E-mail wherever you go

Widely travelled CHRIS BARTON outlines his route to successful computing on the move - apart from Japan.

The worst thing about travelling with 3.5kg of notebook computer is the shoulder gouges.

Minutes into the dreary terminal tunnel trek, the bag strap begins to dig a furrow.

By baggage claim or the connecting flight, both shoulders - because the weight has been regularly shifted from one to the other - now sport deep, aching troughs.

There are three answers to the problem:

* An on-the-spot, deep-tissue soothing, shiatsu shoulder massage. Difficult to find at airports.

* A lighter notebook. I have salivated with envy at the sleek models fellow travellers produce from impossibly thin valises.

I dream of a Toshiba Portege 3490CT weighing 1.5kg but don't have a spare $7397.

* A bag with wheels. The cheapest solution, but wussy.

Other difficulties also bedevil computing on the move. But for people who must have internet and e-mail at their fingertips, there's usually a way ...

Give me the power


Battery life is the bane of the road warrior. No matter how good the technology, sooner or later the battery is going to die. So finding somewhere to put the three-pin plug becomes an obsession.

Solace lurks in expected places such as airport business lounges, and in odd spots too - such as gate lounges and airport bars.

First stop before travelling is a universal adapter shop (such as Dick Smith's) so you can plug into strange power sources. Some business class flights have a power point at the seat - but the airlines don't seem to provide the special adapter.

Tip : When pulling the plug out as you dash to your next plane remember to take the adapter as well. (I've left a few behind.)

Getting wired


The wire from your modem to the phone jack can be a problem, too. New Zealand phone jacks seem to be different from almost everywhere else in the world - so you need to visit a universal modem wire shop (such as Dick Smith's).

Some hotel rooms have a spare jack-point ready and waiting. In others, you unplug the phone.

Many US hotels have fast internet as well - so it is useful to have an ethernet PC card to connect at high speed. It's also handy for connecting via a company local area network.

Tip: The pits is a hotel room with the phone hardwired into the wall.

Road warriors have been known to jack in via the phone itself - by pulling out the handset cord and connecting the modem wire through the jack-plug on the side of the phone.

Dial me up


Plugged in, wired up and raring to go. But what number to dial?

There's no way you'll be making a toll call back to your New Zealand internet service provider. That would cost an arm and leg given hotel surcharges on toll calls.

Ideally, dial a local internet provider in the city you've travelled to and have the connect time charged back to your internet account back home. Global internet roaming makes this possible.

Most decent ISPs offer this service through either the Global Reach Internet Connection (GRIC) alliance or the iPass network.

Both have hundreds of ISPs in hundreds of countries.

My ISP uses GRIC which costs $NZ6.95 plus GST per hour.

Before going away, I download the latest version of the Gric Dial software.

At my destination, I select the location and dial - using my at-home login and password. It is a similar process for iPass.

Actually, roaming is not always that simple.

There's the complexities of the local dialling codes - which prefixes to ignore to make a local call? Next, insert the hotel prefix number to get an outside line.

And often, for no apparent reason, you will dial out okay, but the ISP will reject your login name and password.

You also need to know how to adjust settings on Windows dial-up networking and email/accounts.

But surprisingly - with perseverance, a few calls to the hotel operator and, sometimes, one to the local ISP's helpdesk, global roaming works.

I've used it in cities in the United States, Asia and Europe and been amazed every time, when by some marvel, the dial-up modem squawks and then connects.

So far, only Japan has defeated my global roaming efforts.

Despite hours of tinkering with settings, requests to hotel staff thwarted by a language barrier, and even buying a new wire from an electronics store, the Japanese telecommunication system proved impenetrable.

If anyone can tell me what I was doing wrong I'd be most grateful.

Tip: Check the local call charges first.

In different cities these vary from free to darned expensive.

It is easy to get carried away with web surfing and e-mail in a hotel room, only to find an item on your hotel bill charging something as outrageous as $25 for the call. (From one who's been there.)

Links:


Global Reach Internet Connection

iPass