Jeff Liebermann - Help Hopefully Please

I am going to be buying a new laptop soon, hopefully anyway, and I
plan on getting an Acer. I have a desktop that I will be keeping.

What I need to know is that I want the laptop to wireless access. What
is it that I need to know and what should I make sure the laptop has
before I buy one? As you can see, I am WiFi illiterate. I plan on
having XP on my laptop, no matter what it comes with. I am just not
wanting to use Vista so I will probably reformat and then install XP
myself, and I am comfortable doing that since I do it all of the time
with my desktop when I feel the need to reformat. I am not completely
computer illiterate, just WiFi dumb is all. Any help that you can give
me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

GQ

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:16:53 -0600, Graphic Queen <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I am going to be buying a new laptop soon, hopefully anyway, and I
>plan on getting an Acer.

OK, no problem. Acer laptops work well at 2 of my customers (both
students). Any particular Acer?
<http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/index.htm>

>What I need to know is that I want the laptop to wireless access. What
>is it that I need to know and what should I make sure the laptop has
>before I buy one?

You don't have much in the way of a selection. Whatever they offer is
what you get. It's fairly difficult to do it wrong if you're going to
be running XP or Vista. The drivers are supplied and everything is
blessed by Acer to work as advertised. As long as the card supports
802.11b and 802.11g, you're done.

However, if you're going to run Linux, you need to make sure that
wireless card is supported. In general, Atheros based chipsets are
the best supported.

All the advanced acronyms and buzzwords don't buy you much at the
typical hotspot that only supports 802.11g speeds, and often just
802.11b. So, if the card also supports 802.11a, MIMO, Super-G,
Turbo-G, Afterburner, and other such acronyms, they're nice to have,
but you don't really need them.

>As you can see, I am WiFi illiterate. I plan on
>having XP on my laptop, no matter what it comes with.

Most of the manufacturers offer Vista or XP. With Vista, I've found
that 2GBytes of ram is a comfortable minimum. However, it's still
slower than XP on identical hardware. I would go with XP for now, but
realize that it may cost you real money to upgrade to Vista at a later
date.

>I am just not
>wanting to use Vista so I will probably reformat and then install XP
>myself, and I am comfortable doing that since I do it all of the time
>with my desktop when I feel the need to reformat.

Well, I've run into that a few times. With some vendors, it's Vista
or nothing. What I've done is make an image backup to DVD of the
Vista installation using Norton Ghost 2003 before booting on the
machine. Make sure you also backup the boot record. This will give
you a 2nd chance in case you change your mind and want to use Vista
instead. For my customers, I'm assuming they will change their mind
in perhaps a year or two. I don't know if the image backup will even
work at that time, but it will certainly involves less time and hassle
than trying to install it from the supplied Vista disk and have to go
fishing for the drivers and pre-installed apps.

>I am not completely
>computer illiterate, just WiFi dumb is all. Any help that you can give
>me would be greatly appreciated.

Looking at what Acer things are specifications:
<http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/spec/Aspire.pdf>
<http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/spec/TravelMate.pdf>
it appears that most of their new laptops come with Intel 3945ABG or
something called "Acer Invilink 802.11b/g" wireless. A few come with
Intel 4965AGN which also does MIMO. Any of these will work just fine,
but you're on your own for Linux support.

If possible, find the disassembly instructions or inside photos (from
the FCC ID web pile) and check out the antennas. They're important
for good range. They should be fairly large and located at the top of
the LCD display section. One on the side is fine, but the other
should be on on top. If the antennas are in the base or on the
hinges, you're going to have range problems.

I also noticed that some of the laptops listed do NOT come with built
in wireless. Depending on version, it's either an add-in MiniPCI
option or an external PCMCIA, PCIExpress, or USB device. Pick a model
first.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

