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Post by viv on Apr 20, 2009 15:54:26 GMT
I had one or two issues to think about for Summer:
1. Did not want to take my laptop away camping, as it has so much information on it and if stolen, lost or damaged it would be a problem. Also it is quite bulky.
2. BUT Need laptop for internet ''on the go' with my new Dongle.
3. Need back up for my photos anyway.
Problem solved with a bit of advice from the staff in Comet, Currys and PC World. I finally decided on a Netbook rather than a spare hard drive. It has 160 Gg hard drive and a useable keyboard. Will take my dongle, all my photos as backup to laptop and is small enough to lose itself in the van.
Thought about it, did my research, then excitedly went off back to shops to buy one that I had been shown. Alas they don't have one in stock and are no longer being made and the nearest option was much dearer. Why oh why do they show you things that you cannot buy!
Currys were not helpful, Comets however found me one in stock in another store and as that manager is visiting their store tomorrow he will bring one with him.
Was beginning to panic and think I would not be able, yet again, to spend my hard earned income!
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Post by glenw on Apr 20, 2009 17:33:49 GMT
Thats what I'm using at work at the mo, with my dongle to connect the tinterweb! We boulght ours from Aldi, they have them in every so often as do netto and lidl I think. In fact, I seem to recall seeing on advertised on a flyer from one of the stores this week??? Ours is a median akoya, wth an intel atom processor, windows xp, 150 gig hard drive etc and was around the £200 - £250 price range i think. Its the perfect size for hiding around the van etc EDIT:- I was right, netto have one it at the mo, £239.99 for a 60 gig hard drive, intel processor, 2 yr warranty, 30gig online storage for a year, 1gb ram, built in wifi viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=wdqqrg#/page0/www.netto.co.uk/internet/nettog/menu/main.nsf offers from 20th april |
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Post by viv on Apr 21, 2009 7:14:01 GMT
Thanks for that info, i feel more confident that I have, for once, possibly bought something that is the correct item for my needs. Can't understand why something so popular is no longer being supplied unless it is more money they want from a new style.
Mine is an Acer with 160 Gg memory and Windows XP. It was £225 reduced from £250. Norton provided at extra £17. most importantly it is blue to match the van interior!
I have to say that the chap in Comet had only told me about the one on display with only 16Gg SSD and not the 160Gb with hard drive (same price) probably because that was the only one left.
I am not very technological and it was only by checking on internet on return home that I realised there were two sorts - although looked the same. I would probably have bought the 16 Gb in error if I had not checked more thoroughly.
Am going to collect it this afternoon.
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Post by glenw on Apr 21, 2009 8:07:27 GMT
most importantly it is blue to match the van interior! Perfect!!!! Ours is boring black,  I feel hard done by now! ;D |
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Post by yamaha on Apr 21, 2009 9:44:03 GMT
Hiya Viv - how u doing, babes?
I also have a netbook - my choice was the Asus 901 Go - with the 16gb SSD - which is ideal for me, as I can bung it in the topbox of the bike, and no hard drive to damage with bumps, etc.
Dunno how I managed without it - they're brilliant bits of kit.
Got a rather large extra battery for mine, from China - extends the battery life from abot 4.5hrs to about 9hrs !!
I get over the smallish storage space by using various SD cards - I can install different programs on various cards, and insert that card if I want to run that program.
Hardly ever used my old full-size laptop now!!
Regards to Terry,
Mike
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Post by viv on Apr 21, 2009 19:16:34 GMT
Hi Yamaha
Well I had a go at setting my new little treasure up and managed to get almost to the end but had to get the lads next door in to sort out the internet wifi bit for me. I usually resort to them in the end and they get a bit of pocket money and I get the finished working item!
I am so pleased with my little baby, and laddie next door pointed out that this has 4 times the memory that this bigger laptop has! I have played solitaire and have written a couple of practice documents on it. My fingers do clash on the keys but i am sure I will manage. Just have to set the keyboard to UK configuration instead of US which was what it recommended. Do you know how I do that, where the box for it is hidden!
Hope you and Sue are well and Terry sends his regards. He is very well.
We are in your neck of the woods this weekend in a little place just outside Weston Super Mare. Wish we had planned it better and we could have got our van serviced at the same time but will just have to go back later in year when Ant has a gap.
You are right about the SSD 16 gig, the chap in the shop said that if it is dropped there is nothing to damage so on a bike or lots of travelling it will be best option, I will just have to be careful with mine.
Are you off to the rally in a couple of weekends time? If not hope to see you at another soon.
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Post by yamaha on Apr 21, 2009 21:47:25 GMT
Hi Viv - try Start - Control panel- Regional and language options.
If that's not the place to change it, then dunno!!
Where abouts are you staying at WSM then - we could pop over for tea and cake!!
Mike
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Post by viv on Apr 22, 2009 8:02:53 GMT
Would love tea and cakes if you could get over that way , Terry would prefer beer i think! Not sure how far we will be from you but have sent you an e mail with my mobile number.
