I'm not sure that a 200 notebook counts as extravagent, but you do tend to get what you pay for.

The downside of using an Internet Cafe, is security. You have to asume that any machine will have a keylogger and possibly a screen capture trojan runnng in the background, which means you have to be brave to access financial sites on them. Public WiFi, though safer, still has it's risks which means you need a machine with at least a fully patched Win XP SP3 and a good AV program therefore you need a machine with at least 1GB RAM which rather limits the choice of used models. Also, in my experience, the built in WiFi receiver in Laptops is one of the most common failiures although you can always buy a USB dongle.

A Linux machine is less vulnerable to attack, mainly because fewer are in use, but not immune. you would also (almost) lose the option of using mobile phone based internet connection.

A mobile phone based internet connection is the most secure, but as Fred says, it can be very expensive and data rate is variable.

I don't know of any computer/WiFi packages on the continent but I suppose they must exist. Possibly the cheapest way is to buy a data dongle with a short contract when you get abroad.

BTW Vodaphone are abolishing roaming charges for the summer, but maybe not for data.

Thank you for the input guys.

Time difference means no cafe or hotel internet open, so will need hotel with wifi where possible. Didnt realise a netbook could do the job, so will investigate further. Would want to run xp and ie8 which is what I am used to, if possible. Yes the large ram with an old system has got me thinking too.

EDIT to add

Ok another source has suggested a Dell Inspiron 15 ( seem to be pretty loaded with about 3gb ram) 350 while they're on offer. And could you please explain what a win xp sp3 patch is please, as I will be viewing financial sites.
Thank you very much guys

I was thinking of checking shares prices, rather than trading. I did have anxieties about Internet cafes, but I was flogging out in ISAs and money only transferable to own account. I hoped.

I use my Eee netbook using XP when in Spain. Moneyam and other web based trading sites work fine as does web based e mail. The dinky size is a gem as is the 4/5 hrs battery life but you do spend more time scrolling due to small screen size.
I also use a usb dongle at 6euro/month, 2 euro per day but this is country specific.

I bought a Samsung NC10 netbook a few months ago - I can easily get 7 hours battery life out of it with XP. I used a Dell Inspiron laptop before this which managed about 3.5 hours. Not as cheap as some netbooks but the NC10 has convinced me that mobile computing is really all about battery life - because for the first time I can use a portable without constantly feeling like I'm watching the clock and battery indicator. I've read that some newer netbooks might be able to manage as much as 9 hours now - after the NC10 I'd never go back to anything with less than 7 - it's changed my way of using them.

A good point, much as I like my cheap and cheerful Aspire1, the usable batterry life is around 75 min.

This might be well worth considering too:

https://www.gotomypc.com/....

I would agree that a remote desktop is a good way of accessing both your home computer and Internet applications while abroad but have the following reservations:-

I would not be comfortable giving control of my home PC to someone like gotomypc. I know that they say it is secure but I try to be cautious.

I do often use remote desktop but only over a secure VPN connection which rules out Internet Cafes.

If you use something like gotomypc in an Internet Cafe and a trojan manages to get your logon details then your entire PC would be handed over to the bad guys.

Optimist, or any other person who can help.

I am running a Sony VGN with XP pro and NFTS partition hard disc Laptop.

I am beginning to wander about again and frightened of losing my machine when I take it with me to some strange and dark places.

I am thinking of getting an encryption package to safeguard information, giving me time to cancel accounts etc.

Many of my files are encrypted already within various programmes.

Are the packages any good?

Are they safe?

Are they expensive? (Tight fisted again.)

Any suggestion to which package?

Do they slow the machine down?

Not that the latter matters too much as I am generally slower than the machine and dont notice slowness often.

If you used something like gotomypc can you protect/ prevent sharing of certain areas of the hard disc against keypadding etc.

I asked at various internet cafes while wandering, if I could plug directly into their land line?

Only one nice guy in France said he would be happy for me to do so.

I am not sure if I was more or less safe.

The safest thing, Fred, would be to ensure that there's absolutely nothing of any worth left on your machine. If that means clearing your cookies and your browsing history regularly each day and deleting any stored passwords from the registry, then so be it. Also empty your recycle bin.

Even so, these items are unlikely to be permanently deleted from your hard disk and could still be recovered. There is software available which claims to permanently delete stuff.

My experience of anything to do with security and encryption is that everything is crackable. Whichever encryption method that you choose, there will undoubtably be a free crack for it somewhere on the internet.

Re Hilary's mention about clearing out all the the dross from your machine, I am an avid user of CCleaner.

