1

I always bring my netbook everytime I go to the Philippines. And I only use Linux on my PC's and netbook. I just can NOT trust any other means to do my online banking. Particularly, Internet Cafe's wherein a "key logger" (hardware or software) could have been installed by either a customer or cafe owner. I can NOT trust Microsoft Windows at all.

2

I always bring a laptop, cafes are really kind of a pain in the ass, crowded, noisy. Its not really the kind of place to get anything done. Most pensions have wifi these days and there are plenty other places to find it, lot more relaxing and convenient.

3

Agree with the other two - internet cafes are not the places to be doing internet banking or stock trading. Firstly due to the risk of key loggers and secondly because they are usually full of kids playing computer games and are very, very noisy!

A laptop, notebook would be a better bet for you so you can connect via wifi or you can get a sim card for your phone and use that to connect to the internet instead. Internet speeds aren't brilliant outside of the cities, but we manage most of the time.

4

Most of the respondents exhibit zero grasp of computer security. It is true that the internet cafes tend to be full of kids playing noisy games but they are perfectly safe for doing online banking provided you do not use the same internet cafe repeatedly. If your online bank has poor security, like you just enter your username and password on a single screen as you would to get into your e-mail, then you should be worried about keyboard loggers and also that your bank will be going bust as soon as the fraudsters find out about it; but if your online bank is not stupid then you should have a two or three screen login process, using password fragments rather than the entire password with mouse rather than keyboard entry and a more complicated process with a separate device such as a chip and pin reader or RSA token for setting up new payees then you have less to worry about than people with their own hardware. Even if the internet cafe had a video of your entire online banking session, if your online bank asks for characters 1, 3 and 5 of your password that is not going to be of any use for a bad guy to get into your account when it asks him for characters 2, 4 and 8 (unless you are an idiot and character 1, 3 and 5 were P, S and W, looks like the password is PASSWORD); whereas on your own hardware you have logged in to your online bank often enough that a trojan will have the opportunity to pick up your entire password.

5

I'd say it's the best to take ONLY a smartphone (iphone, htc, samsung, you name it). most of the places where you're going to sleep in the Phils have Wi-Fi, so you have a single small machine which you can use to make calls and send text messages, and check your mail, do online banking, skype, and do some simple browsing enough for travelling. If you need to do something more extensive or backup photos from your camera to an USB memory stick, than you can just go to an internet cafe, there's always some nearby.
The most important thing is that the smarphone fits into your pocket (hopefully you have a safer one), and therefore you are more free because you don't have to think/care about the backpack with a laptop inside (or netbook or whatever) getting stolen or damaged while squeezed while travelling. Many people travel with laptops, but i think it's overkill.

6

netbook or tablet

7

If you have an unlocked smartphone with a replaceable sim, you can buy a local sim almost anywhere for about a $1, buy some prepaid load and get on-line. And if your phone can act as a tethering device, then your other devices can use its wi-fi.

8

Netbook. I'm a Linux network person plus I write code a bit.

9

Linux network person
Cool :)