DarrenW
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 11:05 AM |
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PC and laptop help please
Firstly - iam not a computer expert so please go easy on me with the advise!!!
I have a PC at work. Nothing flash but works fine for what i use it for. 2000 professional, office, outlook 2002.
I travel a lot so am after a laptop. Id prefer something very lightweight and small but they suffer with a lower spec so am hoping to retain the
office PC as well. Here are my problems,
1. When i travel i will access emails on my laptop. Can i configure this so that when i return to office i can also dowload same emails on office PC
so that i keep a master set (ive done this before but end up with some on laptop and some on office PC).
2. Is it easy to set up the laptop so this is basically a slave PC so that when i return i can plug it into th eoffice PC and everything automatically
synchronises (i want both pc's to have exactly the same data on them).
3. How does the remote laptop wi-fi / centrino jobby work. Do i need to connect via my mobile phomne or do laptops have their own connection
facilities (this q probably demonstrates my ignorance to computer speak!!).
If the above proves difficult i may opt for a slightly better laptop and just use that only - ie not use desktop. Any advise for a good laptop that
will not weigh in excess of 2Kg with battery?? I will need a port replicator so i can easily connect to printer, scanner, flat screen, keyboard etc in
the office. I will also be looking for good warranty, 2000 pro and MS office (pro?).
All advise greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Darren.
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nick205
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 11:21 AM |
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Darren, I am in the same situation and I decided to ditch the desktop and just use my laptop. It makes it far easier if you know you've only
got one machine to look after. On the set-up front, we have an IT guy at work who looks after it, so I can't really help on that side of
things.
Laptop wise I've got a (HP) Compaq nx9105 - it's a bit big and heavy, but pretty wel featured and didn't cost a great deal either.
I like if for the decent sized widescreen format, which is great for watching DVDs
Cheers - Nick
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DarrenW
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 11:33 AM |
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Thats the kind of advice i was looking for. Someone with same problem. Only reason for keeping desktop is that i can get one of those ultra small /
lightweight laptops. I may still do that but keep my flat screen and keyboard etc for office use.
Does anyone use a lightweight laptop. What advice can you give? Im looking for something that is no more than 2Kg with battery but still give good
useage time etc (i sometimes fly to China, 12hr flight and would like to get in some work en-route or watch a dvd).
My boss has just bought 10" screen sony vaio, im not sre how good it is tho (he knows less than me about them!).
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ned
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 11:58 AM |
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Darren,
we use a lot of small acer laptops here, just bought one recently, 1.6ghz, 512mb, 60gb, (external)dvdrw, xp pro, 12" screen, about £800something
+vat they are tiny and weigh nout.
use a provider that offers an imap mail system, this differs from a normal pop email account (goto properties in your email prog and it should say pop
or imap somewhere) in that emails are stored centrall on a server and can then be synchronised/checked on as many pc's as you like. other option
with pop is to set it to 'leave mail on server" so you can checm on both machines, though this has far more drawbacks and imap is
better.
easiest way to move data about imho without a docking station/synchronising program (if you don't have an IT availble) is just to save work to a
usb memory stick. i've just bought a 4gb capacity one! was about £180 from memory, then jsut keep it in your pocket, far more secure and
flexible imho and then you just make a backup copy to laptop/pc as and when you need to.
not sure on the wireless stuff i'm afraid as not running it here..
best of luck!
Ned.
[Edited on 25/4/05 by ned]
beware, I've got yellow skin
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mookaloid
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 01:56 PM |
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IBM are the best laptops IMHO!
Expensive though!
Cheers
Mark
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DarrenW
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 02:35 PM |
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Ned, thanks for that. Ive just been on the Acer website. They look well smart, well featured, light and good value. I assume you havent ahd any
problems with them?
The travelmate and tablet notebooks look very interesting.
I like the idea of keeping the weight down by having external dvd rom etc. If you want to watch a film i guess you just preload it into memory. The
drive can be in suitcase. Ill have a bit crack with the gaffer.
