Someone asked me recently to offer some of my favorite tips for those traveling and working virtually with technology, in the U.S. and internationally. Here they are.

• Do not depend on the infrastructure, electricity, phone lines, or Internet access in remote areas of the U.S. and in many international locations.
• Carry currency adapters for conversion of electricity outside of the U.S.
• Carry a clear copy of your passport in a secure place, separate from your checked luggage and separate from where you carry your passport. It is possible to return to the U.S. with a photocopy of your passport, and it is useful to show to the Embassy if your passport is stolen.
• If you are staying in a modern hotel, verify before you travel, by phone (by Skype, or online to the hotel’s website) what access is available in your room, and in the business center, for what prices (they may be different).
• In Qatar, online access was expensive in my room, but free for one hour in the business center.
• I have found that email correspondence to make arrangements for service in other countries does not guarantee results, and is not treated as the same level of communication as it is in the States.
• Segment your email addresses to use one for your priority email. This way you can avoid downloading the other addresses until it is convenient.
• Carry your wireless card with you at all times, in case you can access the Internet via cell phone tower, and avoid other access, which may be unreliable or expensive.
• Fully charge your cell phone before traveling. Carry your charger with you, separate from your checked luggage. Carry a 2nd battery for your cell phone, and/or one of those remote chargers you can buy at drugstores.
• On your computer, protect your passwords and private information; when in doubt about the security of the line, find other access, or wait. Once your password is stolen, the hassle-factor of fixing it is expensive and time-consuming.
• If you are traveling to remote areas that may require dial–up, make certain you have a dial-up provider installed and on contract.

* Carry your own phone cords, and a connector so you have a phone cord at least 25 feet long (you may have no other way to reach the socket).
* Carry a “double-line” adapter – in case you need to use your phone cord in one but keep the other phone line active in the other.
* Working in Shanghai in 1997, we used these tools to borrow our joint-venture partner’s fax line after hours to get online to AOL in Hong Kong to retrieve our mail. In our company of 26 employees, there was one phone line and one fax line. We had one of each because the Company was favored by the Government. China has moved ahead since then, but many countries have not.

• Use a password on your computer at the Start level.
• Use a password within your applications to protect all confidential information, especially banking information, any list of security codes or passwords, etc.
• Keep your computer with you at all times. Do not check it through baggage at the airlines. Keep it locked in your carry on luggage on the plane.
• Do not leave your computer out in any hotel room, no matter how high-end the hotel. Lock it in the safe whenever you leave the room. If there is no room safe, lock it in your luggage whenever you leave the room.
• Leave your “do not disturb” sign on your door when you are out.
• Carry blank flash drives and discs to receive information that may not be available to reach you in any other way.

* These are also useful for transferring files for printing (often the technology breakdown in hotels is about printing, and you don’t want to have to find the local Kinko’s).

• Carry your second computer battery always.

*Before traveling, charge both your batteries fully.

• Before traveling, copy your hard drive to your remote drive, and make two additional copies on flash drives, DVD discs, or external drives.

* Leave one copy where someone you trust can send it to you in an emergency; carry the other with you, but separate from your computer in a secure and locked place.
* A California colleague of mine had a computer crash in London two days before a major presentation. He flew round trip to L.A. to retrieve his backup copy, as he had backed it up but not carried it with him, and not arranged for anyone to be able to send it on to him. Don’t leave home without it!

A hassle to do all this? Consider the consequences of not doing them. Sometimes to live successfully in such a fast-paced world, we need to slow down just enough to make the going smoother.

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