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So, I have a military rugged tablet PC running Windows XP Professional. I installed TigerVNC on it, and am able to connect/view/control from my Xubuntu laptop here at the house through our router (192.168...).

I now want to get a mobile wireless plan and USB antenna and connect to the tablet with VNC over the Internet, so my dad in Florida can write me messages on it with the stylus using Microsoft Paint. I will read and respond to him from up here in Indiana.

I want the connection to be more or less constant, maybe ending a session at bedtime and resuming in the morning. Would this use bandwidth quickly? Verizon has 2, 5, and 10 GB plans for $30, $50, and $80 per month; I'd like to go the cheapest route, obviously. I doubt dad will be surfing.

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I'm wondering if an alternate solution would work better - any reason why this specific setup? – Journeyman Geek Sep 5 '11 at 3:39
I am open, but the constraints are: dad (b. 1929) can't use a mouse, can't type quickly and would lose patience with finger-pecking. Else IM or email would be ok. Dad's hearing is quite poor, but he has idiosyncratic, efficient shorthand and enjoys sketches/diagrams. – klausnrooster Sep 5 '11 at 3:50
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I was thinking dropbox + some drawing software with autosave of some sort (or a very large save button). would need some initial setup, but you'd only be sending compressed files as needed, and you can use the older versions as a form of history. Its likely to be a lot more useful than vnc all the time. – Journeyman Geek Sep 5 '11 at 5:05
Thank you, Journeyman. Will look into. – klausnrooster Sep 5 '11 at 5:24
How do you expect to connect to the the tablet when you won't know its ip address? Is there a dynamic dns service you expect to run on the laptop? – gview Sep 5 '11 at 6:56
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It depends on the quality settings, but it could exhaust the download/upload limits. The easiest way to know is to test it on another Internet connection with a bandwidth meter to see how much it's actully using.

NetMeter will work to monitor the bandwidth.

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Thanks for that. I would first have to buy the dongle and a plan to test it out though. Between netmeter, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_network_throughput, and 60 x 60 x 24 = 86,400 sec/day I may determine a ceiling. If no one chimes in with experience in the next 24 hrs I'll mark yours as THE answer. – klausnrooster Sep 5 '11 at 3:44
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