using a laptop from USA to email UK

Hi

my son is soon going to USA to work for 3 months and we wish to buy
him a laptop so he can email us regularly back to us in the UK. Can
anyone advise on what type of laptop we need to buy , in particular if
it needs to be wireless enabled and if he can use his hotmail address
to email usor even microsoft messenger?

sorry to sound vage but I am not that computer savvy

thanks

"david" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Hi
>
> my son is soon going to USA to work for 3 months and we wish to buy
> him a laptop so he can email us regularly back to us in the UK. Can
> anyone advise on what type of laptop we need to buy , in particular if
> it needs to be wireless enabled and if he can use his hotmail address
> to email usor even microsoft messenger?
>
> sorry to sound vage but I am not that computer savvy

Is there not some kind of power difference between the USA and the UK? If
so, then that's what you should be concerned about is plugging the computer
into the electrical out let in the US, but I can't say that for sure. Other
than. than that, MS Windows is Windows that will work with hot mail or MSN
with the proper ISP for a wired or wireless connection.

Duane

> Is there not some kind of power difference between the USA and the UK? If
> so, then that's what you should be concerned about is plugging the computer

Yes there is, the US is 110V, Europe is 220V (the UK is actually 240V
with a 6% tolerance) but we were all supposed to harmonise and all the
European countries harmonised on 230V from 1st Jan 1995.

In reallity there has been no real change because the tolerances are
such that we're now 230V -6% +10% and that's a wider voltage range than
we had before!

Anyway, it's pretty irrelevant because any laptop PSU (or other typical
travelling adaptor) will be a switched mode PSU that will cope happily
from 110V to 240V so shouldn't present any problem whatsoever.

David.

David Taylor <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Anyway, it's pretty irrelevant because any laptop PSU (or other typical
>travelling adaptor) will be a switched mode PSU that will cope happily
>from 110V to 240V so shouldn't present any problem whatsoever.

Make that _should_ be. Check the details, sometimes laptop vendors
save a buck by making a 90-135V SMPS...

In general, though, the OP's main issue of going to be finding an ISP
and getting hooked up. Once you are "on the interweb" it doesn't
matter where on the planet you are, hotmail is web-based, so if you
can get to it from a Web Browser you can do mail.

[Messenger will work fine as well (make sure you apply all patches),
and I'd install Skype for free phone calls. Email from the usual
client-based apps (Outlook Distress, for instance) probably won't work
without some reconfiguration of outgoing mailservers, but that doesn't
appear to apply here, and is a real rathole.]

david wrote:

> Hi
>
> my son is soon going to USA to work for 3 months and we wish to buy
> him a laptop so he can email us regularly back to us in the UK. Can
> anyone advise on what type of laptop we need to buy , in particular if
> it needs to be wireless enabled and if he can use his hotmail address
> to email usor even microsoft messenger?
>
> sorry to sound vage but I am not that computer savvy
>
> thanks

Send him the money and a rough spec. to buy the machine abroad - will be
cheaper...
--
Remove NOSPAM to email.

> Make that _should_ be. Check the details, sometimes laptop vendors
> save a buck by making a 90-135V SMPS...

Depends on whether he's buying it in the UK in which case it definitely
won't be 90-135V

David.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006 17:34:34 GMT, in alt.internet.wireless , __spc__
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>david wrote:
>
>> my son is soon going to USA to work for 3 months and we wish to buy
>> him a laptop so he can email us regularly back to us in the UK.

Unless he's travelling, a US-bought desktop PC would be much cheaper
than a UK-bought laptop.

>Send him the money and a rough spec. to buy the machine abroad - will be
>cheaper...

or send him the money, and tell him to use internet cafes, likely to
be even cheaper for a weekly email. :-)

Mark McIntyre
--

David Taylor <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
[I wrote]
>> Make that _should_ be. Check the details, sometimes laptop vendors
>> save a buck by making a 90-135V SMPS...

>Depends on whether he's buying it in the UK in which case it definitely
>won't be 90-135V

Right, if he buys it in the UK, he should confirm that it's not
180-270 only...

> Right, if he buys it in the UK, he should confirm that it's not
> 180-270 only...

It won't be

In article <w2p0g.3685$(E-Mail Removed). net>, "Duane Arnold" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>"david" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed) roups.com...
>> Hi
>>
>> my son is soon going to USA to work for 3 months and we wish to buy
>> him a laptop so he can email us regularly back to us in the UK. Can
>> anyone advise on what type of laptop we need to buy , in particular if
>> it needs to be wireless enabled and if he can use his hotmail address
>> to email usor even microsoft messenger?
>>
>> sorry to sound vage but I am not that computer savvy
>
>Is there not some kind of power difference between the USA and the UK? If
>so, then that's what you should be concerned about is plugging the computer
>into the electrical out let in the US, but I can't say that for sure. Other
>than. than that, MS Windows is Windows that will work with hot mail or MSN
>with the proper ISP for a wired or wireless connection.
>
>Duane
>
>

US outlet (typical) 117 Volts AC, 60 Hertz. Don't know about UK, but since
the questioner is in the UK, he probably knows the local set up or can find
out by asking a neighbor.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.