How Can I Be A Sys-Admin On The Road?

Peter Cooper asks: "I'm a server administrator who also has to visit clients, meaning I'm often out of the office. As a 'one man outfit', this means my servers are at risk during this time. I was planning to get a cellphone that can receive e-mail, and a PDA which can connect through the cellphone, so that I can SSH from anywhere in the country, but the amount of phones, PDAs, and connectivity options, are very confusing. Do other admins have recommendations for phones, PDAs, or other systems so I can be an admin on the road? I'm in the UK, but suggestions for elsewhere are also welcomed, as others may find them useful."

Comments

UNIX or OS X laptop

[bastardsquadmuzz]

I'm not a sysadmin so I couldn't answer from personal experience, but I would have thought that the best tool would be a *NIX or a Mac OS X laptop. Then you have a keyboard to type on rather than faffing about with styli and handwriting recognition, and they are able to connect easily to all three major OSes. A Windows laptop would hinder rather than help you, because most of the tools you would need would be absent. I have a Palm m500 and the handwriting input is a pain sometimes, and I find it much easier and faster to use a keyboard. A bluetooth phone and PCMCIA card might be helpful though for when there's no phone socket nearby.