Ah, Websurfing from the comfort of my easy chair. Long dreamed, now realized, thanks to that home refinance (making possible a Linksys wi-fi router) and my brother Pete, who handed off a 5-year-old HP OmniBook 6000 that was gathering dust.
It got a bit tricky to swap out the router (instructions never presume you already have one - that'll change in the future, I presume) but I'm VERY impressed by the speed I'm getting with this "prehistoric" notebook (Pentium 3, "only" 256MB of memory, etc.) It shows to go ya - the upgrade we did to the new DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem and top-tier Bend Broadband service (4.5 mbps at least, for about $50/month) is FAR more important than the processor in terms of surfing enjoyment.
Even before I try it out at a Starbuck's or somesuch, I'm free! Untethered from the "computer room" at last. Big thanks to the bro, who faces the next step in his cancer battle this week, and is in a whole lotta folks' hopes and prayers.
I'm also again impressed with HP. I've always been a big fan of their printers, and now with the new MediaCenter PC (it's on the Nov. Computer Shopper cover - first time I've had a cover PC since my Tandy 1000 20 years ago!) with my awesome 19-inch flat screen, and this old but so nice OmniBook, I've deepened my respect and admiration for the company.
I've had a not-great reason to try out HP's tech support: the new PC's remote doesn't work. Without going into all the messy details, at least for now, I have found their online live-chat with techs very helpful, several times. Yep, for now, I've gotta say; HP stands for Helpful People. (And no, they didn't pay me to say it;-)
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