Here's some advice for those bringing laptops, gleaned from other soldiers here: 1) Bring extra batteries -- they're worth the $100 they cost. 2) Bring an extra power adapter -- I know several soldiers whose adapters have been fried and now they have a real hard time using their laptops. 3) A CD Burner (or DVD burner) is a great extra to have, for burning pictures to CD or making backups. If you don't have one, one of your buddies probably will. Get in the habit of making backups - your computer will probably crash at least once while you're here (plus it's a good habit back home, too). 4) A webcam is another nice extra, but only if you think you'll be able to use your computer on the Internet directly. The MWR computers generally already have webcams.

The main advice is, bring backup means of keeping your laptop powered up.