If you are traveling overseas, Carly has some useful links on her Foreign Language Technologies pages that we recommend travelers look at before leaving. If you are looking for the right kind of correct power adapter for your computer or other charging devices, try http://countrycode.org/, where you will find images of all the different types of plugs, where they are used, and more information than you ever wanted to know about power in foreign countries.
Securing
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Your Data
Laptops are stolen all the time , when you are while on campus or traveling abroad. We don't always think about it, but our laptops hold an incredible amount of personal information. Your information—your address book, your internet history with all those financial websites you go to (online banking, credit cards, phone services, insurance companies, etc.), any method of storing passwords, documents that contain confidential information... the list goes on. Take a few extra precautions with your equipment, even if it means extra hassle when you start up your computer or wake it up from sleep.
- Set your computer to ask for a password to log in, do . Do not have it log in automatically.
- Change the sleep and screen saver settings to also require a password , or log out or shut down every time you leave your computer for any amount of time.
- Keep if you must have them with you, keep confidential files and files with personal information stored on a flash drive rather than on your laptop, if you must have them with you.
- Secure the files that are confidential, so you have a password to even view all those important numbers and passwords.
- If you are using a public computer in a business, keep in mind that these computers are monitored, but that it is still easy for people to get information from the computers about previous users.
- Consider getting a theft tracking program for your computer. Most of these aren't terribly expensive, and a lot of people swear by them.
- Consider also getting a physical lock of some sort. Most laptops have a slot for a locking mechanism, and a simple online search provides a number of possible locks. Though these are not guarantees against theft, they are deterrents and can cause a potential thief to pass your equipment over in favor of someone else's.
Many of these apply to mobile phones, external hard drives, mp3 players, and other electronics.
Wireless
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Tips
As more and more people travel with their computers, it is important to know about common wireless practices, particularly because of the ways in which wireless can hinder checking email. Here are a few tips and reminders to take with you on the road.
- Most free wireless is not secure- be secure—be very careful where you log in , and what files are on your computer. (Don’t know why this is important? See “Why Secure Matters” below.)
- Commercial establishments (airports, hotels, coffee shops, etc) require you to check in and agree to their terms and conditions. Ask at the front desk or the employees for how to register if you are not redirected to the gateway page.
- You must open the browser first and register or agree to the terms and conditions before any other program will be able to connect to the internet (such as mail programs, chat programs, online help resources for Word and other programs, etc.) will be able to connect to the internet.
- You will probably have to register every day in hotels, etc., since because they traditionally reset everything once a day. (In the case of hotels, it's usually in the afternoon for hotels, since because checkout is typically late morning.).
- Unless you know the wireless is high-speed and has little traffic, try using the basic client of Zimbra, by clicking on the link that says basic on the log in page, or go to https://mail.carleton.edu/h/. This will load much faster than the advanced client.
- Need to access your Home, Courses, or Collab folders? You still can, just not as conveniently as from on campus. Go to https://home.its.carleton.edu/, and you will be able to log into the web interface for the network folders.
- When free wireless is advertised, make sure that there is a named provider and that it isn’t always listed as free wi-fi. Recently, there have been a rash of businesses that are providing free wireless, and the provider is monitoring all that occurs on the network. Big name wireless providers are still the most trustworthy.
Why Secure Matters
These days, wireless is one of the easiest ways to get confidential information from someone else’s computer. Insecure wireless can very easily be hacked: what hacked—what you do online can be monitored and replicated, files on your computer can be copied and read, and other information can be taken from your computer. If you have a file that you would prefer not to be public, it is recommended that you do not have it on your laptop when traveling and using wireless. (For example, store it on a flash drive and use the file when you aren’t online.) . Be particularly mindful of documents of any type that list your usernames and passwords to for specific sites. Even a small bit of personal information in the hands of a skilled hacker can reveal far too much information about you and allow them this person to steal your identity and cause all sorts of problems.