Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cars, too; the only “mystery” is which
major rental company you get, and for
most travelers the difference between
Hertz, Avis, and Budget is negligible.
10 The 21st-Century Traveler
INTERNET ACCESS AWAY
FROM HOME
Travelers have any number of ways to
check their e-mail and access the
Internet on the road. Of course, using
your own laptop—or even a PDA
(personal digital assistant) or elec-
tronic organizer with a modem—gives
you the most flexibility. But even if
you don't have a computer, you can
still access your e-mail and even your
office computer from cybercafes.
WITHOUT YOUR OWN
COMPUTER
It's hard nowadays to find a city that
doesn't
have a few cybercafes, and that
certainly applies in Australia. Al-
though there's no definitive directory
for cybercafes—these are independent
businesses, after all—three places to
start looking are at
www.cybercaptive.
com
,
www.netcafeguide.com
, and
www.cybercafe.com
. In major tourist
cities like Cairns and Darwin, there
are whole streets full of cybercafes.
Aside from formal cybercafes, most
youth hostels
nowadays have at least
one computer that accesses the Inter-
net. And most
public libraries
offer
Internet access free or for a small
charge. Avoid
hotel business centers,
which often charge exorbitant rates.
Most major airports now have
Internet kiosks
scattered throughout
their gates. These kiosks, which you'll
also see in shopping malls, hotel lob-
bies, and tourist information offices
around the world, give you basic Web
access for a per-minute fee that's usu-
ally higher than cybercafe prices. The
kiosks' clunkiness and high price
means they should be avoided when-
ever possible.
To retrieve your e-mail, ask your
Internet service provider (ISP)
if it
has a Web-based interface tied to your
existing e-mail account. If your ISP
doesn't have such an interface, you can
use the free
mail2web
service (www.
mail2web.com) to access your home
e-mail. For more flexibility, you may
want to open a free, Web-based e-mail
account with
Yahoo! Mail
(mail.
yahoo.com). (Microsoft's Hotmail is
another popular option, but Hotmail
has severe spam problems.) Your home
ISP may be able to forward your
e-mail to the Web-based account
automatically.
If you need to access files on your
office computer, look into a service
called
GoToMyPC
(www.gotomypc.
com). The service provides a Web-
based interface for you to access and
manipulate a distant PC from any-
where—even a cybercafe—provided
your “target” PC is on and has an
always-on connection to the Internet
(such as with Road Runner cable).
The service offers top-quality security,
but if you're worried about hackers,
use your own laptop rather than a
cybercafe to access the GoToMyPC
system.
WITH YOUR OWN
COMPUTER
Major Internet service providers
(ISPs) have
local access numbers
around the world, allowing you to go
online by simply placing a local call.
Check your ISP's website or call its
toll-free number and ask how you can
use your current account away from
home, and how much it will cost.
If you're traveling outside the reach
of your ISP, the
iPass
network has
dial-up numbers in most of the
world's countries. You'll have to sign
up with an iPass provider, which will
then tell you how to set up your com-
puter for your destination(s). For a list
