Staying Connected While Traveling

Whether you're a full time RVer, a trucker, or just an occasional traveler, I'm sure you've experienced a few frustrations staying connected with friends, family and the Internet while you're on the road. Cell phones have been a great help, but leave a lot to be desired when it comes to being connected to the Internet, and their range is sometimes not what you'd like it to be. And unless you buy the national free long distance plan, they can get pretty expensive when you have to pay roaming charges.

Here are a couple suggestions for staying connected while you travel the highways and byways of the USA.

Cellular Phones:

Think about where you will be using our cell phone. If you travel a lot you should buy a plan with free nationwide with no roaming fees. If you don't leave your area much, maybe a regional plan would be more cost effective. If you only want a cell phone for emergencies, then maybe a no-contract plan would be better than a high priced contract plan. Compare rate plans and phones of all the major carriers plus some no-contract options at our Cellular Phone site.

Long Distance:

When you're traveling you're bound to need to call long distance once in awhile, even if you do have a cell phone. Don't buy a prepaid calling card that might expire before you've used all the time on it. Instead, try prepaid long distance that allows you to call from any phone in the 48 contiguous states for 1.9¢ per minute and your minutes never expire. There are no connection fees or maintenance fees.

Internet Access:

More and more hotels are including high speed Internet in their rooms. Some still require an Ethernet wired connect, but many have gone wireless. We highly recommend getting a wireless card for your laptop if you want to stay connected to the Internet while traveling. There are a couple ways to go wireless. One is to buy a wireless card for your computer, and then only book hotels that offer wireless connectivity or look for free "hot-spots" in the area you're visiting. Or you can purchase a wireless Internet account and a Wireless Internet air card from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or Alltel and stay connected anywhere you have cellular service.

If you just need occasional dial-up access to the Internet, consider MGlobe prepaid Internet Access at less than 1¢ per minute for local access in the United States. No monthly fee, just pay as you use it.

If you still feel you need a nationwide month to month ISP account, we recommend you try Copper.net. You can get a 3 month trial for just $1, or Basic ISP that gives you Internet access for just $6.95 per month.

E-mail Account:

If you do drop your ISP, you'll need an e-mail account. Many have already discovered the convenience of free web based e-mail programs like gmail, hotmail.com or yahoo.com, but there are others out there that work just as well. Look for a service that does not deluge you with advertising and one that has fast page loads. If you're careful about who you give your e-mail address out to, you shouldn't get a lot of spam, but if you do start getting spam, try another service. Some of these free services might be selling your e-mail address. Read their terms and conditions before signing up.

If you want to be able to check your personal POP3 based e-mail account on someone else's computer, try email4WEB.com - it's a free service. You just need your username, password, and Mail Server name. Check your settings file on your e-mail program at home to find the info you need.

Free Voice-mail and Fax to E-mail

k7.net is a free voice-mail to e-mail and fax to e-mail product. Numbers they assign are 206 area code numbers in the Seattle, WA. area. If you are interested in this type of service, but need a toll free number, the people who give us K7 also sell a toll free product called Kall8.

Free Voice-mail

Laser Voice Mail is a free program that gives you a Seattle, WA phone number for voice-mail. Unlike K7, above, you retrieve your message via phone rather than by e-mail. Get more information and sign up by calling 206-376-1000. You might want to consider getting a toll free number to ring to this service.

Faxing - In and Outbound:

If you need the capability to send faxes from your computer, please visit our Fax to Email page for a cost effective solution that allows you to send faxes from anywhere in the world as attachments to an e-mail at US phone rates.

I hope you'll find some of these ideas helpful. We're continuously looking for new services to help our clients communicate better for less.

 

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