Laptop only definitely seems the way to go. Keeping a back up on memory stick just in case.
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ned
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 02:59 PM |
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had the normal windows glitches/crashes, but the hardware hasn't caused any of the problems..
Ned.
beware, I've got yellow skin
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britishtrident
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 03:01 PM |
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A client recently bought a nice Dell laptop quite decent quality with a good screen better than I expected HP Compaqs laptops are also fine as
Fusitsu-Siemens (or what ever they are called ths month) and of course Toshiba.
Xp handles dual monitors pretty well plug & play allowing different resolutions on each monitor. The only real disadvntage of a laptop these days
is the slower DVD/Cd and Hard drives which can slow down performance quite a bit compared to the equivalent dersktop.
The mail problem is relatively easy to solve a couple of different ways of doing the first is to use an ISP that has webmail most ISPs do these days,
just log into your EMAIL account via the ISPs webpage.
The second is to set your email client on the laptop not to erase mail from the isps server, I don't know if Outlook or Outlook Express has this
option but Thunderbird certainly has and works very nicely on winn2000/Win NT.
Synching the the My Documents and other directories between to PCs is quite easy some nice shareware tools exist for this see
http://www.allwaysync.com/.
http://www.ezbak.com/
or you could do itwith decent backup program such as http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cbu6.htm
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viatron
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 09:56 PM |
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The mail problem will depend a lot on the mail server you are using, If you get your mail from an exchange server ask your admin to enable the webmail
feature and you can keep one mailbox. From memory you can tell outlook to leave messages on the server but, i think, only for a certain amount of
time, this may be a limitation depending on how long you are away. Even if you are not using exchange most isp's support webmail. Laptops dont
have to be expensive. We have just supplied a customer with 3 "white Boxed" Fujitsu laptops, 2.8 Ghz Cel, 30Gb Hard Drive, USB, Firewaire,
good screen and a DVD re-writer for less than £660 inc VAT!! Shop around! Dont throw good money at the latest and greatest model, in 4 months it will
be on sale, buy end of line, White Box etc for best value for money.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 25/4/05 at 11:06 PM |
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I'd back that up as the best route. I've had several combinations of laptop and desktop over the years.
The best combination I've found is
- Average-sized laptop (currently got an HP/Compaq NC4010 - weighs about 3-4lb (i.e less than 2kg))
- Docking station on the desk with second power supply and dedicated hi-res monitor so when in the office (90% of the time), I only have to pull the
laptop out of the bag and slap it in the docking station
- Separate Portable CD/DVD/Floppy
I've had this / similar combinations for the last 3/4 years on the trot and find it works pretty well. The laptop doesn't have a really
big screen so you don't get the bling factor of big movies and built-in drives. However, this lack of bulk works for you when you're
working on a plane / train (ran up a lot of airmiles in my last job). However, if you do want to watch a DVD, it's a 10 second job to yank it
out the bag and plug it in. Once you're used to not having a CD/DVD drive plugged in all the time, it's amazing how few times you actually
use it unless you want to watch a film.
If your office has a network, Win2K/WinXP have an offline folders feature which means you can sync up a network drive whenever you're connected
to the network. Works a treat for personal workspace. Note - I normally also carry a USB drive, too.
Syncing with a desktop PC if you have both is possible but messy. Personally, I'd avoid it
Mobile working? A built-in wi-fi card will get you connected to hotspots in most hotels and airports. When I worked for T-Mobile Intl, I also made
extensive use of a Bluetooth Dongle and Mobile Phone for connectivity in other locations.
quote:
Originally posted by nick205
Darren, I am in the same situation and I decided to ditch the desktop and just use my laptop. It makes it far easier if you know you've only
got one machine to look after. On the set-up front, we have an IT guy at work who looks after it, so I can't really help on that side of
things.
Laptop wise I've got a (HP) Compaq nx9105 - it's a bit big and heavy, but pretty wel featured and didn't cost a great deal either.
I like if for the decent sized widescreen format, which is great for watching DVDs
Cheers - Nick
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