Laptop and wireless network help please

[AndyL]

Just a comment from a diehard wifi'er...

Stay away from linksys routers; D-Link aren't bad (though I suggest the extended warranty the seller will offer - saved my arse 3 times now); Belkin has become my favorite by far.

Once you go wireless, have a look at the newish wifi printers, you'll never realize until you've used one, how nice it is to park that printer away in a closet somewhere not have to plug in, just click print, go and collect the printout Other than the price of new replacement cartridges, I love my z1400

As for laptops, check out laptop depot / computer trends, the refurbished ones are a deal (mine is "refurbished" due to a blemish on the stainless trim)

My .02

[superduperwesman]

Yeah Vista sucks... I mean it has cool aspects but my brand new (< 1year old) Toshiba laptop is way slower than the Compac I had with XP. My finance has a brand new Sony Vaio which also seems a lot slower than it should be for a brand new computer... and it's not like we bought the low end models.

[Slick Fork]

I've got Vista on my laptop and my desktop, absolutely glitch free now for almost a year. Or at least, no more glitches then XP ever gave me. Just like the transition from 98 or 2000 to XP if you're running borderline hardware then you're bound to have problems. My transition from XP to vista was WAY smoother than the transition to XP Pro.

Anyways, I've got a linksys router at home and it works fine. Not having experience with any of the others I can't make a comparitive statement but I do love having the wireless. Nice to sit out on the deck in the summer with a coffee and the laptop and get stuff done!