Mobile Office

Mobile Office


This page is about having a Mobile Office anywhere on the planet, a temporary office location. I wish to be able to enter a country, stay in one location for less than 5 days and perform work in my "Mobile Office." I do not wish to establish long term relations with a telephone company.

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Mobile Office

Note... I am a TRAVELER, therefore I TRAVEL Blog

I am Andy of HoboTraveler.com, this is my story of how I visit locations on the plane and work. I am trying to establish benchmark locations where I can work on my website or do research easily. Each country has a different package of available services, therefore some countries are better than others. I will try to explain the best combinations of services needed and then prioritize which countries provide these services

This Mobile Office is with zero long-term commitments, you do not sign up for internet access, you do not rent an apartment, there is nothing installed in your room that requires a contract. Please think and be clear here, if you have to pay monthly this is not mobile, it is living in the country which makes working easier, but not worldwide mobile.

This mobile office should be online and working the same day you enter the country

Note, I am guessing of the people who really leave the country, only about 1 in 500 is capable of working and traveling, most people are just too much of a drunk, drug user or lazy to work and travel.

Blog Entries you can read for real examples.:
Mobile Office   GPRS   Satellite Internet   Internet

Budget: 20 U.S. Dollars per day including room and internet. 600 U.S. per month

For a 40,000 Salary per year person and less

HOTEL ROOM - A private room that includes 24 hour per day high speed internet. The USA, Europe, Australia, and the highly developed world may have hotel rooms for 50-100 Dollar per day, however this means that a person is paying 1500 dollars per month to have an office, this is a burden and financially instable for a person who somehow earns 40,000 or less.

40 dollar room requires you earn 80,000 per year
60 dollar room requires you earn 120,000 per year
80 dollar room requires you earn 160,000 per year
100 - 200,000 per year
150 - 300,000 per year

WHY 24-HOUR INTERNET IS ESSENTIAL

The world is not awake at the same time, the majority of people have some form of business relationship that requires one side of a telephone caller to adapt. For example, I am presently in Guatemala, I can chat on Yahoo messenger easily at 6:00 am in the morning with my India coder, after about 8:00 am I risk he wants to go to bed because it is late at night.

To continue to do business you may think about traveling at first only directly south of your home country so you can call, think, adapt to living outside your country before you try to learn to be truly mobile.

EMAIL

I would recommend Gmail.com or Yahoo Mail, the Yahoo messenger works better, however the Gmail.com account allows you to download or upload emails for pop emails, however you must pay for this with Yahoo.com

TELEPHONE CALLS

RECEIVING CALLS
Skype In will work, but requires you have a good internet connect, travel slow and change the forwarding to your cell phone constantly.

I use Skype.com or Yahoo.com calling system, I have accounts with both with automatically refilled accounts that takes money from my paypal.com account or other as needed, I found that sometimes they block skype.com in countries however they leave Yahoo.com open because many people are using email and messenger.

MONEY

I use Paypal.com to pay my normal online bills if possible, this limits the number of companies that have my credit card or debit card.

FAX

I would recommend http://www.fax1.com/ to send and receive faxes, I can compose a mail and send right from my yahoo.com email account, yet sometimes I have to search for a fax, I may go to a five star hotel to use their business center.

MAIL NORMAL POSTAL MAIL

Need to read, no need to have originals.
There are many "Mail Forwarding," companies. This is a dangerous operation, if you need the originals, then the only source of knowledge on this is in the shipping or sailboat community. Is you are searching for a company that scans poste mail, then emails the letters on to you, search in Google.com for "Mail Forwarding."

This company is being used by a friend, not sure yet how this pans out:
USA2me.com

MAIL FROM BANK

Bank Cards, presently before you leave your country, you need to establish a personal relationship with a bank officer, to have all cards Fedex to your present location.

CELL PHONE

I have a quad-band cell phone, unlocked and buy a SIM or CHIP in any country I enter for a Prepaid Account.

