John in Calgary
As for what hose to use, I just recently found out that the hose that comes with a drywall vacuum sanding kit (~$20 at the Orange Borg) has an adapter that fits the sander's nozzle perfectly and doesn't pull the sander off my bench when I set it down, like my normal shopvac hose does. Only problem I found was the hose carries a lot of static electricity in the dry dry winter air up here in Calgary, so you get lots of shocks if you are holding the hose while sanding.

John