I take this computer with me when I travel

I always carry my laptop with me when I travel.

Uses, not in any particular order.
- internet access (touring info, weather, restaurants, reservations, news, email, financial accounts), or just browsing for fun.
- digital photo backup from my camera - I also then copy files onto usb drives for a 2nd copy.
- photo viewing and editing. We enjoy looking at pictures at the end of each day - very real time enjoyment and memory reinforcing.
- emailing photos to family - real time and better than a post card picture without us in it 1 week later.
- DVD player - we bring along a few kids or family videos
- Video games - kids need their own downtime and they enjoy some video game time.
- Showing pictures to family or friends (instant slide show)

Laptop addict here. And I, too, have the Compaq 5lb notebook. DH has his own laptop which weighs more than mine so we leave his at home when traveling together.

On the road, we use the laptop for just about everything--picture copying (back-up) and viewing; email; searches (points of interest, restaurant info, mapquest, Fodor's, etc.); DVD(although DH utilizes this feature more than I); language lesson files for reading on the road (beats carrying books around and what I'm learning is reinforced by typing lessons into a file); and if DH is traveling on business he stores his talks / slides for review.

I bring the laptop. I use Skype, so it gives me a local phone to the states when I'm in the hotel room. I use it to play movies on the plane. I use it to download the bazillion gazigabytes of pictures my wife and I take with the digital cameras. We use it to stay in touch with our students.

dave

OMG! I feel so disadvantaged. How can can I learn to do all of this stuff in 9 months?

I take mine. My uses depend on the destination.

Best wishes,

Rex

>Skype
If get's even better. There are completely free alternatives to Skype! Check http://www.voipcheap.com/en/sip.html
you'll need to open an account and write down the "SIP settings" account and password given on this site. After that download SJPhone (free too) on http://www.sjlabs.com/sjp.html

You need to install it and configure the software with the "SIP settings" from Voipcheap. Working great! Free calls to landlines in many western countries incl the US. SWEET!!!

I first took my 7½# Compaq LTE with me in 2000 when I bought a digital camera and realized I could not afford memory cards for all the pictures I would take. I found it was so useful that I have taken a computer ever since. However, the weight was a problem, so I purchased a 2.4# NEC Mobile Pro (Window CE) and used it the next four trips. I have recently acquired a 2.9# Toshiba Portege, which I plan to take with me in the future.

Most of the places I stay in don’t have Internet access, so I visit a Cyber cafe about once a week to send emails with attached pictures (my version of postcards).

Every morning, while I have breakfast, I download pictures to my computer. It is no longer a question of camera memory card space, but it allows me to organize them as to date and place.

One of the most useful functions I have found for my computer is using Excel spreadsheets to save rail schedules before I go and to record my expenses as I go. However, the most useful purpose I have found is to create a “dummy” expense report before I go with all my known expenses (I book in advance and know from experience what my meal expenses will be). As I pay for something, I delete it. At any time I have a good idea of what it will cost to finish my trip, so when I go to the ATM the last time, I know what to get.

We bring our Blackberries which we use for phone calls, e-mails and to get on the internet to find all kinds of info. we may need, particularly restaurant reviews. Prefer it over the laptop as it is with us at all times during the day or evening and not stuck in the hotel room so can do research "on the fly". You don't need internet access or wi-fi and even has some games for the kids. Have used it in England, France and Italy with no problems.

We use an EpsonP2000 portable storage device for all our pictures.

After reading various posts on this site I bought an IPAQ pocket PC to use during my trip to Paris in April. I am currently using various programs on it to prepare for the trip (word, excel). I also plan on using a mapping program, possibly with gps, to pinpoint various locations that standout to me, while I am there.

Check out Microsoft Pocket Streets. For in-city navigation, there are several hundred free maps at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/downloads/pocketstreets/default.mspx

OK, a real stupid question I know but..how do you use a Blackberry for emails and to get onto the web if you don't have wifi or internet access? Thanks!

I used to take my wife as my navigator, but now I take my Garmin Streetpilot C330 and don't need a navigator anymore. I do bring my wife, though, and she loves not being the navigator.

I haven't found the need for a cell phone as of yet.

I am considering investing in a laptop for some sort of connectivity for e-mail/news/downloading photos, DVD movies, and the like. Don't want to invest a fortune though. Open to suggestions.

Blackberry is a cell phone. About 37 carriers in the States and many in Europe sell wireless internet connection through their GSM networks. But airtime charges apply.

The cheapest way (free) to access the internet from a portable device is to walk around and tap into an open WiFi network. Then you can surf, email, and talk anywhere in the world via Skype.

Budman,

I've been very happy with the Compaq--it's light, small (fits in my back pack) yet the keyboard is such that it contains my man-hands. As I can type up a storm, the keyboard was a deciding factor for me. Going to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. for a test drive really helped narrow down the search. If we had all the money in the world I would have splurged on the Sony, complete with webcam, but it cost about $2,000 which I could not justify given my needs. The Compaq's final cost at the register was @$1,100-1,200 (laptop, battery, MW set-up, etc.), it's been awhile so I'm not exactly sure. This was more than I intended to spend but I expect to have it a long time and it was the most user friendly for me...given my man hand situation (please tell me you watch Seinfeld!!!).

small = @ 9 x 13"

I take my Mac iBook with me and a blackberry.

I take the blackberry to receive text messages if necessary, plus it is my cell phone, and I use it before I arrive to get to the airport, and for when I get back home. I also have Cingular service, and I activate the world phone service, just for an emergency. I have an Italian cell phone that I use in Italy every day. But like I said, it costs nothing to receive messages, so I turn the Blackberry on every now and again to check if there are any urgent messages from home.

I take my iBook because I like to keep a diary while I am on vacation. I have even blogged, so that my family can enjoy my travels. To me, writing is relaxing and good for the soul, so I either write when I wake up or before I go to bed.

I also use the computer to store travel information, itinerary info, maps, etc, for reference while I am on a trip.

Lastly, I use the laptop to upload photos, and to back them up.

Oh, and I also have recently started taking DVD's with me to watch on those nights when there is nothing else to do, and for watching on the plane or train.

I guess I am pretty wired, but having these two devices has never kept me in my hotel or rental, or kept me from having a great meal, or enjoying a very full day on vacation. I just feel disconnected without them. I also like taking my laptop with me to internet points and using it instead of their computers...it is faster for me, as a Mac person, to access everything I need and am familiar with rather than using their computers. Some places have wifi, which makes it even easier, and they like me because I am not using one of their stations!

Spouse takes a PalmPilot. That's it, unless you want to count our digital camera.

Bkmarking

Thank you for explaining the Blackberry Robespierre! Your info was helpful to faredolce.

Do you store laptop in room safe when away from the room? I've just started traveling with my new MacBook Pro and love it. But, I always worry about leaving it in the room while I am gone. So far, the room safes have been large enough to accomodate the laptop. What do you do?

I have a 3.3 pound Acer with a 10-in screen. It's not the top of the line, but it's quick and small and does have a wireless card, and I've been able to rip some movies onto it for the plane rides. Other than that, I use it for email and web surfing. I'm addicted to email, and having web access in the room is good for maps and ideas of places to eat, etc. Also just nice to keep up with what's going on in the world.

All that being said, I doubt I would ever schlep it to Europe with me. States only so far (I didn't own it last year when I went to Ireland/England/France for a week).

It's fast enough for me and as I said, only 3.3 lbs. It has no internal optical drives, but it has a firewire port (and of course USB, great with the flash drives).

katiekate, see the attached.

http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/mobilesecurity/tp/securitycable.htm

For logos999:

VERY INTERESTED in your description of how to use Cheapvoip and Sjphone for calls from computers to regular phones. I'm now in "brain-drain" or some other kind of mental block. Simply stated, I can't get the setup you described to work for me yet - only part of the way there.

Cheapvoip runs just fine. Cheapvoip dials and rings to a landline phone with no problem.

But I can't figure out how the Sjphone part is supposed to work with Cheapvoip. It may simply be something that needs to be done to configure Sjphone correctly. And, yes, I have been studying the manual!

So, I am missing some key pieces of information that I hope you can provide. I don't want to tie up this topic with long "techno-babbling" so I'm more than willing to give you my email address for communicating directly if you are willing to do so.

Can we do that? Thanks in advance!

--mark--
ps: Love Munchen! (Must have something to do with my Bavarian Genes)

When traveling with my husband, we take his Toshiba Satellite tablet notebook, his 7100 and 7120 Blackberries (one UK and one Belgian) and his Palm Tungsten T3, although he doesn't use that one much. He uses them for keeping in touch with the office and clients, for doing work on the road, downloading photos, checking with the bank, for entertainment and, IMHO, because he just likes having them around.

When I travel solo on business, I take my Asus S6 (I did NOT get the pink one). When I travel solo on leisure, I just take my Sharp mobile phone and use it only for phone calls and text messages. And once in a while to shoot a photo of something if I don't have my camera with me.

>key pieces of information
It's not so difficult actually all you have to go to Menu /Options and select Profiles. Press New, enter a Name for it. Once you've done it you have to press "ok". In the next screen under SIP Proxy enter:
Proxy domain: sip.voiparound.com
User domain: sip.voiparound.com
check Register with proxy leave the rest as it was. You then will be asked for you you accout name and password. and you're ready.

