netbooks

[DSMW 10+ year member]

do people know what the deal is with these as in can I connect to the internet anywhere I take this, or do I need a service plan?

and if so, how much is this plan a month. I know some people on this forum should know the answers to this. I am going on a plane to switzerland november 4th and would like one of these to tag along. thanks.

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[Ken448 10+ year member]

my wife can connect almost anywhere with hers.

 

[jer_stud56 10+ year member]

netbooks are separate of service plans, most people are oblivious to this thanks to commercials from phone companies. They can connect to any unsecured WiFi - granted they have a wireless adapter.

For the plane ride with any service, you won't be able to. It'd be using the same wave as cell phones and they're basically prohibited unless you on one of the newest planes that allow it.

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

a netbook is a small laptop, nothing more

unless you use laptop cell phone adapter all you will be able to do is connect to available wireless networks that are in range

if you will be traveling a lot just get an ipod touch, it does pretty much everything a netbook does except uploads, downloads and flash

not to mention all the free game apps to occupy your travel time

 

[scottyk 10+ year member]

a netbook is a small laptop, nothing more
unless you use laptop cell phone adapter all you will be able to do is connect to available wireless networks that are in range

if you will be traveling a lot just get an ipod touch, it does pretty much everything a netbook does except uploads, downloads and flash

not to mention all the free game apps to occupy your travel time

This. I'm actually on a netbook now. My little Dell Inspiron mini. Connects to wireless great at college and cost about 300. Doesn't come with internet anywhere, you can only connect to the web if there's wi-fi. If you have a service card like the ones Verizon offers or something like that, then yes they work on that (all computers do) but that's an additional fee. I was specifically looking to get something portable and this works great. Processor isn't amazing. I occasionally run skype and do video chats with friends who moved away for college and this thing just cannot handle a video chat and me surfing the net at the same time. My video freezes and I have to get off the net and re-start it to get moving again.

But for basic internet use, typing papers and doing Microsoft office stuff, it works great. Runs just fine for any website I've been too and seriously weighs like 4 pounds. I wouldn't suggest doing any heavy downloading via torrents or anything like that, but that's what I have my desktop for //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Only thing that upset me is that it comes stock with 1 gig of ram. Most of these netbooks can be upgraded to 2 gigs. There was a cheaper Asus netbook that I was going to buy while I browsing bestbuy that you could stick another gig into. Only problem is they were out of stock and I didn't like the look of any of the others but the one I ended up buying and I didn't feel like waiting for them to ship one to me. I ended up paying about $100 more for this guy here and after asking the sales lady (Couldn't find the specs for the Dell anywhere online like I could all the others) if I could put another gig of ram in it, she assured me I could saying that, "all of them can normally take 2 gigs of ram." I took her word for it and bought it. Sure enough, about a week later I found out this guy maxes out at 1 gig, kinda made me mad //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif