Setting up Wireless Network/HomeNetwork

Well, the first question I always ask is "What's your budget?".  How much are you willing to spend on this computer?  How much have you allocated to this project?  You have to factor in the cost of the laptop, then the cost of any additional wireless network cards for your desktop, and then the cost of a wireless access point / router for your eventual cable connection.

Next, you need to elaborate on what you intend to do with the laptop.  Yes, I know, home use.  That can mean a whole bunch of things.  If you're simply doing internet stuff, browsing, emails, etc, then you don't need such a fancy laptop.  If you want to watch DVDs, or play games, then there's slightly higher requirements.

As for wireless networking, both the 5100 series and 1100 series come with the option of getting a built-in wireless network card.  That's all that you really need to get the laptop "wireless-ready".  Both series also already come with integrated wired network cards for regular wired-networking.

You don't need a massively powerful desktop / laptop combination to share files and printers.  I have a really old Pentium-2 300MHz computer that's just sitting around running WindowsXP and it's sharing all my files, and two printers.

Like I said, I personally think it all boils down to price.  Give a budget for the whole project, get rough estimates as to how much it'll cost to get your desktop wireless-ready, the price of the access point, the cost of the broadband service (if you want), and then see how much that'll leave you with to spend on your laptop.

Jonathan Ip

First of all, I would like to spend around $1,500.  Second, the laptop would be used for internet, I attend college and next semester will be taking 4 online classes.  We don't watch DVDs on the computer, but that might be possible in the future. 

We would also like to have the capability of power point presentation with video clips?

What is involved in getting the destop ready for networking??  In other words, where do I start -- should we budget more money??

Message Edited by bparkins on 11-30-2003 03:24 PM

Here's a link to share an Internet cable connection:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/sharingcable.htm

Step-by-Step guide to everything you'll need to do.

I'm going to assume that you'll end up spending about $200 for the network setup, so that'll leave you with 1300 for the notebook.  That'll probably limit you to the Inspiron 1100 series notebook.  The most basic configuration for that particular model would let you do everything you need to do.  Watch online courses, DVDs, PowerPoint with video.  I can give you some basic guidelines, but I hesitate to give you an exact configuration.

Anyways, Dell offers the Celeron 2.3Ghz processor as the most basic option, this would be sufficient.

Get as much memory as you can afford.  Dell offers 256MB as the minimum option.  You can either get more directly from Dell, or order from a 3rd party manufacturer, such as Crucial (www.crucial.com) and save a bit of money.

The screen you can stick with the 14.1" XGA option.  You won't get any more by going to the 15".  Just a bigger screen, but the amount of information you can display on the screen will be the same.

You could get the home network kit from Dell, if you want to simply things.

For the harddrive, you know better what you might need.  Lots of MP3s = really bigger harddrive.

I would recommend Windows XP Pro, better than Home.  If you have productivity software already, you can save and don't get any fancy stuff from Dell.