Even under the finest circumstances, traveling for work can be stressful. You effectively pack up your entire business and take it on the road, whether you’re leaving for an overnight meeting, a week-long conference, or a lengthier project. Maintaining your technology becomes your top priority, aside from dressing appropriately. Check out our tech tips on everything to know before traveling with tech.

Use Free WiFi with Caution

Most places we go offer free WiFi, especially when traveling. Whether it’s at your hotel, café or library, free WiFi is available to you usually without a hard to remember password. These businesses make it convenient for the general public to use their WiFi, but it comes with a cost. A hacker can be running the wireless network you chose to check your email on whilst sipping a cappuccino. Most of the time, no on would suspect a difference, not even the shops staff.

Even if you are connected to a secure free network, someone might still simply intercept your data as it is being transmits through the air. What will help this issue is making sure to use a VPN, or only connect to wireless networks that need a password. As soon as you’re connected, check that the websites you visit have the little HTTPS lock.

Connect with your Mobile Device

Hotel WiFi is infamous for being unreasonably pricey or very slow. In this instance, you may find it useful if your mobile device allows you to set up a hotspot connection. That means you can connect your laptop to use your phone’s internet connection. Plenty of carriers offer this option, but not all. Most importantly, if you are traveling abroad, it may be more worthwhile to get a local SIM card rather than pay for expensive roaming charges.

Remember your Power Adapters

You’ve seen it before… people scrambling around looking for a charger trying to get just enough power to last a few more hours. Naturally this scenario is only funny when it happens to other people. To prevent it from happening to you, make sure you pack the correct power adaptors, cables and converters needed for your trip. Most airlines offer in flight charging now a days, so it’s worth carrying that USB cable around with you.

Make Preparations to be Offline

Sometimes it’s just impossible to go online, which is useless if you’re checking into a hotel and your reservation details are safely stored in your cloud email. It’s best to print out essential travel documents and if you don’t want carry it on you, you can save them as a document. Emails can be copy and pasted into a Word Document or simply save it as a PDF. Either way, have a way to access these documents in the case you will be offline. Many apps even have offline modes, like Evernote or Netflix, which allow you to save info and content on your device.

We hope you found this blog on everything to know before traveling with tech helpful and insightful.

Thinking about traveling soon? Need a VPN or a tech checkup before you leave? We can help!

Check out our recent blog post for some hacks that extend battery life.

Call us at (323) 761-2634. We’d be happy to assist you and all your technology needs.

We are located in West Hollywood, servicing the greater Los Angeles area!