I know there are some IT bods here, I wish to have e-mail access when staying away from home. Sometimes I may be able to connect to a lan or wireless lan in a b&b, others I might connect via people like my dad's next door neighbour who have an open wireless broadband connection and finally via Oranges gprs or csd. This last option looks expensive but handy when camped on site.
I have figured how to get e-mail to my cellphone via gprs but it's hard to read. So I need to find a means of getting it via the cellphone to a laptop.
Currently the only laptop I use is a ibm thinkpad on w95 which runs personal navigator with a garmin 12xl on the serial port on com1 but at 200MB the hdd is at capacity. One problem is I know the m$ active sync software for my motorola phone uses usb but fouls up the com ports on my desktop, so want to avoid that and use the infra red port.
The cheap notebook computers seem to have no serial ports now, is a usb -> serial port adapter just as functional as a serial port?
I take it the current solution of powering the laptop from an inverter running from a cigar lighter socket is cheapest?
Otherwise where might I look for a basic notebook with dvd combo drive, serial, infra red ports and ethernet and wireless cards preferrably running on 12v, oh and a 15" screen. OH I also have a preference for avoiding XP.
AJH