Some Technology Stuff

OK, this is supposed to be "technical tourists." How about some technology stuff? Here are some things we used and how it worked out.

• The hotel had internet access, so a computer could help us stay in touch. I have a remote access VPN to get into email at work.

Hotel internet access was sometimes a little slow, but generally OK. Once internet access seemed to be down; we couldn't reach any sites. We tried to release and renew our DHCP lease with no luck. I happened to remember the ip number of a DNS server back in the states. We tried to ping that and got a good ping. Since it looked like we just weren't in touch with a working DNS server, I entered that server's address manually into our TCP/IP configuration.

• As mentioned earlier, I had heard stories about how the Chinese hack / spy on US tourists and that US Customs likes to search and copy incoming computers and took steps to avoid the possibility of having any confidential data that I could be forced to disclose.
  

It turned out Customs was a breeze. No crazy searches. I don't know if the stories are untrue, if I just got lucky, or if I just didn't look like someone hiding anything. But it's still safer than risking confidential data.

• We use Vonage for our home phone. We added a Vonage Softphone account. This lets us install a program on the computer and use the computer and a headset to do voice over IP (VOIP). We felt there were two advantages of this: 1) we wouldn't have to lug our Vonage box and a POTS phone to China, and 2) our Vonage box would require wired internet access. If there were a problem with getting that, the laptop could possibly get a connection through WIFI.
  

This worked fine. We had a US phone number that worked as such from Beijing. Occasionally, there were some odd delays and lost sound, but sound quality was usually very good. We actually even used it to call places in Bejing. For billing purposes, we were making international calls from the US to Beijing. However, we KNEW that was cheap on Vonage and we didn't know what the charge on the hotel phone would be.

• We activated international access for our cell phones, which should have allowed them to roam at over $2 / minute or text at 40 cents per text sent or received.

Mostly we left the phones turned off. When we did once try to call and text, it didn't seem to work right. Perhaps we needed to enter a bunch of international dialing codes since theoretically we were calling from China to a US phone?

• We brought a GPSr. We weren't able to find very good maps to load on it ahead of time, though.

This actually came in a little handy. I set waypoints at the hotel, near the Pearl Market, and near subway stations while riding past them in the bus. We were able to use it to help direct cab drivers and on foot when coming from a direction we weren't familiar with.

• For electricity, we brought a collection of plug adapters and a voltage adapter.

Oddly, the electrical outlets in the hotel seemed to be made for multiple types of plugs. Since most of our electrical stuff was designed to automatically deal with 110-240 volts, we were able to just plug it in.



Why is one outlet marked "UPS"? When you come in the room, you plug your key card into a receptacle just inside the door. This turns on electricity for the room. Removing the card as you go out turns off all electricity including lights, TV, and air conditioning. That one outlet doesn't get turned off. That way you can leave a charger plugged in and on when you go out.