I take my laptop, mainly for downloading photos, organizing and annotating them, and keeping a journal. I'm not a big movie person, so I don't use it for that. I have a 5 lb. My laptop is a 5 lb. IBM (now Lenovo) thinkpad T42, with a CD writer that I use to back up my photos to (after I lost priceless photos on my trip to Spain in 2004 when my computer hard drive crashed irretrievably).

I love it when I am able to use my laptop for WI FI internet access, but I won't go far out of my way to find free WI FI hotspots. If my hotel doesn't have WI-FI, forget it - and only one hotel on my recent 27-day trip to Europe had reliable and free WI-FI access. Some airports, including PDX here in the states have free WI-FI access, which is great! Instead of being stuck with nothing to do, I can drag out the laptop and access the internet.

I bought a cable lock before recently but then didn't use it. I did set up a bios password. While I would not lose my mind about the financial loss of the laptop itself, I am concerned about loss of the data the laptop contains. I back everything up to a desktop computer at home before I leave, but I would not want a thief to get access to personal data on my laptop.

I'm itching to find an excuse to get GPS set up on my computer but haven't found the right excuse for the cash outlay yet. (We had a rental car only for 3 days on our most recent trip, the rest of the trip by plane and train.) I don't expect we'd need the GPS that much for travel outside cities, as we've always done just fine with maps and following signs. But more times than I can count, we've had a dickens of a time finding our hotel inside the city. I think that rather than putting GPS on my laptopl, I'd get a hand-held unit I could also use in cities while walking.

I also have all my travel data meticulously organized into a Excell workbook, with a separate sheet for each city we'll be visiting.

In short, my laptop is just about part of my physical person. I depend on it so much that I wouldn't leave home without it without a great hue and cry.

Cash outlay for GPS: $80.

Knowing how to get to the hotel at midnight in Rennes: priceless.

In the rain. Rennes in the rain. I like that.

Travel is almost always leisure nowadays. Hence, we get to take our good old 4.9 lb Apple iBook G4 for photo downloads and viewing on the plane ride home, iTunes music, internet connectivity (wifi only and cable), DVD movies, travel information and maps.

I've traveled domestically with my laptop (Toshiba Satellite widescreen), using it for GPS (Microsoft Streets & Trips), downloading photos, checking email, surfiing the net for travel info, etc. I intend to take it with me for the same reasons when I go to the UK next year.

I would love to get into the phone home thing. When you use the computer as a phone can you actually call your family on their landline. Also if you have your US cell with an international plan can people from US call you at no cost to you.

It you take your laptop with you all you need is to follow the instructions on this site http://www.voipcheap.com/en/sip.html

>at no cost to you.
No, you still would be roaming abroad which will cost you money. Plus only landlines are free.

For logos999:

VoipCheap in combination with SJPhone is now working here! I NEVER would have figured out that the server addresses are actually "voipAROUND.com" instead of "voipCHEAP.com" on my own (nor is it covered in the SJlabs documentation. THANK YOU for that "key information!"

A couple other quickie questions: 1) Do you operate behind a firewall other than the one that comes with Windows XP?, and 2) If you use some other firewall, are the TCP and UDP port numbers in the SJlabs document the ones to enter into the firewall for the program to get the data through?

I'm hoping that I will be able to use this capability to call back to the US from Australia in an upcoming trip. If there are some other "glitches" it would be good to know what they are!

Again, MANY THANKS for your help. I'm now a happy camper!

--mark--

> firewall
Yes, it's working behind an external firewall here. Except for port 80 everything else can be blocked. It's still working! To circumvent firewalls the SIP technology uses a "STUN" server to tunnel the data, but as I said SJPhone is working anyway without explicity entering the STUN server address. No ports forwarded either!

One (off topic) thing. If you're thinking of upgrading your DSL, get an AVM fritzBox. from Germany. Not too expensive on ebay. It's a DSL adapter that fully supports SIP, you can hook up your ordinary phones and an ISDN or common phone line and use them for dialling over the internet or the standard way. No vistor will ever notice he/she's calling via VoIP They're free with most DSL contracts here.

Yikes What the heck is a SIP? I'd like to be able to call home (USA) from my laptop but I'm really intimidated by you guys. The skype seems simple enough but..........

I didn't have any idea about what a SIP was myself before getting this VOIP thing operating either! SIP refers to the term "Session Initiation Protocol" (SIP) and it is software placed on servers to handle VOIP tasks. That's STILL about all I know on the topic. I poked around a little after searching with Google using the term "SIP protocol server" but that's about as far as I went.

The rest of the time spent was to see if I could get logos999's suggestions implemented, and SLOWLY I managed to muddle through it.

