One of the great things about the Internet is that you can access it from lots of different places, not just from your desktop. You can stay in contact with friends and business associates while traveling around town or around the world. (Of course, being constantly wired and having to answer Email from the beach is probably more of a curse than a blessing, but that's another story.) The key to successfully connecting from the road is to find out what your connectivity conditions are going to be and getting all the software, hardware, tools and access numbers together that you'll need beforehand. This Street Tech DIY covers basic hardware and connectivity tips and tricks for beginner "road warriors."

There is more to this hotel and pay phone thing than just variations on how the connections are made. Some phone systems have modulation methods that are totally foreign to your modem. Telephone systems are designed to carry audible sounds. Modems are designed to convert the digital data from the computer into analog, and on the other end of the line, convert the analog back into digital data. That is, it modulates on the sending end and demodulates on the receiving end. (As you probably know, that's where "MoDem" comes from.) Other than providing audio of a certain minimal quality, there are no basic requirements for how a telephone system should operate internally. There are many variations on the theme of connecting a modem to a phone line. Knowing how to determine what type of lines you'll be dealing with is the first step to overcoming any incompatibility problems.

Always be careful when connecting a modem to an unknown phone system. Most new phone systems being installed in hotels and offices are digital, not analog, and you can't tell which is which just by looking at the plug. Plugging your modem into a digital connection can destroy its circuitry. I know, I saw it happen. A friend came to town on a book tour, checked himself into the Ritz-Carlton, went to plug in his modem and zappo, his Hayes was history.

Before you book your hotel, call and ask what type of phone accomodations they have and if they have "data ports" that allow you to easily jack in from your room. Many hotels (old and new) are changing their systems to allow for safely connecting to their phone system. The vast majority, however, are still without data ports. Luckily, there are devices that can help overcome almost any connection obstacle, foreign or domestic. Before we get into specifics, let's take a look at some general tips for connecting from the road.

Travel Tips for Budding Road Warriors

• Plan your trip. This might seem obvious, but when traveling with a modem and a laptop or PDA, you have a lot of considerations (e.g. type of connectivity, power supply, Net access points, etc.). The more you plan for contingencies, the fewer surprises you'll be faced with.
• Always call your hotels, businesses, and other places where you plan on using your modem and find out what type of phone systems they have and what provisions they make for modem connectivity.
• Make sure you have all of the phone numbers you'll need for international access, tech support, and back-up plans if your preferred provider doesn't work out.
• Make back-up copies of all essential modem software, address books, etc. If you can't afford to lose it, be overly generous with the back-ups.
• Know the code...no not that code. Know your Hayes modem commands. You may be in situations where you'll need to blind dial (to overcome a foreign dial tone), manual dial, switch to pulse dial, or set the modem software up to accept long number strings, etc. The manual that came with your modem should have a table of all the Hayes commands.
• Practice your connections at home. Learn how to use the various connection tools (plug adapters, acoustic couplers, phone clips, etc.) and connection methods. If you can't get everything to work in your own neighborhood, it's not going to get any better half-way around the world.
• Before you spend hours of frustration trying to connect your modem, make sure you have the right number and that there's a modem tone on the other end of it. To check, manually dial with the regular phone and listen for the tone. This is the road warrior's equivalent of making sure that the device is plugged in. (Oh yeah...don't forget that too.)
• Use an international phone credit card to avoid sometimes exorbitant hotel and international surcharges on calls.
• If getting through is really important to you, make sure you have high-quality equipment on your end. International phone connections can vary greatly in quality. You may need all the help you can get, if say, you're trying to connect using an acoustic coupler on a Czech pay phone.
• Don't forget power considerations. You may need a power adapter. Bring as much battery power as you can carry and a recharger. And check to make sure that your recharger works under the power conditions you'll be faced with.
• Always travel with your handy-dandy connectivity kit (see below).

