Your desk top computer at home just died and will need to be replaced. We want to replace it with something that we can use once we start our full time adventure. We will also have 2 iPads that we will take with us, we will need the computer for photos, e-mail, paying bills and internet surfing.
Lucky Mike said
07:16 PM May 16, 2014
Im using laptops...(4 of them) for just about everything and a Nook tablet that was modified for light browsing.
I found over last summer by having 2 laptops onboard that both of us could do our own thing without a problem and I use an old laptop as a wifi hotspot using the park wifi when available.
2 of my laptops onboard are for business use only one of them is dedicated to a CNC cutter , so thats why there are so many!
NWescapee said
07:55 PM May 16, 2014
We have 2 laptops, 2 Smartphones, 1 tablet and soon to be 2 tablets. I have found having a tablet makes the co-pilot job so much easier, especially as we both seem to be having more difficulty reading small print.
RVKevi said
08:14 PM May 16, 2014
I use a Lenovo laptop and Kev uses a Samsung tablet
Bobc said
08:21 PM May 16, 2014
How much computer will I need. I tend to over buy when I buy buy stuff like this.figuring bigger is always better. The Lenovo seem to be highly rated along with the Mac,s
Lucky Mike said
08:29 PM May 16, 2014
guess it depends on how much you use it and how much you need it to do....
me.......I go into walmart and bought 2 Toshiba's for under 500 and an external harddrive for storage....
they are going to break and there outdated 3 weeks after you buy them so I dont spend alot on them.
bjoyce said
09:25 PM May 16, 2014
Diane and I have 15" Dell laptops running Windows 7 as our main machines. They are both over 3 years old and still going. I also have an 11.6" Acer touchscreen laptop running Windows 8.1 I take with me when I am away from the RV. Diane has a 10" Android tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard/case combo for travel, which she uses like a laptop and as a tablet. We both carry Samsung Note 3 smartphones, big enough to be small tablets and still usable as phones.
If I had to buy a laptop today I would look at the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, really nice and you can get it with high end specs.
Edit: These days I would buy one USB external DVD writer, under $40 from Amazon, and not have an optical drive in the laptop. I can go months without needing a CD or DVD drive.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 16th of May 2014 09:27:28 PM
Technomadia said
09:43 PM May 16, 2014
We have a Macbook Pro and Mac Mini on board, each hooked up to 27" monitors. We also each have an iPad and an iPhone. We're a bit Apple crazy around here.
A bit over a year ago I switched from having a laptop to a desktop (the Mac Mini), because I found that using my iPad was 'good enough' for most things that I'd need away from my desk. The Mac Mini is quite affordable, and offers a lot of oomph in a very small package.
The Mac Airs are a nice small and more affordable laptop, if staying Apple is something you desire.
Can't offer any advice on non-Apple products, as we haven't tracked those as closely.
- Cherie
folivier said
10:01 PM May 16, 2014
I use a Macbook pro laptop and just bought my wife a Macbook Air to replace her dying win doze laptop. Also have a 1st gen. iPad that I seldom use, but my granddaughter uses it when she visits. And a Nexus tablet for reading and using for navigation with Copilot Live.
WestWardHo said
06:33 AM May 17, 2014
We have two iPads, two iPhones and a laptop. We use the iPads 90% of the time but the laptop for Quicken, making labels, etc. if we had it to do over we'd buy an Apple as recommended by Cherie and Forest.
It's easy to do our banking, bill paying from the iPads and to check our accounts daily. I do take our JetPack and my iPad with me anywhere we go. I've been able to get a signal on that when I had no bars on my phone so I feel more comfortable for emergencies or detours.
Sherry
Barbaraok said
08:53 AM May 17, 2014
We have a Macbook Pro laptop and a iPad mini along with my iPhone (Dave's still with his flip phone). We've been running Macs since 1984 (still have the original Mac). Use the iPad for surfing, reading books, etc.
