Recommendations for software set up for travelling

I've picked up a few things since I bought my A150 120gb last year, but had to do a clean install of XP SP3 after the dreaded black screen of death, so I'm deciding what should go back on and what other options there are out there. I'm looking to go out to SE Asia for a few months and want to get set up before I go - I don't want stuff that's gonna give up the ghost on me half way through as I've no idea how far from civilisation I'll be at any point in time.

I'm running;

Avast 5.0
Zonealarm pro firewall
Spybot search and destroy
Ad-aware
Revo unistaller

Lightroom 2.0
Irfanview
Instantjpegfromraw

Google chrome

utorrent


I'm looking to sort out my itunes and so I guess I'll have to install the dreaded itunes. It vanished off my desktop, taking with it all the metadata I'd added and when I did a new install, it produced around 75gb's of duplicates from a 160gb folder which I had to sift through. So I'm not averse to trying something else if there are any suggestions?

I need a media player for my recently aquired movie collection (thanks to my friend), so there'll be a fair few divx files. I'm guessing this would mean 2 stand alone media players? I had VLC on my netbook last time along with windows media player, but not sure which to go for this time. Also read some positive feedback for Media Monkey.

At some point I'll need either Adobe or something similar as a reader. Again, a name that came up was Foxit - how's this worked on netbooks?

I've got a copy of Nero 7, but wasn't overly happy with it when I tried using it last year, I had quite a few disks that came up with errors right at the very end of the burning process. I'd be happy for some suggestions of either good freeware or something that if I had to pay for, would last me a while (this goes for most of the software I'm looking for actually).

Eboostr - It's been a pretty mixed bag with feedback on that. I'm undecided.

Has anyone tried using their netbook for watching Skyplayer/on demand tv? I'd be intregued to hear any suggestions as to how to get around having to a UK IP address to view them as I'll be in Asia.

What about hard drive encription? And I'm a little wary of jumping on all these unsecured wireless networks, though I think Zonealarm has some protection for that, but I'd err on the side of caution. I've never us password protection software, is it worth getting hold of? Any other security that would be advisable?

So, if you can suggest things that you use that would be great. If it's something you've heard of then that's a start and I can always do a bit of reading up on it.

Sorry for the long, rambling request but I figured it's better to ask the advice of people who have similar equipment and have first hand experience than going through the many review sites.

Cheers guys.

 

Lots of views, but no helpful comments....I had to go for the review sites and other forums - plan B. I'd much rather find out how these things run on with similar hardware.

Well it looks like I've settled on

mediamonkey to get shot of itunes (not connected my ipod yet, so it's not a done-deal).
VLC.
Reader, still not sure. Foxit is a possibility but I'm wondering about the Google chrome pdf plug ins - anyone had any joy with em?

Imgburn looks to be the choice for burning software so far.

Not sure about eboostr at all.

Secure VPN's seem to be falling into 2 catagories, flawed free ones and reasonable paid ones. I'm not too fussed about paying for one just to get a UK IP, I'd like to find something similar to Hotspotshield - was going to go for HSS, but have read some terrible reviews - for wifi security.

Truecrypt seems pretty much the only choice for encryption, but I won't have that much sensitive data on my One and just want to stop people prising my saved passwords etc from the HDD if the worst happens and someone half-inches it.

Come on guys, even if it's just to throw in a one line suggestion....

 

I know, no one is on the forum these days. I wonder what happened to them and their Aspire Ones. :?

For Security: AVG 8.0 Free Anti-Virus & Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Media: Windows Media Player 11 & K-Lite Codec Pack, iTunes (if you have an iPod) or Songbird (if you don't have an iPod)
Internet: Mozilla Firefox 3.6, uTorrent

That's pretty much everything I can think of right now. For e-mail I use GMail so don't use any Mail Clients and for viewing photos I use whatever it is that comes with Windows (works fine).

 

Invest in a small usb powered portable hdd. get everything set the way you want it, and just use the drive to backup. keep it in your bag and just forget about it unless you need it.

probably the best bet if youll be away from civilization for a bit.

 

I know, it's bizarre. I had the temerity to mention the lack of replies on another post on here and had some idiot telling me that just because you post on a forum, doesn't mean you'll get a reply. Stating the obvious? I don't mind admitting that I'm a bit out of my depth on here when it comes to setting up computers and all that that entails, but if I can contribute, I'll take a minute to post a quick message, but the fact of the matter is that I'm really busy trying to sort out my One for my upcoming trip and use forums to search for the answers to my problems and when I can't find anything then I'll start a new thread.

Security wise, I was meaning things like VPN's, drive encryption and password managers, but thanks for sharing your set up. Using Avast, Spybot S&D, Ad-aware, VLC, Mediamonkey, Google Chrome and uTorrent - so at least we've one thing in common from your list!

I've got the 120gb HDD that came with my One, but I don't think I'll be taking it with me.(never say never though) I'm going to take my external DVD burner and burn a copy of my photo's and mail them home. To do a full back up I'd need a 500gb drive and that's not gonna come too cheap if I try and get hold of a sturdy, durable one. Thanks for taking the time for the suggestion though.

 

For security I used a 'truecrypt' drive to hold all of my data encrypted and kept the small keyfile on a keyring USB. Worked fine for several months traveling.

 

Did you encrypt the entire drive or just a folder? I'm looking to set up Truecrypt, but as I've got a 500GB HDD now that's gonna be stacked with music files and photo's I've no need to encrypt the whole thing, but I'm not sure of what files/folders I'd actually need to put in an encrypted folder - I don't know what could be classed as sensitive data on there. My main concern is with people accessing my passwords that I currnet;y have saved in Chrome, but I'll be getting one of the password managers to sort that hopefully. What is it that you put in there?

 

I just set up a 2GB truecrypt folder on an 8GB SD card for private data (including the keepass database!). I have the 16GB SSD model with built in 3G, so I also use a small ramdrive for the windows temp dir. If I left the netbook in the hotel I removed the SD card. I had a laptop and PDA stolen at Brussels Station complete with driving licence etc. I've been a bit neurotic about data loss ever since - I also do not use smart laptop bags to advertise either. The SD card, key ring drive and netbook have to be together to be of any use.

Private data for me is any word document or spreadsheet that contains info about me or the family. Internet banking is great until you decide to go away for a few months. I disabled password saving in Firefox and used KeePass. Photos and music - no need to encrypt.