"Jeff Liebermann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:16:53 -0600, Graphic Queen <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>I am going to be buying a new laptop soon, hopefully anyway, and I
>>plan on getting an Acer.
>
> OK, no problem. Acer laptops work well at 2 of my customers (both
> students). Any particular Acer?
> <http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/index.htm>
>
>>What I need to know is that I want the laptop to wireless access. What
>>is it that I need to know and what should I make sure the laptop has
>>before I buy one?
>
> You don't have much in the way of a selection. Whatever they offer is
> what you get. It's fairly difficult to do it wrong if you're going to
> be running XP or Vista. The drivers are supplied and everything is
> blessed by Acer to work as advertised. As long as the card supports
> 802.11b and 802.11g, you're done.
>
> However, if you're going to run Linux, you need to make sure that
> wireless card is supported. In general, Atheros based chipsets are
> the best supported.
>
> All the advanced acronyms and buzzwords don't buy you much at the
> typical hotspot that only supports 802.11g speeds, and often just
> 802.11b. So, if the card also supports 802.11a, MIMO, Super-G,
> Turbo-G, Afterburner, and other such acronyms, they're nice to have,
> but you don't really need them.
>
>>As you can see, I am WiFi illiterate. I plan on
>>having XP on my laptop, no matter what it comes with.
>
> Most of the manufacturers offer Vista or XP. With Vista, I've found
> that 2GBytes of ram is a comfortable minimum. However, it's still
> slower than XP on identical hardware. I would go with XP for now, but
> realize that it may cost you real money to upgrade to Vista at a later
> date.
>
>>I am just not
>>wanting to use Vista so I will probably reformat and then install XP
>>myself, and I am comfortable doing that since I do it all of the time
>>with my desktop when I feel the need to reformat.
>
> Well, I've run into that a few times. With some vendors, it's Vista
> or nothing. What I've done is make an image backup to DVD of the
> Vista installation using Norton Ghost 2003 before booting on the
> machine. Make sure you also backup the boot record. This will give
> you a 2nd chance in case you change your mind and want to use Vista
> instead. For my customers, I'm assuming they will change their mind
> in perhaps a year or two. I don't know if the image backup will even
> work at that time, but it will certainly involves less time and hassle
> than trying to install it from the supplied Vista disk and have to go
> fishing for the drivers and pre-installed apps.
>
>>I am not completely
>>computer illiterate, just WiFi dumb is all. Any help that you can give
>>me would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Looking at what Acer things are specifications:
> <http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/spec/Aspire.pdf>
> <http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/spec/TravelMate.pdf>
> it appears that most of their new laptops come with Intel 3945ABG or
> something called "Acer Invilink 802.11b/g" wireless. A few come with
> Intel 4965AGN which also does MIMO. Any of these will work just fine,
> but you're on your own for Linux support.
>
> If possible, find the disassembly instructions or inside photos (from
> the FCC ID web pile) and check out the antennas. They're important
> for good range. They should be fairly large and located at the top of
> the LCD display section. One on the side is fine, but the other
> should be on on top. If the antennas are in the base or on the
> hinges, you're going to have range problems.
>
> I also noticed that some of the laptops listed do NOT come with built
> in wireless. Depending on version, it's either an add-in MiniPCI
> option or an external PCMCIA, PCIExpress, or USB device. Pick a model
> first.
>
>
> --
> # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
> # 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
> # http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
> # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Here are a few notes from an Acer 5101 user.

1. Acer suggests (requires?) that you do a system backup immediately that
you get the system running. This takes 2 dvd's or a corresponding number of
cd's. Getting the system running takes an hour or two as it cycles through a
number of setup routines.
The software is there to do the backup, and it works quite well. Restore
worked just fine.

2. When I booted the knoppix live cd, I discovered a third partition on the
hard drive. A little more reading showed this to be a disc image used for
the 'reset to factory' boot option. This option must be turned on in the
cmos, then it can format the 'c' drive and set it back to 'in the box'
conditions. I tried this (after a messed up linux install) and it does work
properly. I wanted a linux install so I could be more confident in the
security of the machine when I use public access points.

3. I had a lot of difficulty with the sound card drivers in linux. I left
that because I didn't really need sound

4. I had even more difficulty with the wireless setup. I need to go back and
work on that, I just ran out of time.

I did not specifically seek out an acer machine. My old laptop (purchased on
2000) died and I knew I had to get an XP machine very quickly, as
everything was going vista. Staples had a bunch of these on clearance so I
ended up with it. Overall I am very pleased with the unit.

As long as you don't mess with the rescue partition (and windows can't even
find it) you can do what you want then put it back to factory specs when it
comes to do warranty repairs.
I am sure the XP drivers (where they are different from vista) are available
separately.

I didn't particularly like the 120 gig drive divided into 2, 55 gig fat32
partitions but that seems to work ok. Bonus is that linux can read & write
the 'd' drive without problems.

Right now my wife has commandeered the machine, so I rarely get to use it.
If she lets me, I will get linux working on it.

Stuart