Yesterday I was able to solve my remaining problem of getting my preferred software firewall configured to allow the VOIP data to pass through it. It just didn't seem to be too good of an idea to trust that the firewall built into Windows XP would make me secure enough. But now I don't have that worry!

That leads me to another question for logos999: Do you know of other SIP servers out there that would allow someone to use in place of the one at VOIPCheap? Seems like it would be good to know about other "backup" servers/paths out there that could be used.

--mark--

ps: placed a recent international call to someone's regular phone and it worked just fine...and at the right price.

You choice of providers is virtually unlimited and world wide. (contrary to Skype, it's an open standard.) Sipsnip, Sipgate and above all "Free World Dialup" www.fwd.com are only a few. All can be combined and most have gateways to other systems. FWD has a list of access points in the US and Europe, where you dial a (local) acces number and the enter the FWD number of the person you want to reach. So anybody can reach you for the cost of a local call. Free Washington state phone numbers linked to your account are also available.

The correct link is http://www.freeworlddialup.com/
Have fun!

Links to a few other services can be found here:
http://www.freeworlddialup.com/learnmore/?p=features&s=accessnumbers#peering

bm

I take a litle IBM thinkpad x24 from 2002. The drives are external and now I just use a flashdrive - weighs 1.5kg and I have a wireless card that plugs in. 30 gb harddrive.
You can pick them up on eBay for around $2-300 so I'm not worried about damaging or losing a valuable laptop.

I too take my laptop (Dell Latitude). Reasons I take it:
~Skype
~Download Pictures and then save to external device
~journal on the days happenings either early in the morning or late at night (taking notes just simply doesn't work for me ... I am very detailed)
~internet access (touring info, driving directions, etc.)

How is aol traveling to Portugal and Spain. Can you connect your computer to the landlines in these countries. I have DSL at home and will have DSL in Barcelona apartment. What about the other areas> What's everyones experience

For logos999:

Sitting here in Sydney and tried to do the voiparound connection for phone calls. Getting the dreaded "403 cannot connect" internet error.

I got the capability to work in the US but cannot get ping responses from stun.voiparound.com and sip.voiparound.com here. Are those address still working and maybe just blocked in Australia?

Alternative: are there other stun and sip servers that I might connect to here that would get a connection from Australia?

Thanx in advance!

It's not generally blocked in Australia, that's for sure. "Just" the access point you're using is. From my location on the T-Online network, pings don't work either but still the connect works. Try sip.voipcheap.com, STUN server: stun.voipcheap.com.
They offer free calls to.

markbook, to follow up on this, since I just had the same problem in a hotel in China, my solution was to put the PC/PDA into the DMZ of the network. Some networks restrict WLAn users in speed and port access. What I did was rather simple. Find your IP address that has been assigned to your PC and set another address in the same subnet manually. Your assigned address will most likely be 192.168.x.y, Leave the x as it is, but set y to something above 200 anf below 254 for a start. Set 192.168.x.1 for the gateway and DNS, if needed. Doing everything this way, you PC will just look like any ordinary PC at the reception , no more restrictions.

I just found this thread by searching for "PDA" so I'd love to hear more about applications for that use in travel. Just today I bought a (used) Palm Lifedrive on ebay and am looking forward to taking it on my next trip.

In 1998, my husband and I did a year long RTW trip with a Toshiba Libretto sub-notebook computer. That was in the era of (gasp!) dial-up connections and many a time we even had to hard wire connect into a hotel's phone system to get online. We kept a real time travelogue website of our trip and I still post my travelogues there today, though usually not from the road.

I am still looking for a computer to take with me since I will be in Europe for 6 weeks this trip. Sizewise I'd love a little sub-notebook, but the only inexpensive one I find is the Averatec. Anybody had any experience with that brand?

They are 699 at Sam's Club and 599 online, 4 lbs. 100 GB HD, media card reader, turion processor. Just can't find out much about the company, the quality or service.

Kristina -

Didn't catch your post in December. I think the most comprehensive list of travel applications is here: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=34474486

The Michelin GPS maps cited have been superceded by more comprehensive (and expensive) implementations.

But the freebies from microsoft.com/pocketstreets are still good.

I carry a 97-cent pocket-size pad and a ballpoint pen; maps, if needed; and a guidebook.

I know you ordered me to post somewhere else, Robespierre, but I've got a thing about authority figures. lol

Chacon a son gout!

Well - aren't you the clever one.

Robespierre-
Thanks for the link. The Microsoft programs look great, but I don't think they will work with Palm OS, will they?

BTW, I downloaded the free Metro software and it looks great.

I recently found a free list software called "Checklist" and I like it very much. I've already set up my packlist for my upcoming trip and today used it for a grocery list. What is nice is that it has a desktop version to sync up with your PDA.
http://www.papertrailsoftware.com/checklist/index.htm