- copyright First Step Communications and Gihan Perera
We often think of the Internet as a way of bringing the rest of the
world closer to our home. But many people also use it another way -
to allow *them* to move around the world conveniently without losing
access to some of the communication facilities they use at home.

Whether you're away from home on business or pleasure, you're no
longer cut off from your office or home. More and more, business
travellers conduct a large amount of their work away from their usual
office (some no longer even *have* a permanent "office"), and even
personal travellers find that the Internet helps them keep in touch
while away from home.

In this article, we'll look at some Web sites that offer some useful
services. Although some sites offer highly sophisticated services for
a fee, we'll only look at free services here (They are supported by
advertisers). I'll also talk only about business travellers here, but
I'm sure you'll see how personal travellers can also take advantage
of these services.

If you're planning to travel soon, and wish to make use of some of
these services, try them out well in advance to give yourself enough
time to understand them and ensure they meet your needs.

=== Your E-Mail Address ===

If you travel often, you'll want access to your normal e-mail account
at all times. But if you only travel occasionally, and only for short
trips, it's useful to use a separate e-mail address that you give to
your office staff and special clients. Then your regular e-mail
gathers at your normal e-mail address, waiting for your return, while
you read urgent e-mail while you're travelling.

For a fee, your Internet Service Provider can give you a second
e-mail address, but it's simpler (and cheaper!) to use one of the
many free e-mail services available on the Internet. The biggest -
and best known - is Hotmail, at http://www.hotmail.com. But I've
found this to be slow and cumbersome at times. Closer to (my) home is
Start, at http://www.start.com.au.

=== Your E-Mail Address Book ===

If you're making full use of the e-mail software in the office, your
e-mail address book will be full of addresses of the people you
contact regularly. When you're using somebody else's e-mail program
while travelling, you don't have access to this address book.

Use one of these methods for access to your e-mail addresses while
you're travelling:

1. Print out all the addresses and take the printout with you!
2. Save the address book to a text file and e-mail it to yourself.
3. Some of the diary and calendar tools that we look at next include
   a facility for storing e-mail addresses.

=== Your Diary and Calendar ===

Some people feel lost without their Filofax, DayTimer, Palm Pilot or
other personal organiser by their sides at all times. If you're not
one of these people, or you don't want to take them with you, use
free diary/calendar Web sites to store much of this information for
you.

About a year ago, many people expected these personal calendar Web
sites to be the next big Internet product, following in the success
of the free e-mail services. This hasn't happened (yet!), but it
meant that a number of companies set up these services, giving you a
variety of choices, such as these:

* http://www.when.com
* http://www.easydiary.com
* http://digital.daytimer.com/

These sites offer a variety of services, including calendars,
reminders, address books and bookmarks. They don't all offer the same
facilities, so try them and decide which one suits you best.

The Web-based calendars, in particular, offer one significant
advantage over other diaries: You can share your calendars with other
people. This means that you and your office staff can coordinate
activities easily without a constant exchange of telephone calls,
faxes, voice mail and messages.

=== Storing Files ===

If you need access to important files while travelling, either store
them on floppy disks or use one of the file storage Web sites. These
services give you a certain amount of free disk space for use in any
way you choose. Use them to transfer files, retrieve them at any
time, organise them into folders, and share them with other people.

FreeDrive and Media Depot, among others, offer these services. Media
Depot is more powerful (it allows you to selectively grant access to
certain files to certain people), but FreeDrive is easier to use.

* http://www.freedrive.com
* http://www.mediadepot.com

These file storage services are very useful even if you're *not*
travelling. For example, many people use them to back up important
documents and to exchange very large files that are too big to send
by e-mail.

=== Your Favourite Web sites ===

If you're a regular Internet user, you probably rely on certain Web
sites that you visit often (such as the daily news) and store as
"bookmarks" or "favorites" in your Web browser. If you're using
somebody else's Web browser when travelling, you won't have access to
these bookmarks.

One solution is to copy your bookmarks to a floppy disk and carry it
around with you on your travels (This works for Netscape, but not for
Internet Explorer). Another solution is to use one of the free
bookmark storage services on the Web. You simply transfer your
bookmarks to their site - under your own name and password, to keep
them safe from others' eyes - and then view them from any Web
browser.

Two such services are mURL and Bookmark Box:

* http://www.murl.com
* http://www.bookmarkbox.com

=== A Convenient Home Page ===

I've given you quite a few Web sites to explore, and you may choose
to use many of them while you're travelling. But how do you remember
*these* Web sites while you're away?

One solution, of course, is just to write down the addresses and take
them with you. Another is to store them all in your bookmarks and use
a service like mURL and Bookmark Box (see above) - then you only need
to remember *one* address.

Yet another solution is to use a portal.

A portal - another big craze that didn't live up to its hype - is a
Web site that lets you create your own customised Web page with
information of your choice, such as the latest news, sports results,
financial news, weather forecasts, and links to your favourite Web
sites.

Many of the larger search engines added portals to their sites.
Yahoo, for example, has a portal called "My Yahoo":

* http://my.yahoo.com

Australian users might find my own little portal G'day Australia more
relevant. It includes links to lots of useful Australian Web sites,
and allows you to add your own links, such as the Web sites we've
discussed in this article. You'll find G'day Australia here:

* http://www.firststep.com.au/gday