception thrown in. Unfortunately, the local country will usually not offer a reciprocal agreement and you will have to pay more to them than you might to the US. Contact a tax expert familiar with both countries’ tax system and who speaks your language fluently.

Living overseas also means embracing a new insurance policy for health, home, and otherwise. Contact an expert to find out what your choices are as a foreigner. Also, check long before going to that country with the US State Department for a list of vaccinations and health concerns. For instance, if Hepatitis A or B is prevalent, these require a series of shots over several months to complete the vaccination. All yourself time, if possible, to go be thoroughly innoculated before you leave the US.

As for driver’s licenses and other permits, if you are in the country for longer than three months or more, you are required to acquire a local driver’s license instead of just using your normal license with an international driver’s license. Check with the US Embassy page for that country for all of the requirements, permits, and visas you may need for your stay.

Living overseas is filled with adventure and wonders that you will remember for a lifetime, but it can also come with a great deal of stress and grief. The greatest advice we can give you about living overseas is to take each moment as an adventure, just another chapter in your life’s book. Even the most stressful moments spent standing in a long line to get a tax paper approved, only to be told you have to go to another office, and then other, and then another building next door, and then being sent to another building across town, and to another office, and other….six hours later still holding the same worn piece of paper and standing at the end of the same long line you began to only have them close the office before it’s your turn…it will be funny someday. Just not now. I promise you. Been there, done that.

The reality of the Internet on the road is that by the time I post this article on my web page, the technology will have changed. That’s reality one. Reality two is that there is still, after all the changes and advancements, little or no easy Internet access on the road. Now that you’ve heard the worst, let’s look at the reality of the Internet for the traveler.
We will cover The Reality of the Internet on the road from three different aspects. The reality of the Internet today, the hardware and software needed to stay in touch on the road, and lastly we will examine the Internet of tomorrow and how it will influence travelers in the future.

Today

The Internet provides extensive resources for the traveler, from planning and organizing your travels to making reservations and purchasing tickets before leaving the comfort of home. Once you step out onto those lonely foreign streets, the link with the technology you take for granted changes.

To stay connected with the Internet once you leave home you need a computer. Technological advances are happening daily as companies bring email and the Internet to hand held devices, cell phones and beepers, but it is still primitive technology. Traveling with a quality laptop computer and a high speed modem will get you farther.

Three Ways to Connect: Begging, Borrowing, and Celling.

Begging and borrowing means working with phone lines out of your control. There are many Internet cafes, libraries, and businesses offering hookups to the Internet for a small fee. The libraries are quiet and excellent places to get Juno.com and Hotmail.com emails and for surfing the net. Some may have phone jacks for use with your laptop. Internet cafes provide another way of getting access to a phone line. In foreign countries, these are often smoke-filled technological dives, occassionally featuring loud music and a lot of distractions, so time your visit during the off-times.

Many businesses will let you borrow their phone lines. Watch out for networked phone systems as they may damage your laptop and modem. Check carefully with your modem manual and instructions before trying this. If their phone system is incompatible, ask to borrow their fax line as it is usually a dedicated analog line.

Many hotels, motels, and campgrounds are now set up for internet access, often right from your room or campsite. Check with them about the costs of using this service before jumping online as some can be very expensive, even for local calls. Modern campgrounds which offer to rent a phone during the traveler’s stay are few but growing. Compuserve’s RV Forum and other RV-oriented web pages offer lists of such campgrounds. For long-term stays, most campgrounds allow you to pay to have a telephone hooked up at your site.

Many times we’ve arrived at a campground and were told they wouldn’t allow us access because someone before us had abused it. It takes only one to spoil the whole experience for the rest of the good people. Keep your time online short. Campgrounds, hotels, motels, and other accommodations go out of their way to provide phone access in their offices, but remember it may tie up their only line and they are in a business requiring access. Keep it short and be polite and pave the way for those coming in behind you.

Many large highway truck stops provide telephone access for laptops. Similar to Internet cafes, you sit at a table and hook up while munching burgers and fries. Similar connections can be found at airports and payphones in heavily traveled, modern areas.

If you have a cell phone with mobile connections to hook to your laptop, you can hook up anywhere at anytime. Expect to connect at very slow speeds. Some report maximum speeds of 9600 baud, but that’s on a good day very close to a cell tower. If you are getting email with a text based email program, and not surfing the net for hours on end, the speed of this system is often enough for the traveler.

