I am thinking about getting my wife a laptop for her birthday and was hoping you'all can answer some questions I have.
1.It will be wireless but how can I connect it to my roadrunner(cable connection)? Does the cable company do this or can I?

2 Any extra equipment I need to buy?

3.When you go on vacation, how does it hook up to hotel high speed connection and how does it recognize the connection?

Thanks for all the help.

 

Get a laptop with a Centrino chip, and it will be wireless ready. You'll need a broadband router with wireless capabilities to connect it to your cable connection. I'm using a D-Link DI-514 and I've had no problems. You can get them for dirt cheap if you look around enough.

There's tons of accessories for laptops. Just depends on what you want to do. I really like my docking station, because I can unplug the laptop from everything with the flick of a switch and be ready to go. I also picked up a second power adapter to keep in my laptop bag so I won't have to keep unplugging the same one.

No idea about the hotel question. It really depends on the hotel. Most advertise a "high speed connection" that's really just regular dial-up.

 

paul,

if you get her a new laptop, 99% chance that it will already have a wireless card built in. if not, they can be bought very cheaply now

connecting to your cable internet: if you want it to connect wirelessly, then you have to buy a wireless access point. it basically is a wireless router. then you have to go into its settings and create a login/password for your wife's laptop

hotel connection: depends on the hotel. some hotels have the older ethernet connection (10/100) while some have wireless. if wireless, after you pay, you wil get their wireless access id and password.

there's a great thread on this very subject that i was the original post-er. most of the answers came from churnd also, once you figure out what you want to buy, search "wireless security" on th forum. you dont want to have anyone hacking your shizzle

bob

 

As for a wireless cable router, I would go with a Linksys product. D-Link isnt bad, but I have had a few problems with a d-link a friend has. Just about any wireless router out there has ports for wired connections(just in case you already have a computer w/o a wireless card). When setting up the new laptop it will detect a wireless network.

With the hotel connection, the computer(assuming it is XP) will detect a wireless network when it is in range just like an at-home connection. Or if the hotel is wired up you'll have to plug in with a CAT5 cable. Either way they'll probably give you a username/password.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, now I need to decide on Dell or Gateway.

 

That's easy... Dell.

 

dell... i have a Dell Latitude and i have only had 1 problem with it in 3 years. and they were out to my house the next day to fix it.

 

all the hotels that i've gone to have free wireless. you just turn on your laptop, and then click on select modem. its alot easier than you think.

 

Bought my wife the Dell 6000. I hope she enjoys it. Thanks for the help everyone.