Hey there folks,

I thought myself as adequately computer literate until I ran into the following issue. I am looking at adding a second computer to our household; a laptop of sorts. While I have always been an avid fan of the Intel Pentium, I am noticing that comparable laptops with Athlon processors are substantially cheaper. Which would you folks recommend? I have heard rumours that Athlon is better suited to mobile computing, and hence may be a better choice for the lap top buyer. Your thoughts?

Finally, since this is going to be a second computer, I wanted to network it to my main desktop PC which has a cable modem attached to it. Of course, I want to access broadband internet on my laptop as well. Besides a wireless router, what else do I need? What will I need to install onto my desktop PC for it to communicate with the laptop? Any more hardware required? I have a 2nd IP address, and I'm guessing thats all I require? Any recommendation as to the brand/type of wireless router? I notice that they run anywhere from $100-$400 CAD.

Any help is appreciated. The sooner the better as I want to make the most of the labour day deals.....
Cheers
Asif

 

if you get a wireless router/switch, you can do one of two things. you can keep your current NIC (network interface card) in your desktop and just connect that directly to the switch via network cable as usual (since you don't really need to be mobile with the desktop). you can then buy a wireless PCMCIA network card for your laptop. both your desktop and your laptop will be on the same subnet so you should easily be able to communicate between the two.

as for athlon laptop v. pentium laptop... that's really your choice. personally i think amd CPUs run too hot. the new XP+ rating sounds bit too much like Cyrix's old P+ rating on CPUs. i stick to Intel simply because i've never been disappointed. with AMD, there's always a catch (runs hotter, need a bigger fan, true clock speed is slower, etc).

 

Can someone comment on this:
I was told that a wireless router cannot transfer data very fast and thus defeats the purpose of having a high speed cable connection.

 

Hmm...thats interesting. I'd sure like to hear about that.
A

 

Even if you had a full T1 running into your house, today's wireless communications devices are faster than anything you'll see coming out of your Internet connection. The 802.11b standard runs at 11Mbps.

As for AMD vs Intel, I'm extremely pleased with my Athlon XP 1900+, but I don't know anything about their mobile line. (ps - don't pay attention to "true" clock speeds - a 1.6GHz Athlon is as fast or faster than a 1.9GHz P4.) Prices for Pentium 4's are ridiculous, IMO.

 

The only disavantage to wireless access points is that each access point is only capable of transmitting at 11Mbps. This means if you only have one access point for a network of 600 employees using the wireless network, it will definately be slow. However, in most corporate or education applications where a decent network infrastructure is in place, there will be more than a one access point.

In short, for home use, 11Mbps is more than enough. 100Mpbs is overkill unless you have top of the line hardware in every computer.

 

11mps wireless is fine for a cable modem share even as the signal weakens as you get distant you'll still have more than enough bandwidth.

what you need is:

Accesspoint/router
USB wireless adapters for your computers (internal ones I've used have been poor)

Your cable modem will connect directy to your access point/router. I would suggest Linksys all around, it will basically work out of the box.

AMD is fine too, I use both brands.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Elistan
[B]Even if you had a full T1 running into your house, today's wireless communications devices are faster than anything you'll see coming out of your Internet connection.

 

go with AMD, the price is right for the product, I use a 800 duron.... if I had a 800 celeron .... geeze... that thing would of died on me long time ago. with the duron, I can handle any task, from game playing to watching porn man.. hehe =P no lag! naw, but seriously, go with AMD, intel slacks off now. and after a year, you'll see a huge difference in speed between the intel and amd, amd stuff just lasts.

 

Put it this way....

Typical Ethernet network = 10/100 Mbps
Wireless = 2-11 Mbps (or 54 Mbps if newer technology)
T1 (leased line for big companies) = 1.5XX Mbps
My cable speed at home = 1.9XX Mbps

The T1 and cable are both slower than even the minimum bandwidth for wireless (2 Mbps). There is no bottleneck with wireless what so ever unless you have many devices attached (more than anyone I've ever heard of having at home).


BTW - On the laptop buying decision...when it comes to choosing brands, it's been my experience in the past that you get what you pay for. There is definitely something to be said for a warranty with customer service to back it up. Sometimes saving money up front cost you more later. Just do some research and be cautious.

For what it's worth, I do all the purchasing for my company and I've bought many brands. I spend about $150,000 a year on computers so I'm very picky about who I buy from. If I was going to buy a system for myself today, I would buy a dell. My 2 cents.