Looking to buy a laptop in the future, but

oysterman

what do i need?

Going on holiday later on for 2 months Asia, New Zealand & Fiji. We would only use it for E-mail, storing photo's & banking really.

What shoild i be looking for, don't really want to spend more than £400 total.

macman

If you don't neeed an optical drive to watch DVD's, then any decent netbook will do the job-your main concern should be weight and portability.
Easily found well within your budget.

calvin19

Go for Acer Aspire one. small and handy.

PCease

I bought the Asus eee from ebuyer for a road trip in the USA (Route 66) in October last year:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190290

Battery life is excellent, 7 hours I think... think the 10 hour battery option was about £30 more.

Used it all the time for Skype, email, internet (tripadvisor.com!!)... worked great.

Ideal for this and small that it takes hardly any room in my ruck sack (didnt want to leave it in the car when doing sightseeing stuff as it contained all my photos etc).

Basil1234

oysterman wrote: »

what do i need?

Going on holiday later on for 2 months Asia, New Zealand & Fiji. We would only use it for E-mail, storing photo's & banking really.
.

really quite brave with the banking bit abroad! i hope the net you connect on is secure. prob me just being over cautious but i wouldn't personally trust it.
My advice only deal with banking over the phone if it really is that important to you espically in foregin country in different hotels where you have to go thru multiple unknown servers. only takes 1 dodgy outfit but hey upto you.

swvillafan

Basil1234 wrote: »

really quite brave with the banking bit abroad! i hope the net you connect on is secure. prob me just being over cautious but i wouldn't personally trust it.
My advice only deal with banking over the phone if it really is that important to you espically in foregin country in different hotels where you have to go thru multiple unknown servers. only takes 1 dodgy outfit but hey upto you.

Good advice that from Basil. Friends of ours got caught like that while abroad and lost a bit of money through a dodgy connection, phone banking would be the way to go!

diable

I wouldn't bother another piece of equipment to lug around that could get broken or stolen. Use Internet Cafes for updating FB or emails but make sure you have a strong password and reboot the machines or clear the cache when you leave and for banking get cheap calling cards to use or have a trusted family member that you could email or text with instructions.

oysterman

Cheers for all the replies.

Must admit i have'nt gave much thought to security when online, but that's why i post on here to gauge as many opinions as possible.
The initial thought was it would make it easy to keep in touch, but the more you think about it the less appealing thing's are. Anyway food for thought:beer:

PCease

Although I would not recommend using an internet cafe or unsecured (or secured hotel/cafe) wi-fi for banking and sensitive information these are the minimum precautions I would take:

[1] Firewall - Make sure you have a decent software firewall installed. Comodo offers free firewall (and anti-virus). Firewall is excellent, AV is ok. Both together should be adequate.
[2] SSL - Ensure you are connecting using Secure Socket Layers to your bank / email i.e. make sure the yellow padlock is showing. This is why Gmail is excellent because it offers secure email.
[3] As you type your password thrown in a few random letters / numbers / symbols then delete them before you press Submit... This will help prevent a key logger if there is one installed on a public terminal or internet cafe.
i.e.
if your password is "goph3r45" add a few random numbers / letters before and after typing your password then delete them before you hit submit...

so type ^&ghTgoph3r45BB65^. You would only see the ******************

USE THE MOUSE (this is important) and select the first 5 ***** and right click and press cut.

USE THE MOUSE (this is important) and move the cursor to the end 5 ***** and right click and press cut.

Now click submit.

If the key logger is monitor keyboard usage, it "may" not record the mouse cursor position or mouse menu so your password.

If the hacker is determined they will find it, most will give up and move to the next person's details! Long winded but a ok(ish) security measure on public computers that takes a few seconds longer! Obviously try to use a password that looks random so the 5 letters before and after blend in (your password should not be easy to guess or include words from the dictionary as the password).

Darksun

Any internet banking site should be secured with end to end encryption, so even on unsecured WiFi, there wouldn't be much to worry about. Someone is more likely to intercept your telephone banking call!

For an extra layer of security, you could VPN into a system at home (using an encrypted VPN link) and then bank from there.

Using a public computer/internet cafe is a different kettle of fish though, you don't know what is installed on there so you're potentially vulnerable.

Anyway, just make sure anything you take is insured, and if you're putting photos on there make sure you upload them onto the internet whenever possible, that way if the laptop is lost/stolen you won't lose the photos. Also make sure the AC adapter that is supplied with the laptop is suitable for the electricity supply in the countries you will be visiting, and that you have the correct socket adapters.

Taffybiker

There is some good advice above. My bank won't allow a non UK IP address to access its website. You may find the same to be true of yours, so I would forget about online banking abroad.
If you really will need to access your account while you are away, leave all the necessary details with someone in the UK that you trust, and phone them when you need something doing. Then you don't need to even mention passwords or other sensitive information on the phone. Asia in particular has an awful lot of scamming going on.