I'm going to start asking a variety of technical questions of you guys over the next month or so as I prepare for my next journey to the mid-east. Basically, I'm just trying to prepare things to bring a higher quality of life to both myself and my friends and familly. This first question deals with my webspace. I use Charter but haven't taken much advantage of my webspace yet. Basically I've just hosted files/images when I want to link to them (I have run modest websites on older accounts previously). The above shows up as my "package". I interpret it to mean that I have 3Mbps download, 256kbps upload, 1 (static?) IP, 10 email addresses (duh), 20MB webspace (duh), and I don't know what to make of the "3 security keys". What do you make of the latter and does it look like I'm on track with the rest?

Sounds like you got it all right to me. The IP might not be static tho... might be best to verify unless you don't care. You'll find out anyways when your internet goes out for the first time (thunderstorm, etc).

As for the security keys...? Maybe it means username/pass combos.

[Edit: actually nope, my knowledgable friend says they're for wireless usage. WPA keys.]

Actually, that 10 emails part means you can only send 10 emails. Choose wisely.

:p

I'll have to research the WPA keys. My intent is to use my space for some sort of blog or webspace as well as hosting files for sharing. Not anything that is beyond my comprehension as I have done that with my webspace in the past just not while deployed.

So the next thing I'm looking at is a new laptop purchase. Originally my intent was to buy a top of the line laptop with power that rivals a desktop. I was interested in this Toshiba because of the whole mobile entertainment center possibilities (with the video input and all) but I have shifted my focus to compact units which will add less of a burden for me to transport and secure as well as just provide a smaller footprint during use. The first smallish notebook I looked at online is this Sony but then I remembered seeing some small products from Averatec and checked out their site. Their smallest one just didn't have the features I wanted but today I found AV3360-EH1 in the base exchange for a little less than this websites advertised price (although they are currently out of stock). I'd at least like the slightly larger 80GB drive but it seems like a nice, small package at a reasonable price.

Do any of you have any thoughts one the models I've linked to or any other models you are familiar with?