Street Tech Labs' Handy-Dandy Travel Kit

If you're going to be using a modem on the road, under different circumstances, you'll need a connectivity kit that contains the tools and hardware that can address different phone types. What follows is a basic kit that should cover most situations.
• A simple set of tools, including a small flashlight (w/extra batteries), several small sizes of both phillips and flat head screwdrivers, and a small pair of wire cutters/pliers. You can get inexpensive computer toolkits that come in a zipper case for between US$20-50 (depending on the tools). You can remove the tools you won't need on the road (like chip inserters and extractors) and replace them with stuff you do need, like the flashlight and a phone line tester.
• An assortment of RJ11 adapters, extenders, and couplers. RJ11 is the standard type of phone plug used in the US and 50% of the rest of the world.
• If you're going to be traveling to Europe or elsewhere abroad, you'll need a set of adapters to connect the RJ11 plug from the phone cable coming out of your modem to the wall outlet. Radio Shack sells a set of three adapters for Britain, Germany, and France. TeleAdapt sells 40 different foreign phone adapters.
• A phone line tester. This is a small device that either plugs into the phone jack or clips onto the phone wires inside the junction box and tells you if the jack is wired correctly or if the polarity of the clips is correct. They usually have little lights on them that indicate a correct connection (green), reverse polarity (red) or non-operational (no light). The one that Radio Shack sells (for around $6) is meant to be plugged into an existing outlet and cannot be used if you need to bypass a foreign plug or a hardwired phone. You can hack this little device and solder on alligator clips so that you can clip it directly onto the wires. TeleAdapt sells a set of clips with a female RJ11 adapter on the other end that can accept a line tester. They're a bit pricey, but you can easily make one for about US$9.
• An acoustic coupler is your sure-fire guarantee that you can connect your modem to whatever phones you encounter. TeleAdapt sells one (called the TeleFast) for $150.
• A 50' spool of RJ11phone cable with male RJ11 plugs on both ends (for normal connections). Why so much? The location of the phone jack is often far away from where you'll working. You know the common set-up in a hotel room: the phone is on the nightstand between the 2 beds and the desk is way over in the corner of the room (if there's a desk at all).
• A small length of RJ11 phone cable with a male RJ11 plug on one end and two alligator clips on the other. You can easily make this yourself by soldering two alligator clips to the red and green wires of the phone cable. Alternately, you can make a simple clip adapter by soldering the alligator clips onto a short length of phone cable with a female RJ11 adapter on the other end. This way, your clip adapter can do double duty as an adapter for the line tester and for directly connecting to a hard-wired junction box. One note of caution: If you're not experienced with electronics and a soldering iron you might just want to bite the bullet and buy all of these devices ready-made. You don't want to compound your connectivity problems by having inadequately-soldered homemade equipment.
• An extension cord and a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter. Sometimes the power outlets are not conveniently accessible. Of course, you always want to connect the ground wire on the 2-prong adapter.
• You should have several female-to-female RJ11 adapters that will allow you to connect two phone cables and to connect your alligator do-hickey (see image below) to your line tester. It's also a good idea to have a Y-connector that will connect two phone lines (the phone and your modem) into the same outlet. These connectors and adapters can be bought at the Shack for a couple o' bucks a piece.
• You may also need a power converter and surge suppressor. Some laptops' power supplies can now negotiate different types of power. If not, you'll need an AC foreign power converter/adapter. TeleAdapt also sells a set of power plug adapters that will adapt from three-prong US to the socket of whatever country you're trying to get juice from.

Gareth's low-cost line tester and outlet connector. The tester itself is from Radio Shack (cat. no 43-104). The RJ11 cable w/male on one end and alligator clips are used for testing hard-wired phone outlets. One or more female-to-female RJ11 adapters (the beige thingy shown here) are always handy to have around.

There are a number of different connection methods available. One option is called a modem doubler that's available from a company called Road Warrior Outpost. It turns out that even though the internals of the phones and the wall jacks vary all over the map, the handsets (that's the phone company word for that thing you pick up and stick in your ear) are mostly the same. You simply unplug the handset from the phone and plug this little do-dad in. You then connect your modem to the doubler and you're off and running.

This only works if the handset is not hardwired into the phone. There are some phone systems that just won't be bothered by having a standard handset jack, or any other type of standard tom foolery. Well, technology never sleeps. An acoustic coupler will work with any telephone designed for human use. That's right, an acoustic coupler, just like in the bad ol' days. The first modems were acoustic couplers that topped out at a screaming 300 baud. This new device will allow for data rates of up to 28.8K baud (your speed will vary according to phone line conditions). Since this device is audio based, it'll perform just as well internationally as it does domestically.

Troubleshooting