Using Actinic On Laptop In Spain while on holiday

[Crafty Cards]

Any advise would be helpful please.

I am going away to Costa Del Sol on holiday but unfortunately will need to take my laptop to run my business, check payments, answer emails etc.

How do I find out how many MB I use when I upload the website after downloading orders?


Has anyone used mobile broadband in Spain and if so what networks etc.? I would prefer Pay as you go but am willing to go onto a contract.

Is it OK to put the laptop through a scanner at the airport?

Any advise what so ever would be appreciated.

Joy

[Duncan Rounding]

You have no choice but to put your laptop through x-ray but it won't cause any harm.

Roaming data charges are high so you could either buy a mobile sim there or leave your pc on and connect using logmein or pcanywhere at an Internet cafe - which is what I have done many times.

Many hotels also have free or reasonably priced broadband connections.

[CymraegKev]

I agree - pretty much all the bigger bars and food stops in the Costa Del Sol have wireless access now. I would go down that route than the costly mobile dongle solution.

[pinbrook]

I spend several months every year working from Spain.

I have an unlocked dongle (ebay) and then use a Vodafone ES Sim i buy it with 1gb pre loaded, and top up as necessary. 1GB will last me 8 weeks - but i don't upload/download actinic - i use it for email/browsing etc.

I buy my cards from this guy (http://www.fonpaq.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26_32&products_id=32&osCsid=579cb340bd0bf1d153654e4bc24893b4)

I also use friends broadband and internet cafes when there too (if i need to do actinic upload/download). And have blackberry so i am instantly alerted in the case of emergency.

it really depends when/where you want access, if you have a dongle you have the option of not leaving home to catch up on work. Otherwise its a short walk to a cafe etc. I've noticed there are more and more bars/cafes with free wifi.

If you do have to pay - its often 1 euro for 20 mins.

[guccij]

You'll find that free wifi is the norm in Europe - you'll never be far from a signal you can hook up to. But as Jo says, for peace of mind, take an unlocked dongle.

Also sign up for a free trial at one of the remote PC acccess sites mentioned (we use gotomypc) so you can update your site if necessary. This does mean leaving your PC on at home, however.

In Switzerland, where we are for a few months a year, we rely on a mix of a wireless repeater to pull in the strongest free signals, a dongle, a Blackberry and gotomypc.

[bamboo]

I am going away to Costa Del Sol on holiday but unfortunately will need to take my laptop to run my business, check payments, answer emails etc.

It always saddens me to read this type of sentence as you are not really going on holiday you are just moving your workplace. I take a weeks holiday every summer, every year, every Christmas I take a three week break. The shops stay open, I still earn money but I actually get to have time away from business. I therefore get to have one month in twelve without any fires to put out.
I used to be scared of doing this and if I'm honest the first time I did it it wasn't really a weeks holiday I had. But guess what nothing broke, no new fires broke out, no angry customers were wondering where their orders were and there was no difference in the order level compared to the week prior and the week after the holiday.
The holiday has to mean 'being away from the business' not running a business from another part of the world!

You need time away from business if you are to maintain your sanity and perspective of what really matters in life.
Just my two cents.

[pinbrook]

I've got to agree with you Derek.

But often it takes a while for small business owners to learn that they can take time off and the business still runs unhindered. However there are also people who can only relax once they know everything is ok. :)

[Jan]

I have to disagree with Derek, I have a far more relaxed holiday if I spend half an hour a day checking up on my businesses, better that than to come home to nasty surprises. I don't download orders and process orders though, that's all done automatically, I just check email and the support desk.

Regards,

[party_pete]

I'm with Jan, far more relaxing keeping an eye on things for half an hour a day......anyway, i'd be lost without my work :o

[chris ashdown]

If you are employing staff then I agree with Derek, but many operations are run by small single person, these need to keep on top of orders and notify customers that goods will be delayed, as everyone here knows the customers want instant service for most goods, will accept delays if notified, but will most likely look elsewhere if the site says "on Holiday orders dispatched next week" or something simular

[bamboo]

The only question you have to ask yourself and give yourself an honest answer to is:
"Do you live to work or work to live"

I run five, soon to be seven, websites which earn me varying degrees of income. There is only little old me (a small married person :)) although I must admit a minority of orders are fulfilled on a dropship arrangement with one of my suppliers but other than that I do everything which makes me particularly stupid because I am the centre of my businesses universe.