Barb
Neil and Connie said
11:29 AM May 17, 2014
Two personally owned Mac laptops and a Windows one Connie uses for work. Two iPhones, 3 iPads, and a Mac Mini used as a file server and media server.
As a former computer guy…I seriously believe that about 80 percent of RVers can get by with just an iPad and the other 20%…about 80 % of those can get by with the cheapest Macbook Air or an equivalent cheap Windows machine. The remaining few percent might need a more powerful laptop like a Macbook Pro.
Jack Mayer said
11:30 AM May 17, 2014
A 17" W8 laptop for development, a 13.3" W8.1 ultrabook for Danielle, an Asus hybrid T100, a Nexus 7, Two Samsyng smartphones: Note 3 and Galaxy S4. Coming soon a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.3. And maybe: an iPad Mini Retina and a Dell Venue 8" W8.1 tablet.
Terry and Jo said
05:40 PM May 17, 2014
Since Jo has had her career in Information Technology, we've pretty much had to stay up to date and buy new computers every few years. With retirement coming up, we're hoping we won't have to buy so often.
I use an Hewlett Packard laptop with a 17" screen for about everything that I do, including all my photos. I use a Motorola RAZR Maxx HD for my smart phone, and with my usage, I use the "smart" more than I use the phone. Jo is the one with all the rest, including an HP 15" and HP 10" laptop, as well as a Kindle Fire and her Samsung smart phone.
In all of our years of computing, HP's have been extremely good for us. The only "major" problem I had was the controller going bad in an external hard drive. The drive ended up being okay, so all we had to do was change the controller/case.
Terry
SteveTurner said
11:16 AM May 18, 2014
We use a MacBook Pro, iPad and 2 iPhones.
Bobc said
06:17 PM May 18, 2014
Terry how much computer do you have, my wife also does a lot of photo stuff?
Is 8G enough or dowe need 16G. Any special graphics needed. How fast is fast enough. Anything special needed in the computer to help with getting a good wifi signal?
Thank you all for the great input. Seems to be 50/50 with Mac,s versus windows, we know windows but very little about apple except for what we do on our IPads.
folivier said
07:34 PM May 18, 2014
On the photo stuff it depends on whether you are processing Raw files or just Jpgs. Raw files take quite a bit more processing power. And if you're running Photoshop you need more power also. Lightroom isn't quite as power hungry.
That being said my macbook pro has 2.6 Ghz Intel core i5 processor with 8Gb ram and a 250Gb SSD drive and handles raw files in Lightroom fine. Not sure how a Windows computer would compare. One thing with Lightroom or Photoshop on Windows are the memory leaks. I would have to reboot after using either or the laptop would be very slow. Macs don't seem to have that problem. I only reboot it every couple weeks just to watch it boot up in 6 seconds :)
Terry and Jo said
10:10 PM May 18, 2014
Bobc wrote:
Terry how much computer do you have, my wife also does a lot of photo stuff? Is 8G enough or dowe need 16G. Any special graphics needed. How fast is fast enough. Anything special needed in the computer to help with getting a good wifi signal?
Thank you all for the great input. Seems to be 50/50 with Mac,s versus windows, we know windows but very little about apple except for what we do on our IPads.
folivier wrote:
On the photo stuff it depends on whether you are processing Raw files or just Jpgs. Raw files take quite a bit more processing power. And if you're running Photoshop you need more power also. Lightroom isn't quite as power hungry. That being said my macbook pro has 2.6 Ghz Intel core i5 processor with 8Gb ram and a 250Gb SSD drive and handles raw files in Lightroom fine. Not sure how a Windows computer would compare. One thing with Lightroom or Photoshop on Windows are the memory leaks. I would have to reboot after using either or the laptop would be very slow. Macs don't seem to have that problem. I only reboot it every couple weeks just to watch it boot up in 6 seconds :)
Bob,
Folivier makes a good point on the amount how much "memory" is needed. I don't deal with RAW as I'm not big on manipulation of my images in software. I'll have to get the computer guru (Jo) to check things out tomorrow to see what memory we have. My "big" computer is the HP ENVY dv7 Notebook and the link that is the title takes you to a review. Much of the specs are on page 2 of that review. It appears to be an 8gig RAM, but I'm not geek enough to know if that applies to speed up photo usage.
