The Ideal College Laptop Package and

Staying Connected Online

by Michael Bilyeu

IDEAL COLLEGE LAPTOP CHOICES

OK so you need to get a laptop for your child to
go to college. This is much easier than you may think.
First, if your child will not be carrying the laptop around,
which they most likely will not be, get one with a 17”
screen. This will be good for the homework in their dorm
to see what they are writing. Make sure it is a dual-core
processor, preferably AMD or Intel. Make sure it has a
card reader, Bluetooth, and wireless built in, and at least
2 gigs ram and you’re ready to go! I personally prefer the
HP or Compaq models.

ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE

Don’t forget to check what anti-virus your child’s
college requires and get that installed before they leave,
unless the college also provides that as well. If they have
no preference, or your child is in an apartment, be sure
to get Norton Internet Security. You can probably wait to
get the other application software from the college either
free, or at a discount. Now for a printer I recommend the
Brother All In One. It does pictures, scanning, and regular
printing, all in excellent quality and inexpensive ink cartridges.

BACKUP DRIVE

I also recommend a backup drive for your child’s
laptop to backup their music, pictures and homework
onto.The one I always recommend is the “Western Digital
Passport” drive. It has different colors and upwards of 120
gigs space, it will protect them from disaster. The Passport also comes with its own backup software that saves e-mails and favorite places as well. This makes it ideal for office laptops as well.

WHERE’S MY FLASH DRIVE

Now, how many of you have plugged in a flash
drive and it doesn’t show up in “My Computer”? This is
an irritating problem usually occurring when you have a
lot of drives like network or card reader drives. This is an
easy fix. First right click on “My Computer”, left click
on manage. Then left click on “Disk Management” on the
lower left. OK, now look on the lower right for your flash
drive according to what size it is. Then, right click on the
drive, left click on “change drive letter and paths”. Click
on the change button, select a new letter way down on the
alphabet like “R”. When it asks if you want to change the
letter, click “yes” and you are done. It will remember this
letter assignment the next time you plug it in.