Need advice on laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andy in NJ
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Andy in NJ

I am in the market for a laptop. I don't need the latest technology. It will
primarily be used for webpage development. It needs to be wireless capable.
I understand some laptops allow you to plug some sort of card into it that
allow you to use your main computer. What would I need plugged into my main
computer to allow me access to it and my cable modem connection? What
specs/brand names would you recommend I get?
 
I have had good experience with the Toshiba, and the Compaq. You can add a
wireless network card to most laptops. You will require a wireless router
working with your cable modem for this to work.

In a laptop, make sure you buy it with what you need. They are expensive to
do upgrades on, and many types of upgrades are not able to be done, because
of the way that they are designed.

--

Jerry G.
==========================


"Andy in NJ" <SHORECOGS at COMCAST DOT NET> wrote in message
I am in the market for a laptop. I don't need the latest technology. It will
primarily be used for webpage development. It needs to be wireless capable.
I understand some laptops allow you to plug some sort of card into it that
allow you to use your main computer. What would I need plugged into my main
computer to allow me access to it and my cable modem connection? What
specs/brand names would you recommend I get?
 
Jerry G. said:
I have had good experience with the Toshiba, and the Compaq. You can add a
wireless network card to most laptops. You will require a wireless router
working with your cable modem for this to work.

In a laptop, make sure you buy it with what you need. They are expensive to
do upgrades on, and many types of upgrades are not able to be done, because
of the way that they are designed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I don't need the newest laptop, as I don't plan on
doing anything extremely taxing on the computer, just some web publishing
and light internet use. No 3d gaming or video production. Is there a minimum
CPU and/or operating system requirement for most wireless cards?
 
Andy in NJ said:
Thanks for your reply. I don't need the newest laptop, as I don't plan on
doing anything extremely taxing on the computer, just some web publishing
and light internet use. No 3d gaming or video production. Is there a minimum
CPU and/or operating system requirement for most wireless cards?
Click to expand...

No, as long as the operating system that will be run on the laptop will
support it, and it has the hardware capabilities for it, you can run
wirelessly. If you want to run wirelessly there are 3 main ways of doing it
from a laptop (on the receiving end of a wireless network, which you will
have to have set up).

The laptop can use a PCMCIA card. These are the little cards that are about
the size of credit cards. Most laptops will have these slots. You can
purchase PCMCIA wireless cards for under 50 bucks, if you look around, you
can find them significantly cheaper than that as well.

The laptop can use a USB wireless adapter. This is a small
receiver/transmitter that you can plug into a USB port on your laptop.
These can also be quite cheap, downside (for some people) is that you have
to have it connected and if you are trying to be ultra-portable, you'll have
to deal with the cord, etc. If you get a small USB cord and use some
double-sided tape or velcro, you can just attack the USB adapter to the
laptop, it really isnt' that bad.

Thirdly, new laptops (you said you weren't looking for latest technology, so
you probably won't go with this one) can come with wireless systems built
into them, so you don't even have to deal with plugging things into your
laptop.

I prefer the PCMCIA method myself, simple card you slide into the side, most
operating systems will pick it up and install the drivers without you even
needing to load a disk or anything.

I suggest looking at some refurbished, as they'll usually come with some
sort of warrenty and are cheaper than new systems.
http://www.usanotebook.com/ seems to be a good place to shop for
refurbished laptops. I have never purchased anything from them so I don't
know what they are like to work with, but they seem to have a decent
selection. For what you are doing, the processor speed won't be too much of
a problem, although to avoid getting frustrated I would try and find at
least a pentium 3, or amd's 1000 or higher and 256mb for ram, as you'll be
flipping through web pages and probably some web developement IDE's.

Just my thoughts,

~Chris Martin
 
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