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Question

using a modem with a netbook..

Jun 26, 2011 7:03AM PDT

Hello,
I am about to begin online college courses and was considering a netbook (looking at multiple versions of asus eee) for portability reasons. The college i'm enrolled in requires 56k baud modem which is not included on any of the netbooks i've seen. Does anybody have any advice on if it is a good idea to buy an external modem for this kind of device or I should just give up the netbook idea and stick to taking my classes on my pc. I am specifically interested in a netbook because of the price point but it just may not offer what i'm looking for. I'm not very tech minded so would love advice from anyone who has experience with this type of issue. Thanks so much!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Strange requirement.
Jun 26, 2011 7:42AM PDT

Why wouldn't a broadband (cable, ADSL) connection work? Dial-up modems are soooo outdated. Can you provide the link where they say that? Or don't you have broadband at home, so dial-up is the only option, also on your desktop? Then downloading all the stuff they want you to read and view will take a lot of time, I'm afraid.

The obvious advantage of a netbook is its price and portability. But for not much more you'll find a laptop with a much better keyboard and much larger screen and a much better performance.

I'd start with using your desktop as the primary machine to study (for ease and performance and screensize). Then, if you feel it's a good idea to study elsewhere also, use a USB-stick to view all the stuff you downloaded on a more portable device. That could be a netbook or a laptop or even a tablet if you can get that stuff onto it. You won't be able to use the dial-up connection anyway outside your house.

Kees

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Thanks for the link.
Jun 27, 2011 1:49AM PDT

No need to send it via PM (Private Mail). This is a public forum. So I'll copy it here:

This is the page that tells me my requirements for my online classes. http://fitnyc.edu/3744.asp . All of this info is kind of like a foreign language to me so of course when I saw the modem requirements I figured a netbook wouldn't work. I would really like to be able to study my classes at work (where I don't have a computer) so would love the portability of the netbook. With these requirements in mind, do you think that's unreasonable?

That link says:


Your computer should have the minimum equivalent
of a Pentium II processor with Windows 95 or higher operating system,
or a Macintosh G3 processor with System 8 or higher operating system.
The computer should also have at least 32 MB RAM and a 56K baud modem.
You will also need:
- A high-speed Internet connection to the World Wide Web: Mozilla Firefox version 3.0 or higher, or Internet Explorer 7 as your web browser
- A word processing application that has the capability to save files in the Microsoft
Word or RTF file format
- Some courses may have additional requirements, such as access to a scanner or
digital camera. Please call the department offering the course for more information
(contact numbers can be found on the
FIT website)





Those are strange requirements indeed. There's no chance at all the browsers you need (Firefox 3.0, IE7) will run on a PC with a Pentium II processor with Windows 95 and 32 MB RAM. So this is as inconsistent as you can imagine.

Back to the facts:
- What PC and what Internet-connection do you have at home?
- What Internet-connection do you have at work (where you don't have a computer)?

And back to the requirements:
- Suppose you copy stuff (whatever they offer) to a netbook of laptop. Would you be able to study enough of that at work if you don't have an Internet-connection there, but ONLY the downloaded materials for local use?

Kees

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Answer
The netbooks are ...
Jun 26, 2011 12:32PM PDT

not designed for much multi tasking but are really convenient for size and weight. They are underpowered for much programming or spreadsheet/database work but for taking notes and writing papers they are fine. If you are a touch typist make sure the keyboard is adequately sized for you.

If the college you are attending does require a fax modem, MOST notebooks/laptops do not come with one so a small and portable USB modem would do the job nicely. You would still be able to connect to the Internet wirelessly or via an ethernet cable.

I have one of these Roswills and it works quite well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825164005&cm_re=usb_modem-_-25-164-005-_-Product

My some got one of these by Ultra and likes it because it has a 3 year warranty:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4948234&CatId=564