Readers offer travel connection tips, Part 2

Today, we're continuing our discussion of ways to stay connected happily while on the road, even in the tech-savvy world of 2005:

Reader P.J. runs remote access for his company that supports about 15,000 remote users and offered some money-saving tips: "We use a remote access suite of products that includes security as well as remote access software.

"Specifically for remote access, we chose iPass and use the iPass Connect Client (iPC) to get an Internet connection... The iPC permits us to use broadband, dial, wireless or any other type of hot spot located in thousands of places around the world. Instead of paying a high local fee, we pay a per-minute rate.

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Today, we're continuing our discussion of ways to stay connected happily while on the road, even in the tech-savvy world of 2005:

Reader P.J. runs remote access for his company that supports about 15,000 remote users and offered some money-saving tips: "We use a remote access suite of products that includes security as well as remote access software.

"Specifically for remote access, we chose iPass and use the iPass Connect Client (iPC) to get an Internet connection... The iPC permits us to use broadband, dial, wireless or any other type of hot spot located in thousands of places around the world. Instead of paying a high local fee, we pay a per-minute rate.

"In reference to your example, if you only wanted to use 45 minutes instead of paying the full 24-hour rate, you can do that with the iPass service. The fee gets capped at some point during the day, which will closely mimic the 24-hour rate, but not many people reach that since they connect, do what they need and disconnect. That saves a lot of remote access costs. Once the users make a connection to the Internet, they open an IPSec VPN connection back to our corporate network. We have validation software as well as a host-based firewall to ensure the security of the remote user's machine before it connects to the network.

"One additional tool we leverage heavily is a VoIP softphone. Our users have access to their desktop phone no matter where they are located in the world. I was in London on one trip, and most folks didn't realize I was away from the office. Now that's flexibility."

Reader Bruce M. offers a suggestion and a story: "Don't forget that some hotel chains offer free Internet access for members of their 'frequent stayer programs', (e.g., Wyndham by Request at https://www.wyndham.com/wbrvisitor/main.wnt) -- anyone, even first-time "stayers" can join at no charge.

"Now for the story - Recently I traveled with my wife, each with our own laptops. At the hotel, neither of us could connect to the in-room high-speed access. The first day I gave up. By the pool the next day I saw someone working on his laptop and asked him about the access - he said he had been there for a week and never got the in-room access working, but was picking up and paying for a wireless service at the pool. So I was on a mission - if I was staying for a week I had to get connected, and it was supposed to be at no charge in my room.

"I tried my computer again, turning off all the security, using my cables (not the hotel's), etc., every trick I could think of. I used a dial-up ISP to download mail and basically check that my machine was healthy. Still no luck on the high-speed connection; I did the same with my wife's computer and no luck there. I took my laptop to the pool to make sure I could connect - and I could.

"I went back to the room and called the hotel's support - they said it was my computer and said they couldn't help me. I went ballistic and basically diagnosed the problem for them - their DHCP server was down. They said they would report it. The next morning we got access! Three days later, the DHCP server went down again - I called and about an hour later, it went back up. If I had not been as savvy/experienced as I was, we would have had to trust what the tech people said and assume it was our machines, and live with dial-up for the week paying the exorbitant hotel phone charges."