I'm seldom ever in a big hurry to get things done, so speed isn't a factor to me.
Terry
Bobc said
05:31 AM May 19, 2014
Well The wife( Karen) tells me that most of what she now does is JPGS, she currently uses Photoshop. but will look to change on the new computer because she says it is just to expensive for what she will need on the Road. ( she was in a photo club for the last 15 years and entered photos in local competitions/ that is now done)
bjoyce said
09:09 AM May 19, 2014
Where having more memory matters is if your new computer uses an SSD (solid state disk) instead of a normal hard drive (rotating rust). With SSDs it is best to not use virtual memory since it causes a lot of disk writes, so more RAM is better to keep from doing the writes. Still, most laptops with SSDs come with 8GB of RAM, so the manufacturers must think it is enough. SSDs make for fast boots, including with Windows 8.x.
Editing photos is not that memory intensive, 4GB of RAM should be plenty for Photoshop Elements, so you don't need 16GB.
Windows 8.1 boots fast with a hard drive, I know. Remember, Windows is a moving target, just like Mac OS is these days.
Bobc said
02:50 PM May 19, 2014
Thank You everybody for your help
we have desided to just fix our 5 year old Decktop and put off buying a new laptop until we are ready to hit the road full time, which looks to be 18-24 months away. a lot can change in that time, so we will put in a new hard drive and make the neccasary up grades for now
cheryls-other-half said
06:23 PM May 19, 2014
This is truly an interesting question from my perspective.
1) I've advocated laptops to all of my customers for years and years (except if they were doing gaming)....
But I currently have a bunch of desktops that I'll be taking with me. Although Cheryl (My DW) and I have negotiated. I have a huge stack of PC's and laptops that I am NOT taking with us on the road.
I have a theory (closely related to Murphy's law) that is called The "Critical Needs Theory"
Example: (See statement 1 above) . Guess who's laptop blew his motherboard 1 day out of warranty?
That is the critical need theory in action.
and the worst part of that example? I repair (among other things) laptops for a living..
You need it? Murphy says it WILL fail.
THUS some more rules:
a) ALWAYS buy a extended warranty from someone (but NEVER the store you bought it from like best buy*) --I use Square TRADE see link for a 30% off coupon I hope...
a1) I always use them for all of my cell phone warranties too..
B) Buy as MUCH as you can now, EVEN though the technology will get cheaper, and faster and better.
C) Yes, buy a laptop, with extended warranty, and an EXTERNAL hard disk.
D) MAKE sure to buy your extended warranty for your TABLETS too!
*-- interesting side note, Staples gave up the ghost, and now uses Square trade for all their warranties.
--------------------
now. does it pay to try and just have a tablet?
I am android rather then IOS (apple) based..
I find that 40% of the time I CAN use just my tablet. But not for spreadsheets, playing with photos, or word processing.
Even with a bluetooth keyboard, I still can't use my tablet except in emergencies for work.
That being said, I STILL need a desktop or LAPTOP for my work...
I am moving my two desktops to an A/B switch, but may wind up NOT using them except remotely.
Can you survive with just a tablet? We'll let you know. Since I upgraded Cheryl from her kindle to a HP Playbook/Android, she hasn't used her kindle any more.
Me? I use my tablet daily, and love taking it on jobs with me for documentation.
And yes, I think I am replacing my blown laptop...
more about WHAT kind of computer/minimum config's later.
