If I were in the market for a new desktop, which I'm not, I would take quick look at the new HP Touch Smart. It comes with a 19" wide screen touchscrren monitor, and is just very, very slick looking. I ran into it at Best Buy earlier tonight and my mouth about dropped open. Also, it's stacked with some hot stuff inside. Take a look at the specs: Processor AMD Turion 64 X 2 Dual Core RL52 with AMD PowerNow and AMD LIVE! Technology Operating system Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Memory 2048MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM memory (expandable to 4GB) Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics with 256MB video memory Hard drive 320GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive Primary CD/DVD drive Slot-loaded SuperMulti Drive DVD burner with LightScribe Technology Secondary CD/DVD drive N/A Memory slots 2 SoDIMM (both occupied), HP Pocket Media drive bay (available) Front-access ports 8-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB , 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port, headphones, S-video, audio (L/R), composite input (analog video/audio) Communications Wireless LAN(802.11a/b/g) with built in WLAN antenna, Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet network interface, Sound Integrated audio, 6 speaker configurable and Built in 12W 2.0 speakers Monitor Touch Enabled 19" diagonal BightView LCD with height and tilt adjustment, Aspect Ratio 16.10 Dimensions 18.88(l) x 21.77" (w) x 11.37 (d/h) Web Camera Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam with built in array microphone Personal Video Recorder NTSC TV Tuner and over the air ATSC high definition television tuner The price is $1799 Here is a link that might be useful: HP Touch Smart

I use RealVNC to communicate with a home server where I have some housewide apps and network storage. It's what's called a "headless" operation, meaning the PC is running but it has no monitor connected to it. RealVNC provides a capability like any remote access software, no different than what happens if you've ever gotten remote tech support. When you connect to that PC, you have a window with that PCs display, and your keyboard and mouse (or touchpad) provide input to that other PC. There's a time lag for operations and screen refresh when using it. I'd say it's best suited for what I think of as server operations, not for normal use. You certainly could use it for simple programs, etc., Sound doesn't come across, just the screen image. You wouldn't use it for games or watching video, because of the lack of sound and slow screen refresh times. My server is the central place for all files - photos, video, data files, etc. The network storage is accessible from all PCs and all local programs, so the remote access is simply to more easily setup and manipulate what's there. It works across your home network, the internet is not involved. It's free, try it, see if it does what you're looking for.

If you will be accessing the internet, yes the laptop will need it's own virus scanner and firewall. Good Luck Smitty

The short answer is it can be done but it may be a bit complicated. Just connecting the TV and PC via a network cable doesn't make a network. You'll have to create an "ad hoc" network to get the computer to talk to the TV (and visa versa). Reading the manual, it appears your TV can do that. Once you get the TV and PC connected, you'll need some way to stream your content. LG offers a free copy of Nero Media Home to do that. I don't know if you will be able to "share" you 3G dongle so that the TV can access the Internet. As an aside here, I don't know how much data you get with your 3G plan but streaming videos tends to use a lot of data. So you'll want to review your limits.