WIFI - WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS

Searching for WIFI in a Hotel: Tourist Room, etc on Google.com

When you are searching for WIFI here are some suggested words to use:

- Wireless Internet
- WIFI
Example: Search on Google.com for: New Orleans Hotel WIFI or New Orleans Hostel Wireless Internet

Spanish: Inalámbrica
Example: Search on Google.com for: Panajachel inalámbrica Posada

Need to jump WIFI -Wireless Hotel to Hotel - Google Search before you leave

Although, I am trying to make this easy for you, realize there is not enough hotels on the planet in the year 2008 to do this easy. You cannot leave your present hotel until you have already searched for WIFI ready hotels in the next country.

WIFI Detectors

Best WIFI detector is a wireless enabled palm computer or PDA
Canary small WIFI detector that tells you secure or insecure, but do not trust the report

DNS Numbers

Pay attention, the 90 percent of the owners have no idea of this problem.
Random and no way to know, but you must have the correct number for your computer prior, you cannot get them when offline, - Need to load a DNS number, www.opendns.com

XP
Preferred DNS server address for Open DNS is:
208.67.222.222
Alternate DNS server address for Open DNS is:
208.67.220.220

Vista
208 67 222 222
208 67 220 220

PROBLEMS WITH WIFI INTERNET IN ROOM

  1. Concrete wall stops connection, in the majority of room a person needs to find a room no more than 50 feet or about 20 meters from the WIFI box.
  2. Internet Providers go down between 6:00 am and 7:00 am.
  3. The WIFI needs a specific set of IP numbers
  4. Internet is down for maintenance daily in morning for about one hour.
  5. IP Conflict in Pucallpa, I needed to change the last number up about 8 from 1.
  6. Internet is overloaded with people sharing one connection.
  7. The manager, owners, children constantly download music and rob all the bandwidth.
  8. Owner shuts off when he or she is not using
  9. Owner shuts off at night
  10. Electricity goes off in hotels and breaks connections, the wireless router needs reset
  11. Internet Goes off in the morning at 6:45 in the city of Antigua when they are doing maintenance.
  12. Dial Up and not DSL and the line is slow, test is by making call on Skype.co in early morning.
  13. The location of router allow people to bump and break connections.
  14. Staff does not keep it running
  15. Staff does not know they have WIFI - Wireless Internet
  16. Staff of hotel was cleaning the internet center in the Hotel and moved the wires, Hostal Arequipa, Pucallpa, Peru January 2009.
  17. They change the key or password to WIFI router and do not tell you the new one
  18. Key use is a problem, they password or key is not known by all the staff, only one person knows it.
  19. Need to load a DNS number, www.opendns.com
  20. The Wireless box is not in the open, there is no way to go and reset it by unplugging from electricity and plugging because in a inaccessible location like the managers office or owners room.
  21. A person is using YouTube.com and it robbed all the signal.
  22. A person is using Skype.com and it robbed all the signal.
  23. A person is downloading music or program and is robbing all the signal.
  24. The computer connected to the farthest router and was too low of connection to work.
  25. The hotel I am in as of July 2008 was the K.S. House in Bangkok, the hotel has four routers on each floor, and I can pick up more than one. I realized the signal was too low, I went and reset the routers on my floor, it appears I was picking up the signal from the floor below, and the distance and concrete was too much.
  26. If for some reason you needed a key, then later they remove it from the router, you must also remove the key from your computer.
  27. Accidentally flipped the switch for WFI on my computer, I thought the system went down, it was my computer. January 2009 in the Hostal Arequipa in Pucallpa, Peru.
  28. The landline connected to he internet box, when the owner picks up the phone it disconnected - Panajachel - Guatemala
  29. They put in a relay box for the WIFI and the signal breaks sometimes, not often. Lima Peru in Pretty House Hostel.
  30. WIFI in internet cafe does not allow you to check. There were two ways to connect in an Awasa, Ethiopia internet cafe. WIFI and normal machines, because all the computers had password connection, I was not able to check to even see if there was a connection to diagnosis the problem, whether the WIFI router or the connection.

Try this if you have Problems

- I needed to open my door in Antigua, Guatemala, I needed to open the balcony door in Lima, Peru.
- Right click on the small computer, and click repair to reset IP address.
- Copy TCP address from the base computer, and change the top last number a few higher.
- Check the computer WIFI has connected to the the nearest connection or strongest.
 