In fact, I must use it several times per day. It makes cookie management a doddle and I do like to keep some cookies undeleted because I can then go to sites where cookie recognition by those sites is an asset for me to have. With CCleaner I can easily choose which cookies to delete or keep.

I could use CCleaner to delete History files but I don't do so because I tend to surf quite a lot using History links.

I use CCleaner to delete Temporary Files and Temporary Internet Files, Clipboard and my Recycle Bin. I also use it to maintain my Registry Integrity - this is a doddle to do too.

I can also use it to control my Windows XP Startup programs and do Uninstalls.

It will do more than this but I don't tend to use it for much more than I've listed above.

A reliable download site for CCleaner for me to recommend is via my friends', The Computer Doctors' Software Download Web Site


Can't help with anything to do with encryption but I'd start looking for it here:



(Note how they have used a topical picture of the brand new and very important 'missing link'. Clever, eh?)

Fred

The best disk encryption is Microsoft Bitlocker which is included with Vista Business and Ultimate and the equivalent Windows 7 versions. You could upgrade to Windows 7 RC which is free until March, the only downside with Windows 7 is that I don't think you can upgrade XP to it so you will have to do a fresh install and possibly another one when you eventually buy the final version.

Bitlocker works seamlessly and has a minimal impact on performance. I think Hilary is a bit unfair in saying that everything is crackable. She is almost right, but the only ways to crack Bitlocker are:-

Guess the password - best of luck to them if you use a strong one.

Steal the computer and get it to some serious diagnostic kit within a few minutes of it being switched off. This hack has been demonstrated but is not going to happen in practise.

Get hold of the recovery key. This is an extremely long number which you need to file away in a very safe place.

Older computers may need a key file that is stored on a USB drive to start them so if you if the USB drive to the computer thief he is in. Older computers also have to support USB drives at boot.

Plugging your machine into the wired network at in Internet Cafe is comparable to connecting to the Internet with a n ADSL modem and no external firewall. Not really to be recommended but slightly safer than public WiFi. If you want to be secure, you can buy a USB device that is a standalone external firewall. This should keep you as safe as you are at home at least if you only use HTTPS or VPN connections.

I haven't used GotomyPC but my guess is that as it is essentially a remote desktop then you should be able to put similar restrictions in place but you will by relying on XP user security which is not bullet proof.

Another possibility is to boot your machine from a live DSL Linux stick that carries minimal personal info. The problem there is that WiFi connections with Linux tend to be interesting challenges.

Doc

If you delete all your temporary files with CCleaner, does it overwrite them on the disk or just delete them? If the latter then you need to also use a disk eraser on the free space.

Hilary,Exec, Optimist, Thank you all, I will have to sit back and digest the information.

I getting to old for IT and new fangled ideas. The words of my 82year old brother, who bought himself a new computer last week.

He was sitting on a bag of ice and cursing at his old one with the 2 fans down, the casing off and a heater fan blowing cold air at it.

I did suggest he poked with a screw driver, but he thank me for my advice but decline it.

Fred, for encryption you might want to look at TrueCrypt http://www.truecrypt.org .

I use it to encrypt USB sticks and so on, but I've never used its whole disk encrpytion facility. It has the advantage of being free and offers various good encryption algorithms such as Bruce Schneier's Twofish

Cheers

MM

Optimist

"For the super cautious users CCleaner also offers secure file erasing. It does this by overwriting the files before deleting them, making it impossible to recover the data."

Re: CCleaner - most people seem to be happy with it, but it utterly bolloxed some of my registry settings to the extent that Office was broken, and could neither be repeaired, uninstalled or reinstalled. Wasn't very happy, and has now been added to the long list of registry cleaning tools that I won't touch with a bargepole.

Opti's Bitlocker certainly looks promising but, if it's only available on certain editions of Vista, it may not be an option for Fred.

From what I've also seen on the internet, I'm inclined to think that TrueCrypt has already been cracked.

I still maintain that the best option for Fred is to ensure that there's nothing whatsoever on his PC of any worth if he's that worried about it being pinched.

The worst thing that's ever happened to me PC-wise while abroad was a few years back when we retrieved a laptop from the boot of the car only to find there was a massive crack going right through the middle of the screen. As it was a ski resort, we were never sure if we'd shut the boot down too hard or if it was the altitude that had caused the crack.

Other than that, we've used laptops with mobile phones and data cards as well as free and paid-for wifi services and never had a problem. I think it's very easy to worry too much about these kind of things.

Never re-install your Windows XP ever again:

http://www.reimage.com/home/....