I need some computer advice.

Jeslek

Jeslek

Banned
My question is two fold. I can't continue on without a laptop. I'm very dependant on computers wherever I go. Whether it is school, work, or home, I need my email and internet. I'm strongly thinking of getting something in the order of this: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31553&item=2728215997

I want to try and stay under C$1,000 (about US$0.15) (ok ok ok :p, about US$700). I have had lots of good experiences with ThinkPads and this looks like a good deal. Any comments?

PIII-850Mhz / 256MB / 32.0GB / DVD-ROM / 15"TFT (max 1600x1200) for C$999.


The second part is about wireless networks. I'm thinking of buying a Netgear 802.11g 54 Mbps wireless PCMCIA card and a Netgear wireless access point. At home and work I can use the access point and then carry my laptop around without having to look for a network plug all the time, and at university I can relax in a lot of the buildings because it is covered by a wireless network. Does anyone have any experience with this stuff? How reliable is wireless networks? Do speeds vary a lot? What happens if you are connected at 54 Mbps but due to signal loss or something it has to drop to 11 Mbps or something? Does it reconnect and connect?
 
That's a solid lappy. Great screen too. BUT ... IBM cases are subject to cold damage. Just carrying it outside in winter can make the chassis brittle to the point that it'll shatter when you try to open the screen. Let it warm up properly and you'll have little trouble.

And if you ever, ever get 54Mbps on wireless, call Guiness.
 
Professur said:
That's a solid lappy. Great screen too. BUT ... IBM cases are subject to cold damage. Just carrying it outside in winter can make the chassis brittle to the point that it'll shatter when you try to open the screen. Let it warm up properly and you'll have little trouble.

And if you ever, ever get 54Mbps on wireless, call Guiness.
Click to expand...

Your card will auto-negotiate the speed. As for the rated speed, its just like 10/100 wired networking--you'll never reach it. On 11 you'll probably hit 8-9Mbps peak. On 54g, maybe 40-45Mbps peak. Many factors contribute to this--range, interference, traffic, etc. I haven't had any problems with my 54g router (linksys). Remember the internet traffic will probably be 10Mbps at best, so you're probably not going to notice the difference between 11 and 54. Unless, of course, you plan on moving large files between your laptop and desktop, in which case I'd just use a standard NIC.

I have two ThinkPads. A 390E and 390X (earlier models than what you're looking at). Really like them. As Prof said, very sturdy.
 
I've transferred files pretty quick with my intel 55mbit wireless.. but that was only a few metres away, haven't carried it any real distance yet.
 
An infinite ammount of computers can theoretically connect to a WAP....but remember, these things are like hubs, not switches....its shared bandwidth. If three people are connected and all three are trying to access network resources at the same time, each user gets 3.667 mbps....which will really be about half because of wireless overhead and whatnot....even less if the area you are in used a VPN solution.

I administer a small wireless network at work. We currently have about 20 people using the wireless network, and 5 at the same time off of one access point. Ususally people are just checking e-mail, maybe opening a word document. No one complains about speed. We even use a VPN for security reasons, which adds overhead to every packet. Everything is 802.11b (11 mbps),

rrfield
 
11mbs is really pretty fast until you start moving gigs at a whack. If all you are doing is accessing documents and even music or video off the network, it will be more than enough. Like I said, the only time it seems slow is when you transfer your 9 gig music library from one pc to another, but then you aren't going to be doing that too often anyway.
 
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