On Oct 5, Gerrit wrote:
Let us know how you went after you return to the Netherlands. I
have been thinking about one of them too, but then one with a hard
drive so that I can take photos to my heart's content.

In the end, I was fed up with the lack of 'support', HOWTO's, etc.,
for/in Linux, that I changed to a Windows XP version of the (Acer Aspire
One) mini-notebook, one *with* a (160GB) hard-disk.

I also only used a (Telstra/ZTE T6, pre-paid) NextG mobile phone, both
for normal (voice and SMS) use and as a modem on the mini-notebook. That
setup has worked fine! My experience has been that if there's mobile
phone coverage at all, i.e. any technology (GSM/UMTS), any frequency and
any provider, there's NextG coverage from Telstra. The data costs had
come down a lot since October and I just used one 100MB PlusPack at
AU$10 per month, and used only half of that each month. That was mostly
e-mail use and little but some web use. So all in all, I only spent AU$
129 on the phone and AU$ 30 on data, for three months. Not bad, not bad
at all.

As mentioned in another (old) thread, we also used the phone to look
at the weather and news (all free of charge (BigPond's Free to Browse))
and to watch weather and news 'TV' on the phone (at a modest monthly
charge), so that was an additional advantage.

On using a hard-disk: We travelled thousands and thousands of K's on
many, many unsealed roads, including some very rough ones, but we had no
problems with the hard-disk. However, I did have backup on SD memory
cards of all my important stuff, so I could 'lose' the hard-disk without
*too* much hardship. You (Gerrit) might want to consider such a setup as
well. The hard-disks in these mini-notebooks are not *that* big and SD
memory cards come in quite high capacities and are not *that* expensive.

Well that's about all for now. If anyone has any questions, remarks,
etc., feel free to respond.

[Full posting for reference:]
On Oct 5, I wrote:
Gerrit wrote:

"Gerrit" wrote in message
...

"Frank Slootweg" wrote in message
b.home.nl...

Thanks for your concern/warning.

I understand - also from looking at (Telstra's) coverage charts - that
3G/NextG/UMTS/whatever coverage in rural/outback areas is much, much
better than GSM coverage. GSM (i.e. GPRS) coverage would indeed be
rather useless.

We will be going basically 'everywhere', especially unsealed roads/
tracks in rural/outback areas in (SA,) NSW, QLD, NT and WA.

We have no real 'need' to be connected, but I'd like to try what's
it's like to have a laptop/mini-notebook with us. I always stayed
cleared from much technology on our trips, only GPS, EPIRB and GSM
mobile. But with these sexy mini-notebooks, I could no longer control
myself. I'm only human, you know! :-)

Frank

Let us know how you went after you return to the Netherlands. I
have been thinking about one of them too, but then one with a hard
drive so that I can take photos to my heart's content.

If you're not a gravel road addict like me, a hard drive is probably
wise. However if the storage is only for photos, you might want to buy a
seperate 2.5 inch 'travel' drive, because the drive consumes a lot of
power, so short battery life. As to battery, there will be a bigger
battery for the Acer Aspire One, so try to get that.

If you get an internal hard drive, then get the (MS-)Windows version,
normally XP. (Hopefully the aus.computers.linux group isn't watching!)
While, as is shown in this thread, things can probably be made to work
on Linux, it's most of the time anything but straight-forward, while
most consumer products have Windows support in and out-of the box. Some,
like the Telstra NextG USB Modem even have Windows (and Mac) software
*in* the device, i.e. like a memory stick.

BTW, there should also be a 3[.5]G version of the Acer Aspire One in
the future. The general spec sheet already mentions the specs, and for a
layman like me, it looks like it will do everything, i.e. all the
frequencies, both for GSM and UMTS [1]:

Acer

WWAN: UMTS/HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) at 850/1900/2100 MHz and
quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), upgradeable to 7.2 Mb/s
HSDPA and 2 Mb/s HSUPA (for 3G models)
Supports receiver diversity and equalizes at 2100 MHz

/Acer

OR - Maybe you can write a travelogue as you go, and post the instalments
here, to prove it works! :-)

Nah, I'm planning use the computer as little as possible, I'd rather
watch the scenery! :-) It's main 'use' will be to use the web to find
out travel information as we go along. Of course we will also prepare at
home, but it's impossible to do/know everything in advance.

OH and BTW I saw a "news" item the other day where a young bloke had used
his mobile as a modem. In two months his bill had risen to some $40,000.
Better check the fine print.

In our newspaper it was Euro 40,000, about 1.7 times as much. So it
looks like a little bit of urban legend with 40,000 in any currency.
There must be *some* currency where 40,000 isn't too much! :-)

But seriously, mobile Internet, especially web, can indeed be very,
very expensive. Because I can't have a three-month contract anyway, and
probably can not have any contract, being one of them furinners, I'll
have to go pre-paid anyway, so unless I'm totally stupid ("Shut up,
Tineke!" :-)), I can't lose that much money.

[1]
http://www.acer.nl/public/page9.do?sp=page4&dau34.oid=40808&UserCtxParam=0&G roupCtxParam=0&dctx1=3&CountryISOCtxParam=NL&Langu ageISOCtxParam=nl&ctx3=-1&ctx4=Nederland&crc=1127473288