Bobc said
06:38 PM May 19, 2014
I know this my be a stupid question ,but Can we get a desktop to work off wifi instead if off a phone line or cable?
cheryls-other-half said
07:29 PM May 19, 2014
sure it's not a problem for a desktop. They make wifi USB cards. it plugs into a regular USB port, and could cost as little as $10.00.
Highly recommended to make sure to get the fastest one possible.
It will be a while, as it may ship from china...says 3 weeks, figure 4 weeks. But you can buy one in brick and mortar (staples/bestbuy) at a premium...
-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Monday 19th of May 2014 07:32:49 PM
-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Monday 19th of May 2014 07:33:58 PM
bjoyce said
08:57 PM May 19, 2014
BobC: Many of the newest desktops and about every all-in-one I have seen come with wifi built-in anymore. But as cheryls-other-half says, it is easy to add a USB wifi card to a desktop. All-in-ones are where the computer is built into the monitor and they seem to all come with wireless mice and keyboards.
Bobc said
05:27 AM May 20, 2014
Well that all makes me feel better about putting the money into the old unit.( about 500.00) after replacing the hard drive there should be no reason to not keep this one for another 3-4 years. The bad thing is we will lose the Old Photoshop we have after the up grade we do to Windows 7 ( don't want to deal with windows 8 yet and really no need at this time)
Jack Mayer said
11:07 AM May 20, 2014
Putting $500 into an older desktop is something that I would need a LOT of convincing to do. Especially if that was going into an RV. But it may work out for you.
On the issue of extended warranty's: I don't buy them on most devices , but for some people in some circumstances they may be a good thing. It depends on the cost and coverage. For example, a $50 warranty on a Nexus 7 (typical) with a $50 deductible is not something I'd buy on a $200-250 device. But I HAVE had the insurance on my smartphone....because it is more subject to breakage. I NEVER get the warranty on a laptop....if they do not die in the first week or two they are probably not going to die soon. And I do not carry mine around much.
So the warranty issue is one to look closely at and do a risk assessment on.
Bobc said
11:54 AM May 20, 2014
The only reason why i spent the 500.00 is that the computer even at 5 years old was top of the line at the time and had all the brand new Technology in at the time. ( it was a 3,000.00 desktop)
as i was researching what i would want for a laptop i was up around 2500. so we desided to spend the 500.00 for now and re-address the issue in 18 months or so when we hit the road fulltime
I would normally never buy extended warrantee's , I most case,s for me they are just a waste of money
The only time i have done the extented warranty is for our smart phone ( Because they do take a beating) and if i any buying new technolgy which i did when i bought a new plasma TV, at the time they were pretty new and desided to pay it. in this case it did pay off because 2 months after the standard warranty expired the TV blow up. so for a 300.00 extented warranty i got a free replacement on a 6,000.00 TV so the 300.00 was well spent.
When we do buy a new computer for our fulltime travels i will have to think about it a little harder because of the abuse it may get from all the traveling.
cheryls-other-half said
06:47 PM Aug 26, 2014
I figured I'd update this thread, since we've now officially been out on the road for about 75 days, and in our new CoW for about 15 days.
1) Both Cheryl and I still have laptops, and I also have a server which WAS my desktop at home, hooked up to my 42 inch samsung flatscreen with a HDMI output as the BIGGEST monitor we've ever had.
1a) we STILL dont have our formal millenicom data plan (OVERWHELMED, AND still not sure what router/combo to buy, {hint: HELP STILL needed/requested!!-- and I'm a TECHIE!!!}
1b) have been using the campground's wifi, with a internal extended wifi receiver called a "bear extender" which has much more power then anything we'be been using.
1b.a) This is fed into the server, which takes it and feeds the signal into my current (old low end) wifi router, to distribute around the CoW.
Problem 1: low bandwith (will be fixed with millenicom account/hardware)
Problem 2: WHICH router to get (I do NOT want the standard millenicom mifi box)
problem 3: Antenna outside? ehh, I've been up top of the CoW, and I suppose I could fish one more wire down the chain near the dish mount.
