Laptop for travelling info needed.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

If all goes right, I should be taking a long vacation in August (1 to 2 months) and plan to travel around the U.S.

I plan on buying a laptop so I can keep up with the internet (and other things). My Questions are about internet service in Hotels.

1. Some offer data ports which I assume are the phone jack that is in the side of the hotel phone. I am assuming it is for a modem hookup. Is this correct?

2. Some advertise High speed internet. I use ATT DSL and have a router. Do I need to travel with the router, or is the hookup in the hotel a network style connection and you just open a browser and away you go? This is my preferred option as I have Magic Jack and can phone home without the ridiculous charges hotels charge for phone calls.

3. What about Wi-Fi? I see this advertised also. What do I need to connect with Wi-Fi?

I am not asking for specific brand advice as I know what brands I like and don't like. Just need education on the above topics

Thanks in advance. I know a lot of you travel and take laptops with you, so I should get a good picture as to what is going on and how it all works.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Richard;
When I was motelling it in the fall of 2007 I logged into the motel's wireless router from my room, via a wireless adapter card I bought. Some hotels and motels have unsecured routers that anybody can log into, while others sell you a passcode to gain access. Consider all wireless routers in motels, hotels and coffee shops to be unsafe for business use. Unless you are shown that these routers are secure (requires a WPA2 security code to use the router) from "man-in-the-middle" (MITM) attacks, don't log into a bank, or PayPay, or eBay, or your FTP site, unless you are using your own MITM protection onboard.

MITM protection features data encryption on the fly as you enter key codes. It also provides you with a virtual keyboard that you use via your mouse or the arrow and enter keys. This prevents keyloggers from recording all of your login keystrokes from your keyboard. Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro version has a virtual keyboard and encryption included, along with other protection needed by mobile laptop users in motels or hotels. It may be worth considering before you begin the vacation/trip. (The standard PC-cillin does not include these features)

If you have a room with an Ethernet jack you still cannot assume that the router has not been taken over by a hacker or criminal. The only safe router is one that is watched over by a trained administrator and I don't think you'll find one at the Super 8 Motel. In fact, I had to reboot their router every other night, when it lost sanity and broke all connections and nobody on the desk knew what to do (I got permission from the owner). In this case I could log onto the router as an Administrator and see if anything unwanted was going on. Most guests are not granted this much trust.
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Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

This brings up a question. She who must be obeyed and I travel back East every fall. My HP lap top is wireless, but finding connect points is some time difficult. This year we will be spending some time in the woods, about 10 miles away from civilization.
My understanding is that I can buy an AT&T connect card to insure I can get on anywhere.

Do I have that right, or is that card only for laptops that don't have wireless capability and wouldn't do what I hoped?
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Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

In my response about mobile security problems I forgot to mention that webmail (browser) accounts are not safe either. If the router in the (h/m)otel, or the Ethernet plugs in the walls have been compromised with a keylogger that program can steal the login credentials for your webmail accounts as well. Criminals and spammers are busily stealing logins to Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail accounts to use them to send spam and links to malware laden websites, from trusted email sources.

Here is an article all about this problem.
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"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog

John Cipriano · From: San Francisco

Richard: any new laptop you buy now will have Wi-Fi built in. Wi-Fi is the trademark/brand name of a group of IEEE wireless standards that deal with the lower layers of network (basically, how you actually physically connect)...IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g, etc. Also called wireless networking. If you get a laptop that does not have a wireless card built-in, you can get an external card (it'd probably be USB or PCMCIA). My advice is to buy new and just make sure you get one with Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The other way to get online at a hotel room is with Ethernet. Again, Ethernet sort of refers to the physical layer of the network (it's more complicated than that but there's no need to get deep into it), and Ethernet is wired. Though technically it's not correct to do so, everyone usually refers to Ethernet as LAN (rhymes with ran) because Ethernet is a mouthful. LAN port, LAN cable, etc. And Wi-Fi is sometimes called Wireless LAN or WLAN.

