Laptop Redux
Nov. 22nd, 2008 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperSo when I went back to Fry's to return the smoked DSL filter, I wandered back to look at the laptop computers again, as I'd noticed that they had a Toshiba laptop at a favorable price. It's a bit smaller than the HP laptop that we've got now and has a substantially more durable keyboard from what I've been able to tell.
See, it would be handy to have a small laptop that lives upstairs so that I could quickly check e-mail and Internet from the bedroom while we're trying to get Julie to go to sleep.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daisy_knotwise and I had discussed the subject previously and agreed that it made some sense. I called her up, gave her the info, and she agreed that it still made sense.
A couple of attempts by the salesman to upgrade me to a newer model were fended off ("Nope. E-mail, web surfing, and light word processing") and I took home the laptop, a case, and a three-year extended warranty for less than $600.
The actual laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5890. I brought it home, tried to connect to our wireless access point and failed miserably.
After numerous attempts (during which I upgraded the security on the network and proved that it worked from the IBM laptop for work and the older HP laptop), I started to believe that I might have a radio problem on the laptop. Then I hit Google on the desktop.
I hooked the laptop up to a network wire and downloaded 41 upgrades to Vista and the machine's internal drivers. After rebooting, I connected to the wireless network with no problem.
I'm now getting software installed and configured, neutering Vista, and removing crapware.
So far, so good.
See, it would be handy to have a small laptop that lives upstairs so that I could quickly check e-mail and Internet from the bedroom while we're trying to get Julie to go to sleep.
daisy_knotwise and I had discussed the subject previously and agreed that it made some sense. I called her up, gave her the info, and she agreed that it still made sense.A couple of attempts by the salesman to upgrade me to a newer model were fended off ("Nope. E-mail, web surfing, and light word processing") and I took home the laptop, a case, and a three-year extended warranty for less than $600.
The actual laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5890. I brought it home, tried to connect to our wireless access point and failed miserably.
After numerous attempts (during which I upgraded the security on the network and proved that it worked from the IBM laptop for work and the older HP laptop), I started to believe that I might have a radio problem on the laptop. Then I hit Google on the desktop.
I hooked the laptop up to a network wire and downloaded 41 upgrades to Vista and the machine's internal drivers. After rebooting, I connected to the wireless network with no problem.
I'm now getting software installed and configured, neutering Vista, and removing crapware.
So far, so good.