Laptop Air Travel Tips

This is off-topic, but still of interest to some AdSense publishers, so I hope you'll excuse me for posting this here. I've been thinking about laptops and air travel. As you know, British authorities have banned all carry-on luggage as well as all electronic devices from airplanes leaving the UK. This includes notebook computers, of course. And who knows, these restrictions may spread to other countries. So if you're used to traveling with a laptop — and a lot of online business owners do this — these restrictions can make your life a lot harder. Here are the options as I see them:

1. Use video or audio conferencing. Instead of going there in person, consider using a video/audio conferencing solution to hold a virtual meeting. The technology's come a long way in recent years.
2. Use alternate transportation. Try driving or going by train instead of flying. Not always possible or practical, of course.
3. Check the laptop in with your regular luggage. Given the rampant theft that occurs in airport baggage facilities, especially international ones, this is a risky move. Make sure to do these things before your flight:
   • Backup your computer. Do a full backup of everything critical.
   • Password-protect the computer. Your laptop will at a minimum have a boot-up password. The hard drive itself can often be protected with a password.
   • Encrypt the data. Password protection doesn't protect the data on your hard drive, so use encryption programs to protect the critical stuff.
   • Separate the laptop and the data. If you have two or more suitcases, remove the hard drive from the laptop and pack it in a different suitcase.
   • Bury the laptop. Don't make it obvious that there's a laptop in the bag. For one thing, don't check a laptop bag, always check in normal suitcases. For another, don't place it on top of the other contents of the suitcase, bury it deep inside.
4. Bring the data only. Store the data you need on some kind of portable memory device — an external hard drive, a memory key, whatever. You might be able to take a CF card or an SD card on board with you, otherwise bury the data device in your luggage. Password-protect and encrypt it, too.
5. Remotely access the computer. There are many different ways to remotely access and control a computer, from free solutions like VNC to paid solutions like Timbuktu to GoToMyPC. Ideally you'll connect to your computer over a secure line or a VPN connection, so you might have to bring along a token card, which you'll have to stash in the luggage.
6. Remotely access the data. Data storage solutions like JungleDisk (based on Amazon's S3 service) make it possible to access your data from anywhere.
7. Leave it all behind. If you're traveling for pleasure, maybe you should just forget about bringing a computer along. If you're worried about click fraud and other issues, create a free email account somewhere and figure out how to forward your daily AdSense earnings reports to it, as well as any other mail that is potentially important (avoid forwarding everything, the point is to handle just the critical stuff). Occasionally check that email account from Internet cafes. Stop using the account when you get back home. Or if you have a BlackBerry or some other handheld wireless device, get your mail forwarded to it. (But you'll still have to check the device in your luggage, so be sure it's well-hidden.)

There's no doubt that air travel is getting more complicated and these if these rules spread outside the UK a lot of people are going to be dissuaded from traveling. Even the more relaxed rules forbidding liquids and gels from carry-on luggage are probably going to cause some people to think twice about air travel.

We live in troubled times. But our lives are worth infinitely more than our computers, so if this is what we have to do to be safe then we shouldn't complain.

Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not link to his blog or bookmark it as one of your favorites?

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