QUESTION: has anyone out there used their old winegard analog antenna and rotator unit to hold/mount their Cell/wifi modems?
problem 4: do I also need to get a long range wifi antenna to mount on roof?
(I am guessing this is currently a "not now" issue, as if I really need it, can be done later.)
At any rate, we are mostly using the laptops and tablets. Word processing and spreadsheets are STILL being done on laptops, games mostly on tablets, and TV on the Server.
Hope this helps, and hope to get some de3cent advice on what to buy...
bjoyce said
09:59 PM Aug 26, 2014
You can tether the Millenicom wifi box via USB to both the Pepwave Surf SOHO and WiFiRanger. Once you do that, it works like a USB modem. The 291 works with all of Verizon's current frequencies, I am not sure any other Verizon USB modem or mobile hotspot does.
Your desk top computer at home just died and will need to be replaced. We want to replace it with something that we can use once we start our full time adventure. We will also have 2 iPads that we will take with us, we will need the computer for photos, e-mail, paying bills and internet surfing.
I found over last summer by having 2 laptops onboard that both of us could do our own thing without a problem and I use an old laptop as a wifi hotspot using the park wifi when available.
2 of my laptops onboard are for business use only one of them is dedicated to a CNC cutter , so thats why there are so many!
me.......I go into walmart and bought 2 Toshiba's for under 500 and an external harddrive for storage....
they are going to break and there outdated 3 weeks after you buy them so I dont spend alot on them.
Diane and I have 15" Dell laptops running Windows 7 as our main machines. They are both over 3 years old and still going. I also have an 11.6" Acer touchscreen laptop running Windows 8.1 I take with me when I am away from the RV. Diane has a 10" Android tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard/case combo for travel, which she uses like a laptop and as a tablet. We both carry Samsung Note 3 smartphones, big enough to be small tablets and still usable as phones.
If I had to buy a laptop today I would look at the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, really nice and you can get it with high end specs.
Edit: These days I would buy one USB external DVD writer, under $40 from Amazon, and not have an optical drive in the laptop. I can go months without needing a CD or DVD drive.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 16th of May 2014 09:27:28 PM
A bit over a year ago I switched from having a laptop to a desktop (the Mac Mini), because I found that using my iPad was 'good enough' for most things that I'd need away from my desk. The Mac Mini is quite affordable, and offers a lot of oomph in a very small package.
The Mac Airs are a nice small and more affordable laptop, if staying Apple is something you desire.
Can't offer any advice on non-Apple products, as we haven't tracked those as closely.
- Cherie
It's easy to do our banking, bill paying from the iPads and to check our accounts daily. I do take our JetPack and my iPad with me anywhere we go. I've been able to get a signal on that when I had no bars on my phone so I feel more comfortable for emergencies or detours.
Sherry
Barb
Two personally owned Mac laptops and a Windows one Connie uses for work. Two iPhones, 3 iPads, and a Mac Mini used as a file server and media server.
As a former computer guy…I seriously believe that about 80 percent of RVers can get by with just an iPad and the other 20%…about 80 % of those can get by with the cheapest Macbook Air or an equivalent cheap Windows machine. The remaining few percent might need a more powerful laptop like a Macbook Pro.
Since Jo has had her career in Information Technology, we've pretty much had to stay up to date and buy new computers every few years. With retirement coming up, we're hoping we won't have to buy so often.
I use an Hewlett Packard laptop with a 17" screen for about everything that I do, including all my photos. I use a Motorola RAZR Maxx HD for my smart phone, and with my usage, I use the "smart" more than I use the phone. Jo is the one with all the rest, including an HP 15" and HP 10" laptop, as well as a Kindle Fire and her Samsung smart phone.
In all of our years of computing, HP's have been extremely good for us. The only "major" problem I had was the controller going bad in an external hard drive. The drive ended up being okay, so all we had to do was change the controller/case.