If I am ill or have a serious accident or just get bored I'm stuffed. But even acknowledging my stupidity I have long since given up worrying whether I am losing customers when I am on holiday.
Holidays are for me to relax, recharge and enjoy. Even sitting down at 6 in the morning with a cuppa watching the sun come up and doing the same at sunset anywhere in the world, even home, knowing I have done nothing more than watch the world go by safe in the knowledge I do not have to 'work' has immense value for me.

It never ceases to amaze me how many new opportunities or better ways of working come to a relaxed mind.
I am now working to remove myself from every level of my businesses as I am obviously the weakest link.

Holidays away from work are vital unless you really do live for work. If you are of the latter frame of mind then nothing I or anyone else says will be able to sway you otherwise unless it's the Doc saying 'Carry on the way you are going and you will have a heart attack'.
At least I hope the doc gets to say this line and you don't actually end up having a heart attack.

A lot of people I know who have worked for a retirement rarely get one. Best advice I can give is take mini retirements every year. Seriously the grim reaper will get all of us but we never know when he's 'coming a calling'.

Right I'm off 'lurking' again see you in a fortnight or so.

[Rich Brady]

The only question you have to ask yourself and give yourself an honest answer to is:
"Do you live to work or work to live"

This is a popular topic today Ben's Blog (http://marketingdonutblog.co.uk/2009/05/05/a-so-called-balance/). It depends on the individual I suppose. I love doing what I do, so I spend many hours of an evening and weekend "working" but it never feels like that.

I've thought of taking my laptop with me away in the past, but it's my girlfriend that has put the breaks on. Although I don't know why it's alright for her to spend hours reading a book by the pool, but not okay for me to tinker with a website?

[george]

No advice on what clothes she should pack for her holiday?


Jeezus, the girl only asked about using wi-fi on her laptop overseas.


*shakes head, leaves thread*

[acompton]

Jeezus, the girl only asked about using wi-fi on her laptop overseas.
Classic bamboo hijack of the thread ;)

[party_pete]

The doc said i'll be fine with a bottle of red and 4hrs sleep a night as my body will see this as the norm.....he was more concerned with my love of haven holidays in a caravan :D

[Tama^chan]

I recommend you leave your home PC on and connect to it via your laptop using logmein (www.logmein.com) - ever since I started using logmein on the recommendation of someone on this forum, life has become so much easier when I'm away from base.

By remote-accessing your home PC you don't need to worry about how many meg you are chewing up on your roaming internet access, plus there isn't the hassle of transferring actinic and the snapshot over to your laptop.

I've tried transferring over a snapshot and running actinic off my laptop in countries where I've had free internet in the hotel, and all I can say is - don't do it >_< There's nothing more frustrating than finding out that the upload is repeatedly timing out because of the slightly bodgy net connection, even worse when it stuffs up halfway during something critical and the whole website crashes and you have to call back home in the middle of the night to get someone to restore it from an old snapshot. Most bodgy net connects can at least handle running logmein, and then you can rely on the known quantity of your net connection at home to handle the upload.

[Benjamin Dyer]

The nice thing about Logmein.com is it transverses all of its traffic over port 80, its just web traffic, so its guarantied to work anywhere.

You can also map your local drives to the remote so you can get a pretty seamless experience.

[Mark H]

TeamViewer's well worth a look too :)

[Crafty Cards]

Ok, thanks everyone for your replies.

Yes there is only little old me, but yes it is the centre of my universe! Anway after looking into the cost etc I have decided to 'shut shop' but next time I am going to be more organised and look into an unlocked dongle and spanish sim card.

Its easy to say forget it but when you use stock control, or people dropping out or orders in pending service provider etc, it takes half a day to sort it out on return.

So thanks again for all your advise

Just another question.......whats the best buy for sun tan lotion??

joy