Picture this: You’re sitting down in between meetings on a business trip, and you need to send a few quick e-mail messages and an image or two. You pull out your handy-dandy USB 3G Internet dongle, but no luck. Undaunted, you start looking around for an open Wi-Fi network, but no dice. Even your smartphone Internet is mysteriously down. Is this a nightmare? Nope–just another day for a business traveler lost in the wilds of mobile Internet.
Don’t let this happen to you. Check out our 10 road-tested tips for getting your work done by any Internet connection necessary.
Don’t rely on one network for mobile Internet access:
Slow mobile broadband? Try switching spots–even if you’re getting a great signal: Getting five bars on your mobile-broadband signal doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the best data speeds, especially if you’re in an area with lots of cellular-network traffic. Although the signal-strength indicator does tell you how strong your connection is to the nearest signal tower, it doesn’t tell you how busy that tower is.
That means that you (and everyone else in the area) could have a splendid connection to a tower that is so overloaded it can’t send data along the network fast enough. Oddly, sometimes your signal strength will be worse, but your overall speeds will be better since you’re connecting to a tower that’s less busy overall.
Bring your own gear for hotel-room Wi-Fi:
If you’re leery about lugging all of that gear around, remember this: Your room’s ethernet could be a 1-foot-long cable sticking out of the landline phone. You might be able to get your work done with your laptop on your bedside table, but your back will never forgive you.
Test your speed before uploading large files:
Use protection on open Wi-Fi hotspots:
Come down from the cloud: It’s easier than ever to keep your work in the cloud without disrupting a traditional work environment–that is, until someone pulls the plug. Make sure to have a solid set of offline tools so that you can still work when you’re disconnected, and keep local copies of anything business-critical (your schedule, for example). Maintaining a record can be as simple as saving a Google Doc as a Word doc, or taking a quick screenshot of your to-do list on your smartphone before you head to the airport.
If you depend on Google services, grab Google Gears. Even though Google effectively abandoned it more than a year ago, it still allows you to access your Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, and a few third-party apps like Remember the Milk without an Internet connection. It’s already built into Chrome, but it also supports Firefox and Internet Explorer in Windows, and Firefox in OS X.
Bring a better Wi-Fi stumbler: Still using Windows’ built-in Wi-Fi panel in the taskbar? Before you hit the road, pick up a more powerful utility such as NetStumbler or InSSIDer. Unlike Windows’ built-in Wi-Fi signal meter, these apps will give you a good look at which networks have a consistently strong signal over time, which networks are on overlapping channels, and so on. This information is particularly useful when several usable networks are in the area and you want to know which one will give you the best reception without having to try them all out one by one.
Try to find the Wi-Fi access point: Even the fastest Wi-Fi cards can’t help you if you’re too far from the access point itself. Try to find the actual hardware access point itself, and sit near it. In public spaces, check near any labeled “charging station” areas and scan the ceiling for any boxes labeled with networking equipment brands (Cisco, D-Link, Netgear, and so on). Coffee shops often have them in plain view near any phone/ethernet wiring. If you can’t find it, you can use the Wi-Fi scanners mentioned above to check your signal strength while walking around the room, though you’ll look like you’re using your PC to dowse for water.
Plan your trip with Internet in mind:
Starbucks is your best friend:
Have your own tips for disconnected road warriors? Share them in the comments!