Tag: Travel

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The Trouble with Travel

The Trouble with Travel is Staying Connected.
The Trouble with Travel is Staying Connected.

Travel, it’s fun and exciting, but the trouble with travel is that internet and phone connectivity can bring your business to a halt fast!

Here’s How I Handle the Trouble with Travel

  1. Be prepared.
  2. Stay powered up with portable power packs.
  3. Make sure you have a mobile phone Travel Pass.
  4. Review connectivity in your destinations.
  5. Be prepared to pay for Internet access at hotels.
  6. Get your files into the cloud for easy access.
  7. Have an answering service or staff for backup.
  8. Don’t take on any work that has deadlines close to your trip.
  9. Take a tablet and a smartphone. No need for a laptop.
  10. Create a customer care plan in your absence.

I have personally found that US travel is easier for me than international travel, but with the right tools and expectations, international travel can also be managed easily enough.

Internet connectivity does allow me to work anywhere in the world, but all Internet connections and data networks are NOT equal. I try to keep things I really need to be connected to for an hour each night at the hotel purchasing hi-speed Internet access. I use data for quick responses to emails with my smartphone through out the day.

The more you travel, the better you get at managing what you can do and what you’d better defer to your return home.

If you have your own travel tips you live by, share them by clicking comments.

 

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Your Smartphone Needs Firefox Too!

I Don't Want to Do AdWords!
Have alternatives to Google apps when you travel.

This is my last post on travel tips and lessons I learned from my 17 day trip to India. I had only Google Chrome installed on my smartphone. I had removed the Samsung browser before I left the office to streamline my applications. Here’s why you need more than just Chrome on your smartphone.

In Amsterdam, I could not get on the airport’s free Wi-Fi. Even though I had a VPN app, Chrome would not open the second screen which would allow me to accept the terms and so I could not use Wi-Fi.  Google decided that it simply did not like the security of the connection and so decided for me to lock down my access. Thanks Google. 🙁

To solve the problem, I downloaded Firefox for my smartphone later in my trip. Firefox let’s you be in charge of your own security and so it allowed me to login and accept terms on my return trip through Amsterdam. Then I could be connected to the free airport Wi-Fi and then allow me to choose to turn on my secure VPN app to surf, email, and work securely. You’ve just got to love the flexibility of Firefox!

The lesson learned is don’t depend solely on Google products and Google apps when you travel. Google can lock your access down, choose not to show Wi-Fi login screens, and in general restrict your Google.com, AdWords, and Gmail access. Make sure you have an alternative browser and secure VPN app to get online and stay secure when you travel.

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Tips on Keeping Your Laptop Secure on Hotel Wi-Fi

Opera VPN
Opera VPN is now available in the Opera browser.

Traveling to India for pleasure and trying to check in with the office and stay secure was a challenge. Here are some lessons I learned from my last trip.

First, make sure you have two browsers installed on your laptop. One for use and one for backup. I found that Google and Google Chrome sometimes did not like an insecure connection and would lock me out of all Google properties.

I downloaded Opera as a browser half way through my trip when I found out that it had an integrated VPN.  NordVPN, a standalone subscription services, which I thought I would use for secure access on my laptop, before my travel was crashed my Wi-Fi repeatedly and the software had to be removed before I left my office for my trip.

Limping along with my smartphone I was able to securely do some work. Using Opera as my browser for my laptop finally allowed me to work securely even over unsecured hotel Wi-Fi and even on networks that Google locked me out of using Chrome. To enable the integrated VPN, open Opera, go to menu on the left, then settings, then privacy and security and then tick to enable VPN.

Before I found Opera’s integrated browser VPN my smartphone was the most secure way for me to be in touch and even do work while in India. But it is hard to really do work on a smartphone.  You can download Opera for your own laptop and next trip by visiting this link to the Opera.com site.

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Charge Your Stuff Anywhere, Anytime

I’ve just returned from personal travel to India and wanted to share with you a few tips I learned along the way. There’s no need to be tethered to a charging station at the airport or miss an important call or suffer from a dead camera battery. Portable power packs are more practical and better than ever at keeping you charged anytime, anywhere!

My husband bought an Anker PowerCore 20000 with Quick Charge 3.0, 20000mAh Power Pack Portable Charger with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, for Samsung and iPhones from Amazon before our trip and it was worth its weight in gold!

This portable power pack fits in my purse and charges two devices at a time and only needs a recharge after several days use. I was able to charge smartphones and even my camera all while on the go. Just make sure that when you travel you put the power pack in your carry on as it should not go into packed luggage.

What I liked most was we were able to use the powered up charger on the go for about 3 or four days straight without having to charge up the power pack up again.  Sometimes at hotels we simply charged with the power pack and not even a wall charger.

I am not being paid for this review, just wanted to share a cool travel tool with you that has really worked for me.