Getting Connected

Once you are online, you can go anywhere. So how do you get online? Through a phone number that connects your computer to other computers in the network, but what number do you dial? Major national and international Internet providers offer 800 and local numbers all over the country. Smaller providers only have local numbers to their service, forcing you to make a long-distance call when you are away from home. Outside of the USA, many 800 numbers don’t work and long distance can be expensive. Check with your provider on what access they provide for the traveler. While Juno.com and Hotmail.com are free and accessible from anywhere, you still need an internet connection. Currently Compuserve and AOL are the world’s largest providers of phone access all over the world, though Earthlink is growing and is available in Europe.

Finding an Internet Provider with a wide range of international phone numbers for modem access is a challenge, but finding someone willing to hook you up to their broadband service is an even bigger challenge. Analog modems still hold the reigns in the international travel arena. The wireless technology of Bluetooth is linking laptops and palm computers with cell phones, but the process is slow and troublesome as not many web pages are easily viewed by palms (ours is, by the way!). The expense of Bluetooth technology in your computer and cell phone added to the cell phone online charges…it gets expensive, but the process for the traveler is getting easier and slowly cheaper. Satellites were seen as the way to go, and now that they are smaller and recharged through solar panels, CNN and reporters around the world are taking advantage of them. We’ve all watched the jerky visual reports from Afganistan and elsewhere. This technology is improving, too, it’s just a matter of time before the future arrives making it easier for the traveler to be anywhere and stay in touch.

Look Ma! No Wires! Wireless Connections on the Road

Wireless network technology is becoming all the rage, too. Currently there are two wireless network systems that allow people to connect to the Internet through compatible wireless devices: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Starbucks, McDonalds, and other cafes all over the world are now featuring wireless network technology (Wi-Fi) for their customers to eat and surf the Internet for a fee. Bluetooth is gaining popularity all over the world, especially in the Orient and Europe while Wi-Fi is popular in the United States and in parts of Europe. We invested in a new laptop with wireless technology while in the US recently. Setting up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the home of Brent’s parents, I was able to connect to two other wireless networks for free via neighbors’ home wireless computer systems, cruising the Internet for free. In several airports, I found I could connect to their wireless networks for a small fee, pre-paid time by credit card. Spending a week in Ticonderoga in upstate New York, away from most signs of civilization, I was shocked to find it connecting to someone’s wireless network there, allowing me to once again surf the Internet and email for free. It’s amazing! A friend told Brent that no one in Israel had wireless network systems, and yet, I immediately connected without any problem to a wireless network in Tel Aviv, probably a neighbor. A far cry from when we used to string hundreds of feet of phone cord from our trailer across the campground to the payphone or a willing telephone owner.

Web sites are starting to pop up listing free wireless “hotspots” where you can log onto the Internet for free with your wireless gear. WiFinder and Node Database offer international and US locales.

Keeping up with the constant evolution in technology for the traveler is a full-time job. There are some very good resources on the Internet to help you keep track of the changes, so you can decide what items you need to invest in to help you stay in touch with the world while moving around it. We list some of those resources in our December 2003 newsletter to help you stay in touch no matter where you travel.

There are a variety of new tools and technology now available that help the traveling worker or person living and traveling on the road. Here are some common tools to help you as you travel.

Tools for Connecting

To connect to the Internet, whether for email or browsing, from the road, you have to consider what software and hardware you need to handle the challenges of the road. The software you use may stay fairly consistent, but the hardware can change depending upon where you are. If you are taking your business on the road, your choices will be influenced by the needs of your business, too.

Keeping your time online short when you are begging, borrowing or celling, is critical. Heavy graphical email programs are great when you have the time and money to sit at home and let them process. When you are in a hurry, a text based, low graphic email program can speed up access times immensely. Outlook Express can be set up to quickly send and receive email while online and download them so you can read them later when you are offline, at your leisure, disconnected from the phone lines. We’ve included tips on how to do this at the bottom of this page.

There are a variety of helpful Internet use programs that shorten our time online and speed up our research process. Copernic is a powerful search engine software manager which quickly accesses dozens of search engines at once. When the search is complete you can refine it to the specific things you are hunting for, and then mark those titles for download and reading offline. This frees us from constant phone access while still letting us get the information we need.

Hardware

A good Internet connection is one that is as fast and as secure as possible. We’ve run into phone lines with electrical shorts, static, and a wide range of problems which can potentially damage your modem and possibly the entire computer. Static and other line interference can slow down access to a dribble. Research the modem for your travels thoroughly, making sure it will handle North American as well as international telephone capabilities. Then add the following tools for safe computing.

