remote Web site

Travelers lugging laptop computers worry about losing them -- with good reason. The hardware is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, and lost or stolen data could be priceless.

But safeguarding your machine is no cinch.

Just ask Luke M. Ford, founder and chief executive of My Computer Works Inc., a tech-support company in Scotts-dale, Ariz.

On a recent jaunt to San Diego, he stashed his $1,400 laptop under a desk in his hotel room. When he returned 30 minutes later, it was gone. His traveling companion had left the door open.