SETTING UP CELL PHONE OR MOBILE PHONE ACCESS

You need to go to the capital of the country, find the corporate headquarter of the various cell phone countries. Then take your cell phone, computer, bluetooth etc to the office and ask them to set it up. I think about zero value to try to set this up yourself without help.

CELL PHONE REQUIREMENTS

- Pre-paid card, not a contract
- GPRS set up by an OFFICE - I go to an office in the country, hand them my computer, my cell phone and they set up.
- One time set up and less than 30 dollars per month to have a connection that cost less than one dollar per hour.
- Free Incoming Cell phone calls.
- Close to Cell Phone Office and recharge
- Country codes
- Telephone to leave the country?  http://www.countrycodes.com
- What time is it?
- Less than one dollar per hour
- GPRS - EDGE etc, whatever the terms, I would connect my computer to a cell phone with bluetooth.
Cost of this service should be less than 60 US Dollars per month and unlimited connection.
Must be with a pre-paid card, and not require a contract.

Bundle of Internet Services:

- Pop and SMTP is open, I can send and receive using any pop, I use Yahoo.com Mail.
- FTP is open, I can File Transfer Protocol to my internet server or host of my website
- Skype connects for chat
- Speed is fast enough to use Skype.com
- Yahoo Messenger works
- Google Talk works
- The internet world does not block a service, for example, Paypal.com one time did not work in Cambodia.
- 24 hour internet cafe that allows me to connect my computer

24 HOUR INTERNET CAFE

- Ethernet Wire to connect laptop
- Laptop connection
- Good chairs
- Less than one dollar per hour
- 24 Hour Internet cafe that allows me to connect my laptop walking distance to a Hotel that is less than 20 dollars per night.

INTERNET IN ROOM REQUIREMENTS

- 24 Hours
- WIFI is tested and known to be 24 hours free and need to know the room number that work.
- Ethernet Line into the room.
- Electricity
- Staff to keep the Internet running

TELEPHONE INQUIRY ANSWERING

- STEP BY STEP PROCESS
- Internet Page with all the numbers

EXTERNAL LINKS

TYPES OF INTERNET COMBINATIONS OFFERED IN COUNTRIES

Five Star -BUNDLE ONE - Best

1. EDVO - Cell Phone Connection for country
2. ETHERNET in hotel room or when not an ethernet wire there is WIFI Wireless router access.

Four Star - BUNDLE TWO - 2nd Best

1. GPRS - Cell phone connection that is not high speed, however country wide.
2. ETHERNET in hotel room or when not an ethernet wire there is WIFI Wireless router access.

Three Star -BUNDLE THREE - 3rd Best
       - Loss of countrywide mobile phone or cell access

Common to find WIFI ROOMS major cities of country
ETHERNET in hotel room or when not an ethernet wire there is WIFI Wireless router access.

Two Star - BUNDLE FOUR - 4th Best

NOT Common to find WIFI ROOMS major cities of country

One Star - BUNDLE FIVE - 5th Best or the Worst

Internet Cafe open from 8 am to 8 pm - 800 to

=========================
COUNTRY LOCATIONS - Best to Worst country
===============================

FIVE STAR COUNTRIES

I presently as of April 2008 do not know of any Five Star Mobile Office countries.

FOUR STAR COUNTRIES

THAILAND - 4 -Star Country because of GPRS

1. Khao San Road

WIFI in Room:
- Erawan House - 750 Baht to 850
- Erawan House Hotel Two 750 Baht
- Centre Point on Khao San Road 650 Baht
- K.S. House across from Pizza Hut, 150 Baht and up, the cheapest by a long shot.
Cozy House has WIFI now also

Printing can be done at the Erawan House Internet Cafe open 24 hours.. Khao area there is a 24 hour internet cafe in front of the Erawan House Hotel, that will allow you to connect your computer for 50 Baht, about one dollars per hour,. It is located behind the Wat or Temple on the small road that leads away from Khao San Road and the path to the Peachy Guesthouse. The Erawan House has WIFI, the cost including the WIFI is from 850 to 950 Baht per day, only rooms First choice 309, second choice 308 and 301 last, they should work, but please check. (850 is 22 US Dollars)

- GPRS Cell Phone Connection with
How to buy GPRS connection in Thailand
The company that sells: Ais.co.th
I have a mobile access although slow. 120 hours cost me 850 Baht to set up. 200 for taxi, 350 for Internet and 300 for SIM card. To reactivate the SIM card to GPRS, call 1175 on a the AIS Mobile Phone.