Terry
Is 8G enough or dowe need 16G. Any special graphics needed. How fast is fast enough. Anything special needed in the computer to help with getting a good wifi signal?
Thank you all for the great input. Seems to be 50/50 with Mac,s versus windows, we know windows but very little about apple except for what we do on our IPads.
That being said my macbook pro has 2.6 Ghz Intel core i5 processor with 8Gb ram and a 250Gb SSD drive and handles raw files in Lightroom fine. Not sure how a Windows computer would compare. One thing with Lightroom or Photoshop on Windows are the memory leaks. I would have to reboot after using either or the laptop would be very slow. Macs don't seem to have that problem. I only reboot it every couple weeks just to watch it boot up in 6 seconds :)
Bobc wrote:
Terry how much computer do you have, my wife also does a lot of photo stuff?
Is 8G enough or dowe need 16G. Any special graphics needed. How fast is fast enough. Anything special needed in the computer to help with getting a good wifi signal?
Thank you all for the great input. Seems to be 50/50 with Mac,s versus windows, we know windows but very little about apple except for what we do on our IPads.
folivier wrote:
On the photo stuff it depends on whether you are processing Raw files or just Jpgs. Raw files take quite a bit more processing power. And if you're running Photoshop you need more power also. Lightroom isn't quite as power hungry.
That being said my macbook pro has 2.6 Ghz Intel core i5 processor with 8Gb ram and a 250Gb SSD drive and handles raw files in Lightroom fine. Not sure how a Windows computer would compare. One thing with Lightroom or Photoshop on Windows are the memory leaks. I would have to reboot after using either or the laptop would be very slow. Macs don't seem to have that problem. I only reboot it every couple weeks just to watch it boot up in 6 seconds :)
Bob,
Folivier makes a good point on the amount how much "memory" is needed. I don't deal with RAW as I'm not big on manipulation of my images in software. I'll have to get the computer guru (Jo) to check things out tomorrow to see what memory we have. My "big" computer is the HP ENVY dv7 Notebook and the link that is the title takes you to a review. Much of the specs are on page 2 of that review. It appears to be an 8gig RAM, but I'm not geek enough to know if that applies to speed up photo usage.
I'm seldom ever in a big hurry to get things done, so speed isn't a factor to me.
Terry
Editing photos is not that memory intensive, 4GB of RAM should be plenty for Photoshop Elements, so you don't need 16GB.
Windows 8.1 boots fast with a hard drive, I know. Remember, Windows is a moving target, just like Mac OS is these days.
we have desided to just fix our 5 year old Decktop and put off buying a new laptop until we are ready to hit the road full time, which looks to be 18-24 months away. a lot can change in that time, so we will put in a new hard drive and make the neccasary up grades for now
This is truly an interesting question from my perspective.
1) I've advocated laptops to all of my customers for years and years (except if they were doing gaming)....
But I currently have a bunch of desktops that I'll be taking with me. Although Cheryl (My DW) and I have negotiated. I have a huge stack of PC's and laptops that I am NOT taking with us on the road.
I have a theory (closely related to Murphy's law) that is called The "Critical Needs Theory"
Example: (See statement 1 above) . Guess who's laptop blew his motherboard 1 day out of warranty?
That is the critical need theory in action.
and the worst part of that example? I repair (among other things) laptops for a living..
You need it? Murphy says it WILL fail.
THUS some more rules:
a) ALWAYS buy a extended warranty from someone (but NEVER the store you bought it from like best buy*) --I use Square TRADE see link for a 30% off coupon I hope...
a1) I always use them for all of my cell phone warranties too..
B) Buy as MUCH as you can now, EVEN though the technology will get cheaper, and faster and better.
C) Yes, buy a laptop, with extended warranty, and an EXTERNAL hard disk.
D) MAKE sure to buy your extended warranty for your TABLETS too!
