FAQ: Wireless Laptops for the Home

A number of friends have asked me lately about laptops and wireless. They want to buy computers for their kids and they wonder if they should buy desktop computers or laptops.

Laptop computers (also called Notebook computers) have many advantages. In the past year, many places have added free wireless access: most schools, libraries, airports, nearly all Starbucks, and so on. You can connect to the web nearly anywhere in any mid-sized city: countless businesses use wireless and your laptop will automatically search for signals, find the best one, and connect into the web. You can use the web, check email, do homework or study, wherever you are. Google is rolling out city-wide free wireless in Silicon Valley and it's expected this will be widely available in a few years.

Laptops have also dropped in price to around $500-600. It's not worthwhile to buy a $1,400 laptop now, which you will have to upgrade again anyway in two years. Buy inexpensive computers, use them, and buy new ones.

The Wireless Router

Wireless is the best way to connect computers in a home. Where the DSL cable comes out of the wall, you attach a wireless router (about the size of a cigar box). It has a short antenna. Hook that up, connect it to a power outlet, and it's ready. The price of wireless has dropped so low that it's not an issue. Wireless routers are under $50. Wireless USB connnectors are $15.

Wireless connectivity allows you to use your computer anywhere in the house: in bed, at your desk, in the den, in front of the living room TV, at the kitchen table, in the backyard, or by the pool. No cables. You can connect to the web, read email, do online shopping, and so on. If you have a laptop, then it's entirely wireless.

For kids, this is the best solution. They can use their laptops wherever they are. They can play together or move apart to study.

What to Buy

Look for is 802.11g, which is a connectivity standard. The LinkSys or Netgear routers have a good interface. These automatically set themselves up.

Where to Buy

Any computer or electronics store.

Laptops and Notebooks

Computer laptops have dropped in prices in the last year. Perfectly good laptops are available at $500-600. A few large stores often sell laptops for $400.

What to Buy

All current, new laptops have the same general features. The laptop should have at least 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 30 GB hard disk, DVD drive, built-in wireless connectivity, and Windows XP. These are recommended minimums. If you can get 1.6 GHz or 1 GB of RAM, that's better.

The laptop's disk drive should be DVD. Not only is a CD-ROM drive obsolete, but it won't allow you to play DVD movies. With a DVD drive, you can watch movies on the laptop. (The DVD drive will read CD-ROM disks. If you can get a DVD drive that can also record to DVD, that's even better.)

Practically all laptops have wireless capability built into them. Instead of a small antenna, the entire screen is used as an antenna. Nothing to break off and it's a much larger antenna. If the laptop doesn't have wireless capability, then you can easily add that, either with a wireless card or a wireless connector for a USB port. These are around $15.

Laptops by the five major brands are reliable and you can get service (or replacement): Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony, Compaq, and Lenovo.com (which are IBM's ThinkPad).

Where to Buy

Fry's Electronics is a mega-computer store in Silicon Valley, which has an online store at Outpost.com. They have astonishing prices, such as complete desktop computer systems for $280 or $400 laptops. These sales open at 5 am, are limited to one per customer, and usually gone in a day. Frys is only in California, so if you are in other states, you won't pay sales tax. There is also PriceGrabber.com, PriceWatch.com, and Amazon.com.

Check your local large computer or electronics stores. Check the ads around major holidays and back-to-school specials.

Tip: Hold off as long as possible. Prices drop constantly.