On the unlimited usage some people might want to check out the 'fair usage policy' for the service provider. Quite a few have these.

I'm with vodaphone including unlimited mobile internet access. The advice is a fair usage policy kicks in after a certain point of downloading.

Basically dont read too much into the word unlimited when it comes to internet usage.

When i am home i ALWAYS leave WIFI on but i have the auto disconnect app for my 3g

The "dual" setting will use either 3G or 2G, preferring 3G when available.

If you are in an borderline-area where you handover from 2G to 3G alot, this can eat alot of battery, so watch that.

Hope that helps.

i have set it to "dual". its always 3g for me, because there is good 3g-coverage in my area.

I've got an unlimited dataplan on 3g and I have it always connected. Well it's always connected to 3g unless I join it to a wlan, which I do if there is one around. Other than that, when I go around town 3g always connected.

3g is a vampire. i only connect to it when i'm charging my phone and when i need more speed when streaming. 2g is enough for me to just stay connected...

i leave my connection on all the time. also on vodafone with unlimited internet. considering the N900 was sold as a 'always connected' device i dont see a reason why it shouldnt be used like that.

the battery situation is tragic though. some emails and IM kill it instantly for me. avg 6 hours with one charge.

voda will not charge you for going over 500 for the first time. they will send you a letter.. next time you go over, u pay... i called customer services only to ask this last week lol

To everyone...again, remember 3G drains the battery badly only while you actively use it - surfing the web, downloads etc. It uses next to nothing while enabled but inactive. I'm on the road a lot so rarely use wifi but normally leave 3G enabled 24/7. It has a negligible effect when the phone is sitting in standby, especially if you go into Settings and lengthen the search interval a bit. I have mine set for 10 minutes, that works well for me.

Exactly, that's how it's intended to be used.

Something's wrong there. IM and email should use very little power. It may not be those at all. One of the most common reasons for high battery drain while sitting in standby is a known bug that causes pluseaudio to sometimes not unload properly after a phone call is ended. That could be your problem. To see if that's it just open a terminal type 'top' and hit enter. If pulseaudio is consistently listed at or near the top of the active services (on the right) and is using about 1-4% of CPU, the pulseaudio bug is the problem with battery drain. Or you may see something else is draining the battery, which is another conversation.

My N900 usually idles at about 1-3% total CPU load, it's normal to fluctuate some. I've never let it sit unused long, but at that rate it can sit overnite (with 3G on as always) and still have a full battery in the morning. Consistently higher CPU usage than that will reduce standby time from somewhat to drastically depending on the total CPU load.

To correct the pulseaudio bug you have 2 choices:

1. Wait for the 1.2 update, due any day now. It will include a bugfix for this.
2. As root, type 'killall pulseaudio'. The service will auto-restart and you should be good to go.

If you don't know what #2 means, wait for the update.

Most of the time í leave 3G connections off because i use WIFI more often.

When i'm at work i cannot use 3G or WIFI properly because the building is build like a prison (sometimes it feels like it too :P)

But when i need 3G i can use it "unlimited" (FUP)

I have the phone about 2 months now and used 80MB with 3G
This is because i'm more at work than home :P