[DragonTears78]

I know my title probably doesn't help much but I have a few questions. I am a college student (NOT A GAMER) and I am going to buy a laptop for my classes which I take online. I was going through the configurations for Dell to build my own and I ran into an issue. At home I connect using SBC/AT&T Yahoo DSL (modem has wireless built in) and my fiance's work computer picks up the wireless connection so that isn't a problem. According to the requirements for using wireless with the DSL, I need an 802.11 b/g wireless card. Going through Dell, the only options were a 3945 a/g card and a new Dell Draft N Wireless. I am not wireless literate so I contacted them to ask if there was an option for b/g and the guy said a/g would not work so that I would need the Draft N Wireless. Ok, I decided to do some reading about the N Wireless and everything I have read is not good, especially about Dell, so that cancels that out. Then a friend of mine found on the Dell website that g works for b/g and a/g would work for all a/b/g! If this is true, why would the guy tell me it wouldn't? So now we are both confused and I have nobody to ask to find out the truth.

Also, I just went to Dell to check current configurations and they are only offering the Draft N Wireless now on the Inspiron E1705 I was thinking of buying! I don't trust that! So, to the second part of this. I need to find a GOOD/EXCELLENT laptop for home and college use (mainly college). It is NOT going to be used for Gaming. I only play games on websites anyways and I have a desktop for that. I am not sure what the next best option would be. I need to find one that will have the b/g wireless card in it, and I would prefer something nice looking and light. I have $2,500 to spend on it. I just need some ideas on great laptops that I can configure online.

Thanks for your time and help!

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Hi there,

It doesn't look like anyone wants to field this so I'll give it a shot. What I understand is that the newest 802.11x is the N and R standards. These are backward compatable with a,b and g. There advantage is speed. The 802.11N routers and cards I've looked at are capable of 300Mbps which is faster than most ethernet connections in use (yes I know there gigabit ethernet but it's not that widely used yet). With the state of the Internet in most of the world 802.11N should be more than suitable for the near future. If it's within your budget go with the draft n.

[silverbeard]

Hi there,

It doesn't look like anyone wants to field this so I'll give it a shot. What I understand is that the newest 802.11x is the N and R standards. These are backward compatable with a,b and g. There advantage is speed. The 802.11N routers and cards I've looked at are capable of 300Mbps which is faster than most ethernet connections in use (yes I know there gigabit ethernet but it's not that widely used yet). With the state of the Internet in most of the world 802.11N should be more than suitable for the near future. If it's within your budget go with the draft n.