Help - road warrior newbie w/ Thinkpad T61

[turbo42]

If there are any links that'll help me answer all this, pls. let me know. Thanks. I've read the laptop buy guide and a few posts around here that might have been similar, no luck so far...

Just bought Thinkpad T61, expresscard slot, WiFi Link 4965AGN (although the details say it does 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless), Bluetooth Integrated Bluetooth PAN. Never used a laptop before, never mind on the road. Need to know what to buy to be able to sit in airport wherevers, my hotel room or lobby and visiting-city cafes with potential clients and access internet like I've done it a 100 times before and it's as easy as sitting in my office. And securely too?

Sorry for the really "road warrior for dummies" q's, but I haven't a clue when I see the tv ads of guys in airports plugging little sticks into their laptops. If it matters, my cell service is Cingular/ATT.

Do I just call Lenovo and trust they'll not try to oversell me? What is FireWire, why would I need it vs. WiFi or Bluetooth, do I need to connect that way and/or why should I care?

Am also thinking of getting Maxtor OneTouch Mini 4 160GB for external drive on the road and maybe the Maxtor OneTouch™ 4 500GB for office use. I use Symantec Ghost to mirror whole office-based drives (OS, settings and files, not just files, I got burned once on rollbacks with just file backups and won't settle again), so I prefer the whole mirror.

As for the office/home office networking q's, I'll ask those on the proper forum elsewhere.

[Lespaul20]

You shouldn't have to buy anything extra unless you need internet beyond where there is WiFi. As far as the Airports, Hotels and other hotspots, you have what you need which is the integrated WiFi. Keep in mind though, of the airport I've been to, they charge for internet. Hotels and Cafes are usually free.

Firewire is a connection similar to USB, it's wired.

[glc]

If you need Internet access absolutely everywhere, you will need a DataConnect plan from AT&T Wireless and either an Expresscard or USB DataConnect card from them.

http://www.wireless.att.com/business...ptop/index.jsp

Otherwise, you will be limited to wherever you can connect to someone's WiFi.