Which Acer Wireless Laptop?

[countrykid]

A few weeks ago, I was about to buy a Laptop from Evesham Computers, just at the time they went into Administartion. Sound advice from ABers steered me away from Eve and towards Acer. I have been looking at their models - loads of options!! and before buying I would appreciate a bit more feedback.

My requirements are fairly simple. Budget of around �500, plus about �100 spend on printer, Microsoft word/excell software etc. The laptop is for home use, Internet, email, with a bit of work stuff done on it too - spreadsheets, letters etc. I think my main emphasis needs to focus on having as much memory as poss and a good size hard drive. It will be used for storing digital photos. I don't fully understand the graphics issue, but gather it is important where games are concerned. It will not be used for games, so is an integrated graphics ok, or is it still better to have a separate graphics card in it?

Finally, what extra do I need to buy to enable the laptop to be used in a different room to the phone socket - I am puzzled by this. Looking for simplest way really. I am most likely to use BT as my ISP, and choose their basic option which comes with a voyager 220 router/modem. Do I still use the voyager to go "wireless" or do you have to get a special type of modem/router? Sometimes I see things described as a router, sometimes modem, and sometimes combined router/modem. Can anyone clarify differences please. As always thanks in advance for help given.

[Ethel]

For your needs any Acer will do. You are not going to be running high demanding programs such as gamers' games or video editing. So just go for the largest hard drive.

Keep life simple. :)

Consider saving money by using a highly regarded free office suite - openoffice - which is compatible with MS (except for some highly complex spreadsheet functions which you won't use unless you are a mathmetician).

http://www.openoffice.org/

If you do have the Voyager router/modem there will be nothing else to buy to use the laptop wirelessly - the laptop will be wifi enabled and you have a modem. The modem broacasts the signal and the wifi enabled bit picks it up.

Have fun - don't forget it is easy to compare prices on line.

[vehelpfulguy]

>Sometimes I see things described as a router, sometimes modem, and sometimes combined router/modem. Can anyone clarify differences please.

Signals are sent down the phone line in analogue "sound", but a computer works in digital. So you need a modem to convert the analogue sound into digital so the computer understands it.

If you just want one computer then you can plug this directly into the modem and it will work.

So far so good.

Now suppose you want two (or more) computers working on the one line, then you need a router. The router splits the single signal that comes out of the modem and directs it to the correct PC or laptop.

If you want to connect your computers to the router via wires then you need a "wired" router, if you want to connect a computer to the router wirelessly then you need a wireless router.

Note a wireless router also has slots to plug wires in so it can work as a wired router as well.

So you need 2 devices, a modem and a router.

They can either be two separate boxes, or they can be combined in one box as a modem/router.

I have virgin cable, and in this set up the modem and router are always a separate box.

You probably have ADSL and I believe in that case you usually try to have a combined modem/router.

[countrykid]

Thanks Ethel and vehelpfulguy, sorry for late reply, been away all weekend and only just back and able too check emails etc. I'm probably too tired right now to respond properly, but sounds like if I have the BT Voyager 220, I can go wireless without further gear needed - which is great. I will look at the openoffice site Ethel, it sounds like it will be ideal. I store work stuff on a USB stick, which involves excel spreadsheets. Would openoffice enable me to open up the spreadsheets on the USB stick to work on them with the laptop?

I mentioned Acer, but called into Staples yesterday. They have what looks like a great deal on a Fujitsu-Siemens model Pi2515 at �499.99. Comet/Laskys web price �539/549. Features Intel Centrini Core 2 Duo Processor, 160 Gb hard drive and 2Gb RAM. As you say Ethel, almost any Acer (or probably any brand) laptop will more than suffice my needs, but I gather Vista works better with more of everything to hand, so I'll go for the Fujitsu I feel. Time I went to bed now. Thanks again both.