Mobile broadband has the major benefit of allowing you to continue to use the Internet for all of things you would use it for whilst you are away from home. It is great for people who often travel or those who have to travel a long way to work. As long as the area you are in has at least decent coverage, it is possible to connect to the Internet through your mobile wherever you are. Mobile broadband doesn't require a fixed phone line, and there are plenty of options available where you only pay for the amount of time you spend on the Internet. Even if you don't subscribe to a mobile broadband service, you can still use either free WiFi hotspots to access mobile Internet or others by paying for the time you spend online by receiving a password.

If you live in a rural area, it is likely that your part of the country has yet to be equipped with 3G technology, and instead only has a second generation network, meaning you are likely to suffer with limited coverage of your mobile broadband. To have a chance of overcoming this problem of poor coverage in rural areas, visit different mobile broadband provider's websites and use their coverage checker to find out the standard of coverage you can expect from their service. That way, you can pick the provider who offers your area the highest amount of coverage. If you do live in a place where only a 2G network is available, you should still be able to check your e-mails and perform other simple tasks via your mobile broadband connection.

Another problem with rural mobile broadband mobile broadband is that you are unlikely to receive the maximum connection speed advertised by the mobile broadband supplier you choose to use. Connection speeds are usually affected by the amount of mobile broadband users connected to the network you use in your area and if there is any electrical interference present in your rural area. Slow connections again can result from the rural area in which you live not having a third generation network, and only having 2G. Again check on suppliers' websites to see if any of the providers offer a superior connection speed to your area compared to other providers. If there are no companies with 3G networks in your rural area, unfortunately mobile broadband is not probably the way to go if you want to use the Internet quickly and for many different purposes.

I've always been a big fan of Lotus Notes and have been "happily" using v7.01 under Wine. The new Lotus Notes 8 is built on Eclipse (another tool I use extensively) and so I've been keen to get any of the current beta versions to work. Beta 2 was a dead loss but Beta 3 seems to be that more usable.

Here's my step-by-step guide to get it up and running:

1. Ensure the Notes fonts will look nicer than the default
sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config
select autohinter, automatic, no for bitmap fonts

2. Link sh to bash. The Feisty default is dash which causes "Generic LSE Failure" errors when you run the client after install.
$ sudo mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.orig
$ sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

3. Extract the Notes Client download
$ cd ~/Desktop
$ mkdir Notes8Beta3
$ cd Notes8Beta3
$ tar xvf ../notes8_linux_beta3_prod.tar

4. You'll need to do this magic step to avoid a bug in the Installer:
$ sudo cp deploy/install.xml /root/
Basically copy install.xml into the root folder because that's where the Installer goes looking for it.

5. Run the GUI Installer
$ sudo ./setup.sh
You will now get the InstallShield GUI. Here is what I did in the GUI. It'll make sense when you go through it, and except for selecting all components, it's just the straight defaults.

Next (Intro screen)/I accept both terms/Next (License)/Accept default path (/opt/ibm/lotus/notes)/Next (Path)/Select all features/Next (Features)/Install (Summary)/ (Wait a while ) /Finish

6. Fix the /etc/lotus directory
After the install, you will have to change the parameters on the /etc/lotus directory.
$ sudo chmod -R 755 /etc/lotus
If you don't do this, you will get an error telling you that pernames.ntf can't be copied.

7. Application Icons
By default, the installer will create your Desktop icons. You may need to logout and back in again for them to be picked up. Failing that, the command line is:
$ /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/notes

8.The client will now launch. Eventually you will get the typical new-client wizard. If you've ever installed a Notes client before, it will all make sense...

Next (Welcome screen)
Name: {your name}
Server: (server name)
Next (User Information)
Next (Connect to server)
Network type: TCP/IP
Server address: (server address)
Next (Network Info)
File name: (Path to my ID file)
No (Do not copy to data folder)
(Password)/OK
Next (Setup additional services)/OK (Notes setup is complete!)

You should now have the Getting Started screen!

Good Luck!