Internet has changed people’s lives. Today you can travel to the remotest corners of the world and be aware of everything that happens at home and everywhere else in the world. Here are a few tips for those who always wanted to be in the spotlight and do not want to keep in touch via the phone calls.
Adopt a virtual mailbox
In case if you are reading this you probably already have some sort of e-mail. If not – quickly rewound it! Well, it can be done from the list of the options, while the most popular ones are Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. These mailboxes you will have access at any time from any computer anywhere, while using Outlook or any other similar e-mail program, you will be checking your email only on your own laptop. You can use Gmail to manage all your e-mail-addresses: you have to configure this program so that it will have “selected” letters sent to the other boxes. You can not only read the message, but send them to all of the registered addresses, using all the same unique account-Gmail.
Scan all relevant documents
What is the sense of buying an insurance policy, if in the critical moment it is not at hand? Before leaving, scan all important documents and put them in the mailbox. Perhaps some believe it to be more reliable to leave a copy on disk of the laptop, but the thieves can steal not just the paper, but also the gadgets. If everything will be in the network, you will have access to the documents whenever you need it and print out the necessary documents in the internet cafe. You can also save your mail and other important information – passwords, or bank accounts. Remember: there is always the chance that your box will have access cracker, so it’s much the better to encrypt the sensitive information. For example, to include among the correct digits your previous account number or your old phone number
Web chat
You, of course, a lot of friends with whom you are dealing with various programs are among the instant messengers. But this fact is rather uninteresting that they will be installed on most of the computers in Internet cafes. However, you can always chat with friends online, without installing them on your computer- using special chats on the network. This can be done on such portals as Meebo.com, Google Talk. MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ. MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ. If you use Google Talk, you’ll find chat directly into your mailbox, Gmail.
Bring a USB-stick
Nowadays you can buy USB-drives at a very cheap price. Thus, the flash with a couple of gigabytes will cost you no more than a cheap ticket to a concert. It fits a lot of information in different formats. You can use it to store hundreds of photos and a variety of files that will always be with you and the only thing that you will need is to turn on the computer. Some USB-drives can even encrypt the information – this is an excellent safe way to always have the necessary documents on hand. So try to get the best flash card you can!
Open an account at any social networking site
Most people have accounts in different social networks. You do not have to lay out there your stories and personal photos, you can just create an account only to be constantly in touch with family, friends, colleagues and partners knowing where they are and when you will able to assign them to a meeting. Needless to haul around a heavy paper of notebooks, just save your contact information on Facebook! This is something that will help you out to save your time.
Buy a Wi-Fi detector
Every time checking out whether you can access to the Internet even on your own laptop is very tiring. This small useful device, costing only a small sum of money, and it can turn into a true salvation of this problem. It will reliably tell you if there’s some signal nearby. Wi-fi-detector does not occupy much space in your backpack and, like a flash drive does not strongly affect the weight of the baggage. Although it is unlikely to require those who travel solely on developing third world countries where the internet access is something desirable for the population. But if you regularly visit Europe and the rich countries in Asia, you will be amazed to learn that there are so many places where you can find wireless Internet! By the way, to find free wi-fi you can use such useful sites as FreeWifiSpot.com and jiwire.com.
Put money into your Skype account
Every traveler knows the enormous telephone bills that must be paid upon return from abroad. Skype – a great way to save money. To those friends who have an account with Skype, you can say, paying only web traffic (and if you’re in the zone of Wi-Fi you’ll get it free, if not then you’ll have to pay some small sum of money). However, there is often a need to call the bank, an insurance company, which will have a long time to communicate with voice mail. Such a mobile phone call can be ruined, while talking through a computer and in case of Skype you’ll only need to pay almost nothing. Using Skype is so easy that you don’t really need any instructions with dealing with it, so that even you can teach how to use it to very technically illiterate people.
Configure Google Reader
Most large modern sites have RRS-channels through which readers are broadcasting all of the updates. If you want to read your favorite RRS-tape, not only from your computer, then you simply need to set up Google Reader. You will always know the latest news and all your settings and history will be preserved and accessible. If you already have an account in Gmail, you need only click on the tab in Google Reader. Seeing an interesting portal, simply click on the icon RRS – so you get the ability to easily and without any time-consuming to track changes in more than a hundred sites.
