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Originally Posted by Lin
Morning everyone, a few months ago I started a new online business. Right now I am attached via desktops and Verizon Fios at home. However, we want to go up to the lake for an extended stay so I'm thinking of purchasing my first laptop and wireless card? I have no clue as to a wireless laptop and the how reception for upload/download would work at the lake (Moultonborough). I only plan on using the laptop for the business of uploading stories and photos when I'm at the lake or at my sisters in MD. I don't need a laptop with all the bells and whistles just something that could handle a photoshop elements and frontpage and with word processing programs. Someone told me Verizon has a wi fi card if you pay for a program. We don't have any cable or satelite dish as of yet at the camp. So any help would be appreciated, thank you.
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You have a few options with this one. First the Verizon service is based upon EVDO. You can go to the Verizon Wireless web page and research their wireless PC cards. The card fits in the PCMCIA II slot (cardbus). The advantage of this service is that it is available anywhere there is Verizon EVDO coverage. The disadvantage is that it will be tied to a single computer and the speeds are a bit less than some of the alternatives.
The alternatives are:
See whether you are close enough to the Verizon CO to get decent ADSL service. The Verizon web page will walk you though a menu. Note that DSL is distance sensitive, so the further away from the CO you are, the slower the data rates.
Get a data service from the cable company (Metrocast). It runs about $40/month and the data rates are distance insensitive. Since it is a shared cluster, data rates can be reduced by congestion. I am seeing about 5Mbps download rates, generallly.
Get a Hughs Net service...the most expensive and they do limit the amount of downloads (so I am told).
In any of these configurations, you can put in a wireless router (WIFI) and use the connection for any number of wireless computers. In addition, you can have a wireless printer etc... Most laptops have internal WIFI cards.
Laptops: There are a ton of laptop choices these days. It really depends on your budget. I tend to like Dell computers (although their customer service is pretty bad). HP has a number of nice machines. Sony is very nice but a bit pricy. You should check the system requirements for the programs that you want to run (Elements 3.0, Frontporch) before you buy. Also, most windows machines are sold with Vista (Dell will put XP on their machines upon request). Vista is very different than XP and you want to verify that your applications are Vista compatible. In general, I would opt for a larger disc (100 G or more) and larger RAM (1 G - preferably 2G) for media applications. In addition, you will likely want either Vista Home Premium, or XP Media for what you are doing.
Good Luck
Jetskier
