Need Laptop Advice

Krak, being a frequent traveler with my profession, I can give you a little heads up on laptop functionalities.

Current laptops:

Most new laptops come with the wireless capabilities already installed. In the old days (3-4 years ago) you had to have a wireless PCMCIA card to retrieve the signal, now with a wireless capable laptop you don't have to worry about that junk. They will also have a RJ-45 connection (tech term for the bigger phone jack on computer) for "wired" access. When buying one ask the agent if it's wireless enabled.

1. Most hotels now have either wireless or wired internet acces in each room. What I have found is that the moderately priced hotels (Hampton Inn, Fairfield inn, Comfort inn, etc...) offer their customer Free or complimentary access. The high price joints, like Hilton, Westin, etc... all charge for internet access. Ussually you can charge to your room if that's the case, if not a CC will be required.

At hotels, once the connection is established, open up a browser and you're ready to go after you accept the basic terms of service from the ISP the hotel goes through.

At a HotSpot, like Starbucks, Panera, etc... once the internal wireless modem makes a connection to the locations router, you're good to go. Open up a browser and start surfing.

Some WiFi hotspots are maintained by a local cellular company like Sprint or T-Mobile, in that case you would have to have service to get on or pay a fee for use.

All in all, no additional software is needed nowadays to access the internet wireless. It all comes with the package. The trick is to find the FREE hotspots!

Good Luck!

In addition many hotels also have adaptors for wireless connection if you unit is not so equipted---I have always gotten the adaptor free of charge

I have owned about 15 laptops over the years. Today I think all laptops have built in wireless. I currently own a Toshiba P20 with all the toys including a TV tuner. This computer has a switch you can turn WIFI on or off. When on it seeks out all wireless connections in the area. Most hotels have free connections. Once you find the connection it prvides you with information to access it.
I have had this computer for 3+ years. It is heavy by most standards but it has a 17" screen.
You don't have to spend a lot of money as prices have dropped dramaticall.

The only thing I can add is what ever you buy, IF there is an actual "switch" to turn on the WIFI, make sure you know where it is. If it is Fn F11 or some other combo, save yourself alot of headache and know that as well. Ask where you buy, but also do an internet search of the model you get to learn that and other "tricks" for your laptop.

Thanks, guys, I now know what to check into when shopping......sounds easy enough!! I would love to be able to post to the HSBBWeb while we're roving here and there for the great game of baseball!!

Can you play DVDs on most laptops these days??

Krak,

I believe most all new laptops have DVD players. If that is what you are interested in, then my other suggestion might not be right for you. I had a larger 14-15" model, an inexpensive Compaq. After a while, it weighed a ton. My next one was a 12" Averatec. About 4 lbs. Since the keyboard is right in front of the screen, I found that the bigger screen wasn't necessary. If you are sitting back watching movies, that's a different story.

Be sure to remember that information sent over wireless connections in hotels can be easily read by interlopers. When we are spending excessive time in hotels or at public hotspots, I have purchased a temporary VPN (virtual private network -- google it, or look at hotspotvpn.com) so I can check my bank, or credit card, etc without worrying about who else might be checking it along with me!

quote:

Can you play DVDs on most laptops these days??

Many of the laptops come with DVD burner. I got my son a Toshiba at BestBuy last week on sale for $599 that included:

15 inch screen
Intel 1.73 duo processor
1 gig of ram
120 gig hard drive
and firewire to download video from camera!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8297014&t...031&id=1172881381600

Make sure you get all of the cables and lines that you'll need...and yes...that includes that dratted International Dateline.

The parents got me a new laptop for graduation, it's so nice. Its a Dell, I'd already recommend that.

When you ask the hotels about wireless connections always reserve a "Bridge" ahead of time. We were at a showcase in CT at a well known hotel that bragged about their wireless. My son took off from his summer internship to go to the showcase. The boss had him bring a laptop to do the computer work for his internship. The only place in the room that the wireless worked was by the door 5 feet high. They moved us to another room closer to the buildings' internal antenna. It still didn't work. We found out that in the 100 room hotel they had a total of 2 working bridges. Both were being used by businessmen who called ahead to reserve them. Luckily the boss was a good guy and understood when the computer work didn't get done.

As a road warrior (I have averaged over 150,000 real airline miles a year for the last decade), here is what I carry.

Dell Laptop - I also have had great luck with Apple and IBM, Dell is just current issue. Personal preference is the Apple.

Regardless of brand, I think the following is required (and is standard on most new machines):
1) 15 inch display - I find that smaller is less useful and harder to read.

2) RJ-45 socket - wired is sometimes all that is available

3) 12 foot ethernet cable - the socket is not always next to the desk. 12 feet seems to always reach somewhere useful.

4) Built in WiFi (or a wifi card) - nearly all machines come with built in today.

5) Extra battery - important if you are going to watch movies on the flight, in the airport or in the car.

6) Power adapter - in the event that your laptop does not support the local power sockets.

7) DVD Disk Drive (Read) which supports CD read write as well (should be a minor upgrade or standard)

8) Firewire or USB 2.0 connection (check your camera and video camera to see what they support)

9) Audio splitter - if you have one kid watching a video - someone else will want to see it also.

10) Headphones or ear buds - you really don't want to listen to his music or his movie...

11) USB Disk Drive (e.g. a stick) - great for moving pictures and other files from one machine to another.

Hope this helps - feel free to PM with questions...

08

HOLY CR^P 08!!!

I will be traveling about 30K miles this year, and that's a ton! What on Earth (quite literally) do you do?

I work for a software company, looking after our business in the telecommunications industry - and there are phone companies all over the world... So I spend a lot of time on planes flying to various cities, visiting customers and getting back on the plane...

I used to think business travel was fun - but now consider it a repeating pattern of airports, hotels and conference rooms.

08

Hey AKBaseball06 I see you are from Eagle River AK.
My nephew is also graduating from Eagle River, maybe you know him. His name is Daniel Vaughn. If you know him and see him tell him his uncle Larry said Hi.

08, I have a telecom BG, and a Siebel/SAP Training BG.

Mostly Pharma recently, but I worked for GTE MobileNet/Verizon for about 5 years, previous.

quote:

but now consider it a repeating pattern of airports, hotels and conference rooms

Tell me about it, it's bad when they say: "Hello Mr. x, it's been a while how are the kids"

stranded,

Yea, he goes to Eagle River High and I go to Chugiak about 5 miles from it. His dad, Chaz was my teacher, maybe he is your brother. Cool connection.

quote:

So, we get back HOME (to the States) every summer for a couple months of baseball.

Make sure there there are no AC power issues because I think there are two standards between Europe and US

Korea is 220v, US of course is 110v. Thanks to Uncle Sam and the Army Post Exchange, we get everything you can find at the local WalMart. Our house is filled with a variety of converter boxes, no doubt posing a significant fire hazard.....

Here in Atlanta we have independent computer repair business opening up all around us. They also do refurbs for sale. From what is sounds like your needs are minimal and you may be able to get a good deal on a refurb. Might be worth the look.