Portable surge protector

Designed to be used for both your computer power line and your telephone line, APC makes the PNOTEPRO model of telephone and electrical surge protection. It fits in your hand and easily into your computer bag, protecting you from voltage spikes and power shifts. A telephone testing kit is inexpensive and available at large hardware stores. Plug it into the phone line and the lights will tell you if the phone line is functioning safely.

Telephone Travel Kit

These kits feature a variety of telephone plug-ins for the different countries you will travel through. You can buy them as a whole kit or just purchase the ones you need. North America uses the RJ-ll plug, but other countries use phone plugs in many shapes and sizes. Add a couple Y-splitters for those times when you want to be online and still leave a telephone connected.

Telephone Cords

Be prepared with cords to reach any phone connection. We travel with two 100 foot cords for connecting over distances. We also carry a variety of short phone cords, including several in roll-up containers which stretch out to length and then snap back like a measuring tape.

Power Converter/Inverter

Converting the power from the resident country means using power converters, many of which come with your computer systems with built in auto-switching. An inverter takes the power from a lesser source, like the cigarette lighter in an automobile, and inverts it to a greater power like 110v or 220v. This can drain your auto’s battery if the demand on the battery is great enough, but works great while the vehicle is running to charge up your laptop. This are not so easy to find, so check with specialty computer electronic stores and through mail order.

Acoustic Coupler

This technological device, left over from the early days of modems, is popular again. We consider it a tool for “safe” connections. Looking like a clumsy telephone receiver, it straps to the receiver of a phone and transmits signal via sound across the telephone lines. It takes practice to get the hang of manually dialing the phone and coordinating the computer, but it doesn’t connect your system to potentially damaging electrical signals. With speeds up to 28K baud, though much slower rates are usually acheived, this is a good tool for connecting to networked and digital phone systems lacking RJ plugs and having high electrical impulses. While hard to find, they can be purchased at a few electronic supply stores across North America or through the Road Warrior web site.

Telephone

For those times when you do get to a campground which provides telephone hookups, make sure you carry a small telephone. There are many small, lightweight phones that will store in a cupboard out of the way while traveling.

Go Wireless

Whether you are using WiFi or Bluetooth, wireless networks are the saving grace of the traveler today. We cover extensive information and resources on wireless Internet access in our December 2003 newsletter. For the traveler, add wireless capability to your laptop to connect without “strings” to Internet servers around the world to pick up email and surf the web.

Computer Tips

Travel enough and you will hear all kinds of stories and advice on how to avoid computer problems. We’ve heard or experienced them all, and we decided to keep things simple. Here are basic tips that have saved us and keep us going on the road.

Back Up Everything

Make several complete backups of your system and store at least one of them off premises. We’ve lost everything due to hard drive crashes, electrical problems, and anything else you can name. Back everything up regularly so you can get back to work quickly.

System Startup Kit

Make sure you have your Windows version CD or disks to start up quickly from scratch. Keep a current emergency bootable system floppy disk that will at least give you to a running start. NOTE: Windows XP claims it can boot right from the program CD, but it can’t without a system CD or floppy disks. Seach Microsoft’s Knowledge Base for “setup with floppy boot disks” (or some combination) to find the reference and files to download. Installed through DOS, it makes into six floppy disks or can be burned onto a bootable CD.

Keep It Current

Keep your software and computer system up-to-date with the latest hardware driver files and software updates. Many simple problems become complicated due to out-of-date driver files.

Keep An Inventory

Just like you inventory your business supplies, create an inventory of every piece of hardware and software on your system. Note the registration and access numbers and information as well as any customer support phone numbers or web pages you may need if you have problems or have to restore your entire system from scratch. Add to your list every time you install any new software and keep a copy of your inventory in a safe place with your important papers.

Inventory Your Passwords

Your software and hardware are critical to inventory, but how do you keep track of your passwords? Keep a written or printed log of all your passwords for your different accounts and Internet accesses like newsgroups and membership only web sites. Keep it somewhere away from prying eyes, but make sure you bring it with you. Logging onto the Internet with your laptop means you can keep your passwords on your computer, but logging in from an Internet cafe or elsewhere on other people’s computers, you have to keep all those passwords in your head. Keep them on paper for backup, too.

Tool Kit

Bring a small tool kit for those times when you need it. Small jeweler or eye glasses sized screw driver sets are excellent and fit neatly into a computer carrying bag.

Spare Battery

Keep a spare and fully charged computer battery with you. You never know where the next outlet may be.