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A Tech Checklist for Every Traveler
The Travel Technologist · January 4, 2001

Think you know everything there is to know about traveling with technology?

Think again. Just when you've encountered every computer, telephone, and power-related challenge on the road - and solved it, thank you very much - fate throws you for a loop. Or a short-circuit.

An exasperated reader reminded me of that just last week. On a recent business trip to Germany, Patricia Doran Walters of Charlottesville, Va., couldn't make a connection between that country's new digital phones and her analog modem. No one had warned her about the incompatibilities. No one offered a solution. "I was at my wits' end," she wrote.

I shared her frustration on a trip to - of all places - Austria. This time, I hadn't bothered to determine what kind of power adapters I'd need on the road, and I paid a dear price for it. For the first few days, until I could resolve this power-impaired trip, I looked like a bad imitation of Don Johnson in Miami Vice. My razor didn't work.

So I've developed my own tech checklist for future trips. I'm going to post these on my office bulletin board so that the next time I travel, I don't forget something:

Do you have all the right connections? It's not just a question of dial-up versus wireless, copper versus fiber. Attention must be paid to the minutest detail of the interface. What kind of plugs or adapters are needed on your end and the other end. Read up. In Germany alone, there are at least three different kinds of phone outlets - which doesn't include the digital adapter that you may need. A good resource for all that information is the Teleadapt Web site.

Are your prepared for the unexpected? You should be. Ever heard of tax impulsing? Well, if you haven't, consider yourself fortunate. It's one of the least welcome surprises a road warrior can get. You plug your modem into a hotel phone socket, make a connection and - zap! - the line goes dead. This has happened to me in Austria and Switzerland, where for each minute or so you're on the phone, an intermittent 16-kilohertz tone is sent through the line to keep track of your phone time. It doesn't affect your phone conversation but it's enough to interfere with your modem connection. Better carry a filter with you just in case.

Have you got the power? Of course you already know that it's better to not pack a toothbrush than to forget your transformers and adapters. After all, you can buy a new toothbrush anywhere. But getting the right plugs can be a different story. On my most recent trip, I was certain that I'd taken everything I needed with me, but it didn't work out that way. Turns out that the 220-volt plug that attached to my laptop's adapter didn't quite fit into the European outlets. This didn't just affect my shaver, but also my ability to use my mobile computer and ultimately, get any work done. (Eventually I improvised a little and made the plug fit, but it looked dangerous. Kids, don't try this at home.)

Is your PC ready to travel? Probably not. My Gateway portable needed some serious attention before I left, and true to the procrastinating kind of guy I am, I waited until the morning of my trip to begin the data transfer using PCSync. Big mistake. I'm convinced that computers can sense human urgency. The more stressed we get, the less cooperative they become. As the hour of my departure drew nearer, everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. I ended up leaving the country with a computer that lacked even a basic Internet connection. Just to give you an idea of how pathetic my connection turned out to be: in Europe, I had to manually input a connect script each time I log on to the Internet. Just like the good old days.

Do you have a backup plan? Some of the more hard-core business travelers I've interviewed for this column actually carry two laptop computers. That's a little excessive, particularly when the very same thing can be accomplished with a Web-based e-mail service or a unified messaging system like etrieve. Do you carry a spare set of phone wires? How about spare battery? You can't assume that there's always going to be a hardware store or a Circuit City close to where you're staying. I'm out in the country, about 30 miles north of Vienna as I write this. My backup plan, should my phone cord go missing, is to either wait until I go to town or just not do any work. I don't like either choice. I probably could have planned this trip better.

Are you still wireless? Travelers make all kinds of assumptions about their phone lines, power and hardware. However, one of the most embarrassing - and indeed, dangerous - assumptions is that the cell phone will work anywhere. It won't. Now I could go on ad infinitum about the virtues of GSM versus the analog clunkers we use here in the States. And some of you would probably then write in telling me how I got it wrong. Let me spare you all that. Instead, a gentle reminder of the various standards that are used worldwide. The solution? I'm currently testing a Motorola satellite phone that pretty much renders these differences irrelevant. Just point the antenna at the sky and - voila! There's your connection.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Annapolis, Md. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site.