Viv
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Post by viv on Apr 29, 2009 10:28:07 GMT
I still have an american keyboard but luckily I remembered where the lad next door told me the ampersand was!! Will have to get him back in to change it for me. This keyboard is also really small and my touch typing is a bit rough now.
I am actually posting now because I got a funny message last time I posted using my dongle and clicked 'no' to the opton that popped up and think i should have said 'yes' so I am having another go. The option was to fit the text to the forum confituguration.
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Post by viv on Apr 29, 2009 10:34:28 GMT
Just realised I had to use my dongle to get the same message so this is just a test - please ignore me, I hope to be better soon.!
PS whatever was a bit odd yesterday has been sorted now by the looks of it.
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
Posts: 40
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Post by yozz on Jul 15, 2009 16:41:35 GMT
If anyone is in the market for a netbook at the moment Maplins are doing what looks like a great deal here - www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225532&source=1£90 is a steal. It does use a Linux rather than Windows operating system but Linux has a useable windows style interface now rather than having to type in commands. |
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 15, 2009 22:04:22 GMT
I spotted that deal and ordered one this afternoon. I hope it's as good as it appears to be!
Update: Ordered 4pm yesterday, delivered 8am today and - yes it appears to work well. It's slower than my PC but it picked up our wireless broadband within seconds to give internet access. I haven't yet tested it with the vodafone dongle (this will be trickier to set up) but on the face of it, the netbook seems to be a bargain!
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
Posts: 40
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Post by yozz on Jul 16, 2009 21:32:23 GMT
When you say slower do you mean slower starting up or slower to show webpages?
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 17, 2009 9:34:29 GMT
The start-up is fast, as is the shutdown. It just generally runs slower than my 3.4Ghz PC (which I'd expect) and is slower to load webpages - but it's still very much faster than my earlier Pocket Surfer.
The only issue I have with it at the moment is that I can't enter text when using hotmail - although I can enter an addressee and subject title so I'm sure there must be a way around this. Later today I'll also try and set up the Vodafone dongle - I'm not very techie and have been putting this off because it might not be as simple as the rest.
I'm very pleased with the netbook and feel it was a bargain at £89.99 (less a £3 voucher for subscribing to Maplin's newsletter). I don't think anyone could be disappointed with it.
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
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Post by yozz on Jul 17, 2009 17:27:23 GMT
I'm sooo tempted to get one  Any news on setting up the Voda dongle? |
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
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Post by yozz on Jul 18, 2009 16:49:43 GMT
If you're having problems setting up the dongle you can go here - www.cnmlifestyle.com/Click on the netbook icon and then on downloads from the menu. That should give you the necessary info and drivers for all the mobile internet dongles |
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
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Post by karenw on Jul 19, 2009 11:11:39 GMT
I still haven't attempted the Vodafone dongle but I've found the page Yozz has mentioned which has all the instructions (thank you) and I've read on forums that the cnm netbook WILL work with the dongle.
The netbook is working perfectly but I have found one problem - I use Hotmail for email and it's vital that I can send emails while away but.... the netbook doesn't seem to want to allow this. I can enter an adressee and subject title but I can't input any text into the message box itself! It sounds so ludicrous that it's can't be true... I've also had problems trying to POP3 email as an alternative but this is related to a dodgy setting somewhere that I haven't been able to correct.
Although I've had just these few teething problems, I'm sure they can be overcome and I'd still highly recommend the netbook as a cheap method of gaining internet access while away.
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Post by Derek on Jul 19, 2009 11:44:00 GMT
Hi Karen, does hotmail have both rich text and plain text? I don't have a clue if that is the problem but I would try plain text first. Firefox should work the same as Microsoft when on Linux but there may be a bug.
Derek
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 19, 2009 12:47:41 GMT
Hi Derek
There are plain text and rich text options with hotmail but all are greyed out and there seems to be no option for inputting text at all. Something must be wrong because I can't believe it isn't compatible with web-based email.
Out of curiosity, I set up a googlemail webmail account and this works fine. It's not ideal but I'm heading off to the Royal Welsh Show and need to have access. For now I'll be forwarding Hotmail to Googlemail and will contact CnM's techical support for their suggestions. This is the only issue I've had so far.
Update: I've now installed the Vodafone dongle. I keep getting a 'timeout, link broken' error message so have raised this with Technical Support too.
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Post by Derek on Jul 19, 2009 15:52:05 GMT
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 19, 2009 23:59:18 GMT
Unfortunately no, this hasn't worked. I've been looking into it more closely and it seems there is (or was last year...) a known issue with hotmail and Linux. I hope there is a way around it because my entire website, Paypal ordering etc is all linked to a hotmail address and it isn't practical to change it all... Also, it isn't possible to forward from Hotmail to Googlemail so I'm a bit stuck, (but this is a Linux issue rather than anything relating to the CnM Netbook).  Thanks for your help. Karen |
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Post by Derek on Jul 20, 2009 7:23:22 GMT
When you get your Vodafone connection working try the Linux mail client Email Box with these settings
POP3 'pop3.live.com'
SMTP 'send.vodafone.net'
Derek
Update -- I have just tried to pop mail from Hotmail and I can't get it to work, maybe it has to be a paid account.