*-- interesting side note, Staples gave up the ghost, and now uses Square trade for all their warranties.
--------------------
now. does it pay to try and just have a tablet?
I am android rather then IOS (apple) based..
- Even with a bluetooth keyboard, I still can't use my tablet except in emergencies for work.
That being said, I STILL need a desktop or LAPTOP for my work...Can you survive with just a tablet? We'll let you know. Since I upgraded Cheryl from her kindle to a HP Playbook/Android, she hasn't used her kindle any more.
Me? I use my tablet daily, and love taking it on jobs with me for documentation.
And yes, I think I am replacing my blown laptop...
more about WHAT kind of computer/minimum config's later.
sure it's not a problem for a desktop. They make wifi USB cards. it plugs into a regular USB port, and could cost as little as $10.00.
Highly recommended to make sure to get the fastest one possible.
here's a link from one of the stores I use often.
meritline.com
It will be a while, as it may ship from china...says 3 weeks, figure 4 weeks. But you can buy one in brick and mortar (staples/bestbuy) at a premium...
-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Monday 19th of May 2014 07:32:49 PM
-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Monday 19th of May 2014 07:33:58 PM
On the issue of extended warranty's: I don't buy them on most devices , but for some people in some circumstances they may be a good thing. It depends on the cost and coverage. For example, a $50 warranty on a Nexus 7 (typical) with a $50 deductible is not something I'd buy on a $200-250 device. But I HAVE had the insurance on my smartphone....because it is more subject to breakage. I NEVER get the warranty on a laptop....if they do not die in the first week or two they are probably not going to die soon. And I do not carry mine around much.
So the warranty issue is one to look closely at and do a risk assessment on.
as i was researching what i would want for a laptop i was up around 2500. so we desided to spend the 500.00 for now and re-address the issue in 18 months or so when we hit the road fulltime
I would normally never buy extended warrantee's , I most case,s for me they are just a waste of money
The only time i have done the extented warranty is for our smart phone ( Because they do take a beating) and if i any buying new technolgy which i did when i bought a new plasma TV, at the time they were pretty new and desided to pay it. in this case it did pay off because 2 months after the standard warranty expired the TV blow up. so for a 300.00 extented warranty i got a free replacement on a 6,000.00 TV so the 300.00 was well spent.
When we do buy a new computer for our fulltime travels i will have to think about it a little harder because of the abuse it may get from all the traveling.
I figured I'd update this thread, since we've now officially been out on the road for about 75 days, and in our new CoW for about 15 days.
1) Both Cheryl and I still have laptops, and I also have a server which WAS my desktop at home, hooked up to my 42 inch samsung flatscreen with a HDMI output as the BIGGEST monitor we've ever had.
1a) we STILL dont have our formal millenicom data plan (OVERWHELMED, AND still not sure what router/combo to buy, {hint: HELP STILL needed/requested!!-- and I'm a TECHIE!!!}
1b) have been using the campground's wifi, with a internal extended wifi receiver called a "bear extender" which has much more power then anything we'be been using.
1b.a) This is fed into the server, which takes it and feeds the signal into my current (old low end) wifi router, to distribute around the CoW.
Problem 1: low bandwith (will be fixed with millenicom account/hardware)
Problem 2: WHICH router to get (I do NOT want the standard millenicom mifi box)
problem 3: Antenna outside? ehh, I've been up top of the CoW, and I suppose I could fish one more wire down the chain near the dish mount.
QUESTION: has anyone out there used their old winegard analog antenna and rotator unit to hold/mount their Cell/wifi modems?
problem 4: do I also need to get a long range wifi antenna to mount on roof?
(I am guessing this is currently a "not now" issue, as if I really need it, can be done later.)
At any rate, we are mostly using the laptops and tablets. Word processing and spreadsheets are STILL being done on laptops, games mostly on tablets, and TV on the Server.
Hope this helps, and hope to get some de3cent advice on what to buy...