Basic Tips of Staying Online While Traveling

Most of my friends are crazy about traveling. For some of them, this as a perfect opportunity to run away from work while others want to stay online even when traveling to a different country. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't want to be out of touch after leaving a country. So I came up with these basics for staying online while traveling based on my experience and hope this could be helpful for someone else.

Tip #1 - Take an extra phone with you

Sometimes you need to be reachable at your current phone number to receive an urgent call. In this case, taking one extra phone will let you use a local cellular network, get a cheaper wireless data plan and navigate through the city with Google Maps. You may use a dual-SIM phone, but that's not the best solution because of a short battery life of these devices.

Tip #2 - Stick to public WiFi hotspots

If you're traveling to a big city, there are usually many places where you can connect to the WiFi hotspot strong enough to make a Skype call or chat in Viber. Be sure to install one of the apps with passwords & comments for Wi-Fi hotspots (like wifimap.io). Public WiFi will also help you to download documents from Dropbox or Google Drive and to send large email attachments.

Tip #3 - Sync important files with your mobile devices

If there's a chance that you would need some documents or data - add them to your dropbox. Create a separate folder for big files and disallow syncing it in your Dropbox client to save some space. If you want to stay connected with your Outlook data, use AkrutoSync for syncing Outlook with iPhone or any Android or Windows Phone device. With this software, you can receive updated data from Outlook on remote desktop and/or change it from your mobile phone or tablet. It works for Outlook Contacts, Calendars, Notes and Tasks.

Tip #4 - Stay connected with your home or work PC

From time to time, I'm facing a problem when I need to use some specific software that I only have on my PC. For example, a 5-minute work in Photoshop for my client could turn into hours of downloading and installing this software on my laptop. You never know when you'll need something that's stored on your home PC's HDD. This is why I always use TeamViver on my desktop. With a little tweaking, I can remotely turn on my PC and perform small tasks within minutes.

Tip #5 - Use your mobile device into a WiFi hotspot

Almost any modern smartphone has a built-in hot-spot functionality. That means you can create your own Wi-Fi hotspot and share the Internet with your friends or family. This function unties your hands and lets others use their own devices for accessing the Internet and performing simple tasks without buying a separate wireless data plan from the local carrier.

That's it. Hope you found something helpful that will simplify your travel and let you keep your digital life ON when you're abroad!