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
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Post by yozz on Jul 20, 2009 13:35:51 GMT
Hi Derek There are plain text and rich text options with hotmail but all are greyed out and there seems to be no option for inputting text at all. Something must be wrong because I can't believe it isn't compatible with web-based email. Out of curiosity, I set up a googlemail webmail account and this works fine. It's not ideal but I'm heading off to the Royal Welsh Show and need to have access. For now I'll be forwarding Hotmail to Googlemail and will contact CnM's techical support for their suggestions. This is the only issue I've had so far. Update: I've now installed the Vodafone dongle. I keep getting a 'timeout, link broken' error message so have raised this with Technical Support too. Hi for the voda dongle issue have a look here - linuxlaptopforum.ark2webdesign.co.uk/index.php/topic,491.0.html The Small Linux Laptop Forum above seems to be especially for these type of netbooks. Might be worth doing a search there on the hotmail problem, or joining up and asking about it yozz. |
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 20, 2009 18:15:35 GMT
Hi Yozz
This link was just what I needed and typing pp.internet solved all the connection problems and I'm now online using the Vodafone dongle which is working perfectly even though we're in a relatively poor reception area and have no 3G.
The netbook now offers full internet access and is performing well. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for cheap and portable internet access while travelling. It doesn't offer laptop speeds but it's a good, budget, second-best!
Thank You for your help.
Karen
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 20, 2009 18:20:12 GMT
Hi Derek
Thanks for your tips. The email link hasn't produced a solution and I've reached the same conclusion as you that hotmail, neither webmail nor via POP, doesn't appear to be compatible with the netbook. This is a problem for me with my online shop and website all linked to a hotmail address but I'll keep searching incase there's a 'fix' found in any of the online forums.
The happier news is that the googlemail works well via both webmail and POP3 although I've since discovered that hotmail won't forward mail to a non-hotmail address! I'm still thinking around this one...
Thanks for your help.
Karen
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Post by viv on Jul 21, 2009 7:45:50 GMT
When I started looking in to buying a small laptop to use as photo backup and mobile internet I received different advice from each shop assistant I spoke to.
One told me that a Linus system would not be compatible with my Vodaphone Dongle so I went a bit more expensive and bought a netbook with Windows XP. Seemingly this may not have been correct info then!
But it all works well and I have been able to use internet on every campsite except the C & CC site at Boroughbridge.
The connection speed has been as good as my laptop and the netbook speed itself is much faster. (Must upgrade my home laptop). The battery has also been good and have been able to use it on non electric H/U sites.
I use Yahoo mail and it is fine.
I am not technically minded but my young neighbour has set it up so that it does not download updates automatically so I do this just before I leave home on my BT connection so it does not charge against the dongle.
I usually manage to read the newspaper headlines, my mail and the odd search and have still only managed to spend about £2.50!!
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Post by Derek on Jul 21, 2009 17:03:47 GMT
The email link hasn't produced a solution and I've reached the same conclusion as you that hotmail, neither webmail nor via POP, doesn't appear to be compatible with the netbook. Karen Try loading this into Firefox and switching to IE chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/Fingers crossed Derek |
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
Posts: 40
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Post by yozz on Jul 22, 2009 19:46:04 GMT
Hi Derek Thanks for your tips. The email link hasn't produced a solution and I've reached the same conclusion as you that hotmail, neither webmail nor via POP, doesn't appear to be compatible with the netbook. This is a problem for me with my online shop and website all linked to a hotmail address but I'll keep searching incase there's a 'fix' found in any of the online forums. The happier news is that the googlemail works well via both webmail and POP3 although I've since discovered that hotmail won't forward mail to a non-hotmail address! I'm still thinking around this one... Thanks for your help. Karen Don't do anything drastic Karen. Hotmail is very much a microsoft product and therein lies the problem. There's going to be a way around this problem  |
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yozz
30+ posts.... a 2 wheeler!
Posts: 40
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Post by yozz on Jul 29, 2009 18:32:24 GMT
Have you had any success on the littlelinuxlaptop forum in sorting this out karen?
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karenw
50+ posts.... 3 wheels on my wagon!
Posts: 92
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Post by karenw on Jul 29, 2009 19:45:33 GMT
Hi Yozz
I've given up completely on trying to resolve the Hotmail issue because it just doesn't seem to be compatible so for jaunts away I'll read incoming mail on hotmail but then reply via a new Googlemail account. It's a compromise but it should work.
I tested the Vodafone USB modem while in Rhayader last week. It connected instantlyand provided reliable access and 90 minutes browsing cost only 12p. Two domestic wireless networks were also found within range (with WEP enabled) so it should also pick up signals on campsites or in McDonalds' car parks!
I've added a basic review of the netbook on Amazon so if issues are resolved then hopefully I'll be notified in due course.
I'm still happy with my purchase and consider it £86 well spent. It's not as fast as my PC and has its limitations but it's good for travelling and providing budget internet access on the move.
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I feel hard done by now! ;D
