excellent...just got home to find Amazon shipped today and it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow...oh, boy...YIPPIE!!

geeze ya would think I was 7 and it was my first real christmas...

Haha, I just checked my order on FedEx; they say my N800 should be here tomorrow. So can't wait! It'll be a nice relief from the exams I have to take tomorrow. Didn't buy any accessories, though. Just the N800 itself will do. But the "mobile hotspot" idea is brilliant...how much is the service for that portable router? Also, what are the dimensions? I wouldn't mind toting one of those around if it was light.

Nope, just a hard floor. Sorry, poor college kid :P.

Friend slept on it a while back (he's a commuter). Worse sleep of his life, the only reason why he slept over is he had a 2 hour commute and we got back from the movie at 12. The final was at 8.

2 hour drive home, and a two hour drive back? That's like 4 hours of sleep at home, so he stayed over.

Have fun with it though, I'm still doing stuff on there (recently got Hamachi and MCEGuru running on there). Let me know if you need help with setting Hamachi up.

Aside from muscle fatigue, the largest problem I have is getting to sleep (as I install the initrd menus...). Couch? Oh yea, I should move to the bed... sometime...

Tablets like this ought to require a prescription.

The service I have is Sprint EVDO but through a 3rd party ISP that resells EVDO. The cool part is you do not have to pay for the CDU680 EVDO modem and there is NO CONTRACT, just month to month. They prorate your first month then it's a $50 setup fee. After that it's $49.99/mo for UNLIMTED mobile broadband. The comany is called Millenicom (http://www.millenicom.com).

You would need to check the DATA coverage map over at http://www.sprint.com to see if you are even covered by EVDO RevA.

I get pretty decent performance, here is a pretty representative speed test:



That is just with the modem connected to my laptop. The Cradlepoint CTR350 is about pretty small. I know it's smaller then the N800. It functions as just a wifi hotspot but also has a combo LAN/WAN port so you can connect it to your router or direct connect to the CTR350. But it is not battery operated. So I ordered the MP1550 plus the NiMH batteries. They are to power the router.

A couple pluses for this EVDO Modem (CDU680) is it functions and appears to the computer as an AT & AT+ command set dial-up device. All of the software and drivers for Ubuntu, XP & OSX are on the device already. But that was why I liked it, I had hoped the N800 USB port was a real port. But even in OTG mode I am not hopeful it can provide enough power to the device. So, I bought the router.

Buuuuuut, Cradlepoint also makes LiION powered pocket router PHS300. But it does not have the LAN/WAN ability so I decided on the slightly more complicated but more flexible option with the CTR350 and a battery pack.

I got the idea of a mobile HS from a truck buddy who has it setup in his rig. Works GREAT and he is never out of contact and Skype almost always works over the EVDO as does streaming video for the most part. Even during periods of a poor signal I have been able to stream. I did a test, we are in a rural area near VAFB here in California. I started the laptop and connection the played a streaming video and hit the road...for the entire 60mi round trip I had video playing. The only time to stopped was because I had the power settings enabled and it shut down...oops!

I found a couple places where info is really good. I prefer the Sprint Mobile Broadband forum & the new Millenicom forum over at DSLReports/BroadbandReports http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sprintmb or http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,3165~mode=shut

And there there is a lot of info over on http://www.evdoforums.com but you are not allowed to mention ANY other site but their 3gstore.com. Still the info and help can be really good. I just choose to spend my money elsewhere.

But you can kludge up a nice in-vehicle setup with limited range for under $300 and with quite a bit more range for about $400+

Sigh...that was a LOT of typing...

ha...ha....prescription...tablet....very punny!! But you be careful some tablets can be addictive!!

Though just in case, I have RA so I always have plenty of leetle helpers for aches & pains...because they never go away anymore now that I am old...hehehehe.... Takes me about 2-3 hrs every AM just to work out the kinks well enough to make coffee.

I'd help you out, but with the money I've spent on my n800 so far, we can't even afford the gluten free beer any more ;-)

hahahahaha...ya know...I KNOW EXACTLY what ya mean. Not to worry I don't drink anything any more. Not because it's something I don't agree with but rather the meds I talk now might disagree with the EtOH.

Though I have been up most of the night reading the OS2008 & KDE doco and whatever else I get side tracked toward. So sleep is a mythical creature to me.

I am also installing a 160gb HD in my laptop this week and I already know I am finally going to setup a Linux partition. Even though I have a set of the first distro of Lunux from 1993 Comdex Show in LV...SOMEWHERE...I just never did anything but look at it once and say "....hmmmm, that's interesting..." reformat...So, basically the N800 is to be my first exposure to any form of Linux. Which is cool because I swore off that MS development treadmill after VS2002 even though I have the upgraded VS2005. But, I kept my promise and have blown off the past two versions, well the last one and the RTM 2008 versions of everything. Good bye MS...for me. My better half has just finally gotten used to XP. And we have one vertical market app we run that will never be anything but a Windows app.

BUt, I just feel I might as well start using it as my everyday OS and dual boot the laptop. At least that is the plan this microsecond. Dunno which distro I am going to try first though.

OK...time for the AM vicodin...I have plenty to share with the class...coffee is almost done too.

BTW, I do tend to ramble when I post...I hope folks here can overlook that nasty habit...

I recommend Ubuntu, it's the distro I use, and the community was really helpful when I was learning Linux.

thanks, I was leaning toward that one...besides it's a cool sounding name. But really I have read a lot of positives about it.

The other thing is, well, for my EVDO modem to work that is the only Linux OS it has drivers for...so, I guess that now make the choice really easy. I had forgotten about the driver issue.

Though I once had a fair amount of Unix, well, early Solaris OS experience and also QNX, I pretty much blanked that from my memory via supression for my own sanity. Plus, cripes that was from '90-'92. I think that Sun SparcStation II caused me permanent brain damage from bashing my head against the monitor fro days/weeks on end.