Total Wireless card and notebook

Whatever gave you the idea that you can't leave a laptop on? I am in Las Vegas (Boulder Highway and Nellis), have 3 laptops (two toshiba and one Fiju) and a PDA on a home network, apt complex uses sat (no cable) and a switching phone system (no dsl), so I use an audiovox pc 5220 card in one of the laptops that gives me always on internet (NationalAccess in most places I travel to and BroadBandAccess ((EVDO)) here in Vegas), and except when traveling (and once for an hour or so during a power failure), it has been on continuosly for over a year. Got WiFi built in to your laptop? I run an always on open/free hotspot (SSID PP in LV, internet connection available when I am in town). For what it's worth, depending on the design of the laptop, it may get hot (some do some don't), but they make heat dissipating plates/bases/trays to set em on (got em at Fry's on Las Vegas Blvd, aluminum with ridges). If you are only gonna use it on one machine, no problem, if you want to share the internet connection on a network, be aware that the Mobile Office software addon specifically for the 5220 card stops sharing, but you can get around that very easily (check alt.cellular.verizon or email me at PeterPan at Akamail dot com). As for file sharing, it works fine with regular downloads, but has a problem with sharing on peer to peer networks.

Depends on what you want to do on the internet.. The ping times (about 800 ms) make it way unusable for real time things like gaming, but if you tend to do stuff on one site at a time (download files etc) it's awesome. Before getting an apartment here in vegas, I used to live and travel in my RV. The only high speed internet I had in it, was sat, and that had the same problem (slow prop times). From personal use, it's about the same as I was used to with sat internet (no gaming etc), but from paying the bills every month, it is cheaper than sat service (that was about $100 a month), and works while moving (rather than have to park/setup and aim the sat dish).. Heck, just for fun a few months ago, I rented a boat on Lake Mead and was able to be online to send email and digital pix while sailing, and for fun on new years eve, I hooked the webcam to my laptop and sent a live video feed of the fireworks to my sister (she had to work). Even the lower speed NationalAccess(1X) was fine for things like security webcams/monitored elsewhere. The propogation delay, while noticable in real time and while switching sites, was pretty much unnoticable once connected. Again, it all depends on what you want to do online. EVDO will not speed up your ping/propogation times.. It pretty much depends on what you want to do.

I think they have a limited wireless (10 or 20 mb) a month for $39.00 a month. If you are only doing email and banking and stuff that's all you need. If you are going to download DVD's and MP3's it's not economical at all even if unlimited.

Peter, how do you like EVDO. I had the previous wireless internet service last year and dropped it because it was laggy and slow. Soon after (of course), Chicago switched to EVDO but no one I've met is using it. Emanuel

I can understand how a battery can explode, but theres absolutely nothing in a computer itself that can explode. I wonder if that's the same thing as cellphones explode, when it's actually the batteries that explode.. Did your friends battery explode?

Some laptop PSUs are not designed for continuous work and can overheat. A colleague of mine was startled one evening when his company-supplied Compaq exploded. Fortunately nobody was in his study at the time but the lappy was a write-off as was part of his desk. This was one of the old ones with a builtin power supply.

No, the computer exploded.

I imagine that the (internal) PSU caught fire, the combustive gases were trapped inside the case, and this caused an explosive rupture. *bang*

If you think it is impossible for nonflammable things to explode, read up on flour bombs.