Always On Connections

I've used the dg834g, and it's pretty good. It can be set to dial-on-demand with a settable timeout.

(amongst other things)

No, you won't. You only use up your allowance if you actually do something - background 'just being connected' doesn't use up anything worth worrying about.

F'rinstance, including fairly heavy use of binary newsgroups I average around 3GB/month, and I have my PC permanently on, and my router permanently connected.

Can be all wireless. Though you will find it more convenient to confgigure the router while connected by a wire.

There are some programs that will use the Internet in the background like anti-virus updaters etc. But that's a good thing.

I just checked my logs and the most I've downloaded in a month was 700MB. I use the Internet a lot but don't do MP3 etc type downloads.

Yes, can be all wireless day to day but you should be able to connect via CAT5 cable for router setup like Mark said AND when doing router firmware updates. When doing a router firmware update it's safest to connect by wire AND disconnect ALL other wireless computers from the network.

Great. Thanks for the very helpful information.

Will.

You can leave it on indefinitely. I use about 0.5Gb a month always connected. I read as many web pages as I like and update any software I have over the internet. I occassionally view video from news websites etc.

There are two main things that you need to do to get above the 1Gb barrier per month.

1. Frequent binary downloads/file sharing.
2. Be so insecure that every man and his dog are using your computer to spam child pornography across the Internet or launching DOS attacks.

Christian.

Thanks for clarifying this.

Will.