Ethernet is different from, though not unrelated to, a phone jack. It's a mod plug, which means it looks like a telephone plug with the clear square tip and little locking tab, but in this case it's wider and has more wires inside (8, whereas phone plugs will have 4 or 6). Some laptops will have both Ethernet and phone/modem but many now don't have the phone.

I think you already knew that part though. Anyway nowadays when a hotel says "data" they usually mean Ethernet. There was a time when it was all phone lines but by now any place that couldn't afford to roll out LAN ports to the desks has put in wireless routers.

Anyway some of the smaller laptops are losing the Ethernet port as well, but most still have it. You will want a computer with an Ethernet jack and a short Ethernet cable. But even if you get one without an Ethernet jack, you can get a USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

The hotel room provides the routers, whether wired or wireless.

Like Wiz said, there are security risk that come with being on someone else's network. Maybe avoid doing online banking from a hotel room internet connection. If you have to, change your password right after. In the case of wireless, try to be sure you're actually on the hotel network. Sometimes people will advertise a "false" network and do what Wiz said. Just be careful when it comes to the banking I guess.

The price is nice on the "netbooks" like the ASUS EEE PC but just know in advance that they do not have CD/DVD drives.

--

Ken, I think you're talking about cellular or "mobile broadband." All of the big carriers have plans and I think there was a thread on the forum about mobile broadband somewhere. The terms are similar to cell phone contracts, you open a line with a contract for a year or two years of service, usually it's $50-60 a month. The hardware is usually just a USB antenna and whether or not you currently have Wi-Fi doesn't affect whether you can get a mobile broadband card.

They're both wireless, both other than that it's different technology.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

John C mentioned mobile broadband and I want to comment on it.

Two clients have mobile broadband modems that plug into USB ports on their laptops. One is contracted through Verizon, the other through AT&T. Both are relatively slow to download files, with speeds averaging about two to four times dial-up rates. Occasionally, they may get faster downloads, up to slow DSL speeds.

For browsing websites and reading email those speeds are fast enough, for $60 a month. The only problems are that, #1: they both cap you at 5 Gb data transfer per month, with charges of up to 13 cents for every extra megabyte; and #2: they get frequent failures to connect, or disconnects.

If you don't want to watch a lot of YouTube videos and don't need fast downloads, or worry about having to reconnect often, mobile broadband may be for you. That is, if you can afford $60 a month, with a two year contract.

Sprint also offers a mobile broadband modem, with a 5 Gb monthly limit, for $60 a month.

In case you were wondering, it doesn't take long to use up 5 Gigabytes of data transfer allowance. Watching a bunch of YouTube videos and listening to streaming radio, or downloading large audio/video files can put you over the 5 Gig cap in 5 or 10 days. I routinely consume 15 to 30 Gigs per month, at my house. Heck, I've seen Windows updates reaching a hundred megabytes and service packs well over 300 Mb each. Once you reach a mobile broadband cap you will either be shut out until the next month begins, or be billed for each additional Megabyte over your limit. I said Megabyte over, not Gigabyte. A Gigabyte has about a thousand Megabytes, so, if you use up 6 Gigs in a month that allows 5, you will owe for a thousand overtime megabytes, at whatever rate they charge (about $124/Gb over limit).
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Dang. Now you all make me want to stay home and hide in my closet.

Main reasons for having it are:

email

Having a program like Streets and Maps by Microsoft on it to be able to see maps and plans routes to wherever it is I am going next (the trip is basically unplanned and I am just hitting the road and end up where I end up catching all the scenic sites I can, you know the old song "See the USA in a chevrolet"). I will have a GPS for navigating.

As far as banking, I would normally need it, but I can set up Bill Pay to pay those bills on a certain date, but I will have overpay as I won't have the bill to get the correct amount. I was thinking of forwarding my mail to my sister and have her email the amounts to me. But for safety, I can just set the payments ahead of time and worry about the over payments when I get back.

I was also thinking of using to check out and book hotels when I realized where I was going to end for the day. But I can do that by cell phone.

Now this "Man in the Middle" software will make me somewhat safe? I am not opposed to buying the software.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

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