Change Mai
 http://www.t-roomguesthouse.com/roomsandreservations.html
Travis and Doug say some room have WIFI

FOUR STAR COUNTRIES

GUATEMALA

Antigua Guatemala Live in the Don Quijote Hotel and they have free WIFI it works better on second floor close to router. Password 4545755CED as of May 2008 No DNS needed - Automatic.

Panajachel Guatemala - Lago Atitlan

1. Hotel Posada Don Carlos 10 U.S. per night, with WIFI 24 hours in room, very good.

2. Marios - Key seisgallinasyungallopeluco - 90 Quetzals for room, free WIFI throughout the Hotel.
seisgallinasyungallopeluco

3. Los Encuentros Posada
www.losencuentros.com 20-40 U.S. Dollars, maybe need to negotiate.WIFI in most room, router is in bad location, not central. Need to know DNS 216 230 147 90  216 230 128 32

PHILIPPINES - Manila- Malate Area - 3-Star Country

Duck Inn has great WIFI in the room, at 1300 Pesos per night
42d0C191e8 is  code, an excellent choice for the money, very professional, secure, coded cash box in room.
Ermita, Manila

- Station 168 24 Hour Internet Cafe
- Live in Adriatico Pensione or Yasmin Apartelle Stonehouse- 15 US Dollars per night.

MAILBOX Possible here

Boracay - Orchid Resort in low season supposed to work, there is a high season, middle and low season, at high season it could be too expensive. June and July is low season.
Orchidsboracay.com/

PERU

Lima, Peru
Pretty House Hostel in neigborhood of Jesus Maria, 25 Soles from Airport in a Taxi.
http://www.prettyhouseperu.com/

Cusco Peru
Qorichaska Hostel on Nueva Alta, room 26 for 30 Soles or downstairs some with shower for 40, solid connection and works with skype.com. Hot Shower
http://www.qorichaskaperu.com/

Iquitos Peru
High Speed, 24 hour, a person can use skype.com in rooms of Bill Grimes who owns boats:
300-350 US. Per month www.dawnontheamazon.com Private Room, Hot Shower, WIFI, Color TV with Cable.

Pucallpa, Peru
Hostal Arequipa, fantastic SKYPE ready to fly signal, every IP number needs to be got from the desk and they really do not understand. Make sure you change from 141 to 147 of a larger number. 50 Soles for single, hot water, TV, fan or about 15 U.S. per night.
http://www.hostal-arequipa.com/

THREE STAR COUNTRIES

ISRAEL - Jerusalem - 3- Star Country

Live in the Al Fasal Hotel and they have a free Ethernet wire inside the room, the room is less than 10 US Dollars per night.

NEPAL - 3 Star Country because of GPRS

Mero Mobile will set you up with a connection to the internet for most of the country of Nepal for about 30 US dollars per month. Blog Post. The cost is 500 Rupees for SIM, then 1700 Rupees for unlimited calendar month access.

LOCATIONS NEEDED:

EUROPE
-Frankfurt Germany
- Kings Crossing in London
- Istanbul Turkey
- Casablanca, Morocco - This is really Africa.

ASIA - SUB-CONTINENT
- Katmandu - Mero has GPRS and good price, about 20 dollars per month
- Mumbai
- Goa

ASIA - SOUTHEAST ASIA
- Singapore - International Airport has in the international zone - Free connection to internet, need a J-12 Cable.
- Hong Kong
- Bangkok - Have (Best)
- Manila - Philippines Have - Price of rooms is about 25 dollars and getting high.

USA
Contract is probably needed. USA has some type of edge technology that you can put a  card in your computer and have access anywhere in the country. I think offered by Sprint

MIDDLE EAST
- Jerusalem has Ethernet in a room

AFRICA
- Casablanca, Morocco
- Ghana, Accra
- Cote d'Ioive Abidjan
- Ethiopia, Addis, Abba

 

mobileoffice.about.com Using cell phone as modem