Scot has got some winners there.

@Scott Good tips, thanks. My first modem was 1200 baud, agree that we’re somewhat spoiled now – I love living in the future :) Then again, back in those days we weren’t trying to get anywhere near as much information down the pipe!

“One of the gadgets I bring with me on the road is a small 3G HSDPA modem with prepaid Internet access (which cost me around $40, including a prepaid card). This allows me to have access to 3G Internet where available or a much slower GPRS connection, which is available wherever there’s a cellphone signal.”

Is that in Europe? How did you work this out, b/c I can’t find a pay-as-you-go system for a modem in the US. I’d kill to have that as a backup.

As far as recommendations go, I suggest getting “Process Explorer” (free from Microsoft), “Autoruns” (ditto), and getting comfortable with “services.msc” on WinXP, WinVista, and Win7. Using Process Explorer and Autoruns will help you whittle down running processes to just the bare minimum. (Research any unfamiliar process before killing it!) And services.msc will do something similar for OS services, many of which are completely useless and unnecessary, and do nothing but suck up CPU, RAM, and other resources (not sure why Microsoft thinks I need “tablet pc” related services running on a machine that’s not a tablet pc, for example).

For regular users of Google services (mail, calendar, docs, etc.) I recommending installing Gears, which lets you do some stuff while offline, then synchronizes with the cloud when you regain a connection.

first, if you use IMAP for email, switch back to POP. i was amazed at how often and how belligerently Mac OS Mail would gobble bandwidth to needlessly sync over IMAP.

second, disable all automatic updates. OS, Browsers, Add-ons, Adobe products, everything. you can find yourself on a slow connection wondering “why is this *so* slow? i’m not *doing* anything?” then you discover Adobe Updater is hogging all your bandwidth while updating … itself.

third, turn on url shorteners’ preview capability (if they have it – here’s a link to info about tinyurl’s preview). this will help you not waste time trying to load a youtube video that your friend/colleague sent/IM’d without any explanation.

fourth, separate out your RSS feeds into low-bandwidth stuff that you need, and high-bandwidth things that are for entertainment. you can catch up on cheezburger when you get back to civilization.

ultimately, these habits have stuck with me, even though i now enjoy a 40KB cable connection out here in the sticks (up to 7 times faster than my modem!). waste not, want not.