Dell Mini-9 N-Book Laptop

Well - I received my N-Book about two weeks ago.

I ordered it with Ubuntu installed (linux) and a 4-gig Solid-State drive along with the Wireless network card (802.11g), Bluetooth, 1-Gig of 533-MHz Ram and a 1.3-megapixel web cam installed. The total price (including shipping) came to just under $400. All in all - not a bad price for this machine.

My intention for this laptop is as a portable terminal. My day job is a Network Administrator for a Public Library system in Florida and lugging around a full-size laptop tends to get rather tedious. I was looking for something smaller with good screen resolution, portablility and fairly rugged as I have managed to kill a couple of hard drives in laptops from bumps and whatnot moving them around while working with network routers and switches in remote locations. Using full sized laptops have the distinct disadvantage of having the batteries die at a most inopertune moment so it is rather nice the N-Book battery lasts for around 4-hours of continous use. This I know to be a fact as I have done it several times.

In the configuration I received the N-Book from Dell it did not have some of the software I needed in order to work with the routers and switches I maintain - not a problem as I just selected the software I needed and installed it using the wireless network card in the machine to link up with the wireless network at work. The installation was very easy to do - the machine did all of the work and all I did was select the software programs I needed. Seems the linux world is getting their act together better than in the past. I am not new to linux and have done my share of kernel tuning, kernel hacking, software compiling and installations so having the Add/Remove software application manage all of the details of installing software was a very nice change!

One of the software packages I needed was Putty which is a terminal communications software package that can communication through a serial interface or the wired or wireless network interface. Even though the N-book does NOT have a serial interface it does recognize a USB to Serial adaptor and Putty can use this to communicate with serial interface equipment (like Cisco routers and switches).

A second software package I use is Nessus - a network scanner application that I use to detect possible security holes or ports that do not need to be open.

A third software package I use (for more than just my job) is Skype - a VOIP software phone system which I use to communicate with co-workers or friends. Believe it or not Skype works fine with the N-book and I have used a bluetooth headset with it through the bluetooth interface on the N-book. Talk about a "Blackberry" on Steroids!

I have also installed a TFTP application which allows me to download and upload router and switch configurations for the different networking equipment I maintain. This capability makes it very easy to "restore" service at a location if a piece of equipment fails and has to be replaced. Just install the replacement hardware, bootup to initial configuration, connect the N-Book to the network, fire up TFTP server and have the replacment equipment download its operational configuration from the N-Book! SWEET!

I have all of the configuration files for the different routers and switches saved on a 4-gig HCSD card that plugs into the side of the N-Book and have copies of the configuration files as backups (with one set of backups stored in my PDA/Phone as well). The HCSD micro-card in my PDA/Phone plugs into an adapter which plugs into the N-Book so I have two sets of the configuration files on me pretty much all the time. Sure makes life much easier when there are problems that need to be corrected in the network!

Well - Enough for now - you probably are starting to get the picture about this amazing device.

Did I mention it weighs about 2 lbs???

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