IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST on the Asus Eee PC, Dave Johnston emails:

What the reviewers have been missing – frustratingly, even Walt Mossberg made this mistake – is that while you CAN use the little WiFi icon and “Wireless Networks” feature to connect to hotspots, you should actually be setting up wireless using the “Network” option to create a frequent, known hotspot, such as your house or favorite coffee spots.

Click into “Network,” click “Create” a connection and follow the steps to make sure that your Eee remembers that connection. You can set it to remember the security key as well as tell it to auto connect, even “On Boot” if you choose.

I have set up my three most frequent networks, and it connects EVERY time, within 30 seconds or so after the super fast boot.

I’ll give it a try. Plus, in the comments over at PopMech, people say you can use the Verizon USB card without any software. I’ll have to give that a try sometime too.