Feature: Tips for Setting Up a Summer Office

With summer approaching, you're about to spend a chunk of time in a vacation rental. Maybe it's two weeks in the Hamptons, three weeks at Lake Tahoe, or three months on Golden Pond ("The loooons, Norman! The loooons!").

Whatever your plan is, I'm going to live vicariously through you. And because I'm a giver, I'm also going to help you. The way I see it, you'll still need to check e-mail, go online, and keep up with business during your extended absence. So this week I've got tips for setting up a notebook-based, home-away-from-home office.

Plan for Your Internet Access

First, figure out how you'll go online. Does the vacation home have DSL or cable access? If not, is there a nearby cafe, bookstore, FedEx Kinko's, or other place with wireless Internet access? You can browse for Wi-Fi locations using PC World's Hotspot Finder.

A broadband connection over a third-generation cellular network might be another option--but such services are still limited to major metropolitan areas.

Satellite Internet access is unlikely to be a viable option, unless the place where you're staying is equipped. The service often requires a long-term agreement of 12 months or longer, plus hefty installation fees of several hundred dollars, and monthly fees of $75 and up.

If all else fails, there's always a dial-up connection. Just remind yourself: Life is supposed to slow down when you're on vacation.

Take Your Office Phone With You

If your summer home has broadband Internet access, maybe now's the time to consider a Voice over IP phone service.

VoIP lets you make and receive phone calls over a high-speed Internet connection. In effect, your phone system travels with you. For instance, calls made via your VoIP service from a South of France vacation home (lucky vous) are no more expensive than calls you'd make from your office in the U.S. Clients and colleagues could dial your U.S. office number, paying whatever long-distance tolls they'd normally incur (if any), and voilà--you'd answer the phone in the South of France. To outsiders, it's as if you never left your office.

Downsides? Mais oui. (Don't worry. Except for "Frere Jacques," I've now exhausted my French vocabulary.) If your broadband connection goes down, so does your VoIP phone service. And some VoIP services don't work with the 911 emergency-call system. For more about VoIP, visit our Info Center on the subject.

Most people will probably be fine relying on a cell phone for business. But before you pack your bags, find out how strong your wireless carrier's signal is where you'll be staying. If it's weak or nonexistent, consider having your office phone calls forwarded to a landline phone in your vacation home. Call forwarding adds $3 to $4 per month to your phone bill.

Pack a Keyboard and Input Device

Plan on working more than, say, an hour each day? If so, pack an external keyboard and input device.

For ergonomic reasons, your notebook screen should be at eye level. That may require placing your portable PC on top of some books, which makes typing on the laptop's keyboard or using its input device impractical. Solution: Position an external keyboard and mouse or trackball below the notebook.

Plenty of cordless keyboards and input devices are available. You'll save money if you buy a wireless keyboard/mouse combination. Keep in mind you may need to plug a wireless transmitter for the keyboard and mouse into a USB port on your notebook. Given that USB ports are often scarce on notebooks, you may also need a USB hub that lets you connect multiple devices to a single port.

Check out our roundup of cordless keyboard and input devices, "Walk on the Wireless Side."

Consider Your Printing Options

Folks with frequent printing needs should pack a printer. If your desktop printer isn't too big, take it along. Otherwise, consider buying a portable printer. There's not much to choose from in this category, but here are two options:

• Canon's Pixma IP90 ($200 to $250) weighs only 4 pounds but produces good-quality prints, says PC World reviewer Paul Jasper.
  
  
• Hewlett-Packard's Deskjet 450 mobile printers ($250 to $350) have been around for several years now. Nonetheless, the Deskjet 450 models, which weigh just over 4 pounds each, are a solid choice, producing good-looking color and black-and-white prints.
  
  

Eric Butterfield covers a few more products in his May Print Shop.

If you occasionally need to use a printer, consider online services such as PrintMe and FedEx Kinko's. These services let you send your print job over the Internet, then pick it up at a predetermined destination. I'll review both in an upcoming newsletter.

Other Considerations

Faxing. I'm a fan of EFax, which offers both free and paid ($13 monthly) online faxing services. Once you've installed the free EFax software, you can fax documents directly from most applications, such as Microsoft Word. Incoming faxes are received as e-mail attachments in EFax, JPEG, or PDF formats. (In my opinion, PDF is the easiest option for archiving and sharing your faxes.)

Backup. Computer Death never takes a holiday. So take along some blank CDs, DVDs, or a flash-memory drive and back up your hard drive frequently. For how-to advice and backup product reviews, browse the PC World site.

For more ideas, read Michael Lasky's "How to Set Up a Great Home Office."