Hi, I'm considering purchasing the N800 ASAP and have read about 40 pages of threads here to get the skinny on every aspect which I'm interested in.

I have a couple of questions remaining and would be grateful to anyone who can answer them. It's always good to clear up interests and concerns first

1. Can the N800 access network machines on the wireless network it connects to, or, specifically, can I download a file to the N800 and then transfer the download to another machine (lets say a full PC) on the wireless network.

2. What is the progress with firmware updates and new software on support for the camera in IM applications? From what I've read use of the camera is pretty limited - how likely would MSN webcam ever be on this platform?

3. I'm guessing with the Linux basis that there must be terminal software out there which supports SSH with private key. Is that the case? How does the touchscreen keyboard fare in keying in UNIX terminal commands.

4. Streaming .wmv - this is still a bit no no right?

5. And possibly most important - what is the maximum comfortable number of simultaneous webpages you can run on Opera or Mozilla? I'm normally following about 10-12 webpages throughout my free-time and my primary aim in buying the N800 is to be ultra-portable in this function. Can I run this many pages concurrently on the N800 and is the performance comparable with a desktop or laptop PC - in terms of page load, rendering and page refresh speed?

I really appreciate anyone who can help on any of these points.

Thank you in advance,

Rob

1. over what protocol, some yes, some no.

2. It is very unlikely the cam will ever work with msn.

3. the touch screen keyboard works just fine, type the command and press enter....

4. you can stream quite a file formates, im not sure if this is one of them, it probably can if it is at the right resolution and formated correctly. (use Canola for your media player, it can do UPNP streaming)

5. id say about 5-6 max, with out it starting to lag...

1. The new upcoming OS supports direct access of Windows shares.

2. Major firmware updates 3 or more times per year, with 1 or 2 minors. Webcam support still very limited, although Gizmo (not MSN) is hard at work on it. Skype support still in question.

3. Yes, you will find tons of info on xterm and SSH here, and they work well for many people (I never got SSH to work but that's my incompetence in that area).

4. WMV support coming with next update.

5. I have encountered crashes at 4 or more browser windows open... but it mostly tends to happen on highly active sites (like CNN and yahoo, which dynamically refresh and contain over 130 objects each).

Wait, wait, wait . . . no SSH? It's as simple as running apt-get install ssh in xterm. That works fine on all of my devices. :\

I couldn't get SSH host working on my PC. I never found complete instructions that made sense. : /

Is NDAS among the supported "Windows" shares?

Just some small comments:


I've had up to 15+ websites open at a time, fairly active websites. Past 9 you don't see the count (since there is only a single digit space for windows open ). There is a slowdown, but for the most part the current window is at or near full speed while switching to another window takes a couple seconds longer than usual, but usable. With the bump up in speed (OS2008) I can expect performance to increase (naturally).

I wouldn't rule out MSN webcam support for sure, but I wouldn't count on it for sure either. With OS2008 and HAL, webcam support might be much better IMO. Pidgin (a IMing app) is supposed to have full video support by version 3.0 (they're at 2.2, 3.0 is due in January).

So by January I think it may be highly possible that the N800 will have webcam support for MSN.

I haven't tested NDAS yet to see. My own NDAS drive died. Friggin' Western Digital POS drive...

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ is what you need for connecting to the N800.

Setting up a server on the PC is a little more complicated (I'm a Mac user, so I definitely can't help there).

Very many thanks to both of you 'rats', that's exactly the kind of experience and understanding of the machine that I was looking for. I sincerely appreciate the feedback, it's ticked a lot more boxes, it's already something I'm keen on.

I support and manage a web based financial information system, tech-wise it's not page-load intensive (I can load it pretty fast on an old non-3G Windows Smartphone with 240x320 res) but sometimes I need several windows open.

That sounds fine and the other application would be the SSH terminals for admin and that sounds more than feasible too. Plus I already read that IMAP email is supported (not sure the size of IMAP folders tolerated) so all positive.

I'm just left with the question mark over both replies about browser windows, sounds like 4 or 5 maximum from both of you and that seems like a pain. I'm an unashamed tab-whore in Firefox on XP, I hate going back and forth.

And from a personal point of view, did like the idea of having it there by my side while at home watching TV with about 12 ebay windows open, able to follow it easily without having to be hidden behind a laptop screen!

But I guess I could learn to browse more conservatively and use bookmarks more just to take advantage of all the benefits of not having to lug a laptop round or be near a desktop. Sounds like a machine to make sacrifices for..?