Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

Hi there. I'm inheriting an old laptop from my father and I want to
use it with my school's wireless network. It's a Sony VAIO, P3
700MHz, and 128 MB of ram. My father, not exactly a technological
whiz, installed WinXP Home on it and it runs horribly slow. I have a
large collection of Windows install discs lying around and my plan is
to install an older version of Windows onto the laptop. I'm
primarily concerned with being able to get onto my school's wireless
network and to use a decent, new-ish version of Office on it. So my
question is, which version of Windows should I install? My options
are 95, 98, 98se, 2000, and XP. I want to maximize performance
without sacrificing wireless and Office capabilities. Any advice is
appreciated.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

Your should use windows 2000 for sure. The wireless card should come with
software that will make it work on win 2000. You don't have to have XP and
its built in wireless support to use wireless networking.

"Max" wrote:

> Hi there. I'm inheriting an old laptop from my father and I want to
> use it with my school's wireless network. It's a Sony VAIO, P3
> 700MHz, and 128 MB of ram. My father, not exactly a technological
> whiz, installed WinXP Home on it and it runs horribly slow. I have a
> large collection of Windows install discs lying around and my plan is
> to install an older version of Windows onto the laptop. I'm
> primarily concerned with being able to get onto my school's wireless
> network and to use a decent, new-ish version of Office on it. So my
> question is, which version of Windows should I install? My options
> are 95, 98, 98se, 2000, and XP. I want to maximize performance
> without sacrificing wireless and Office capabilities. Any advice is
> appreciated.
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

"wwwguy1" <wwwguy1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AB487B27-463A-461F-8E4E-6B5ED4739F64@microsoft.com...
> Your should use windows 2000 for sure. The wireless card should come with
> software that will make it work on win 2000. You don't have to have XP
> and
> its built in wireless support to use wireless networking.
>
> "Max" wrote:
>
>> Hi there. I'm inheriting an old laptop from my father and I want to
>> use it with my school's wireless network. It's a Sony VAIO, P3
>> 700MHz, and 128 MB of ram. My father, not exactly a technological
>> whiz, installed WinXP Home on it and it runs horribly slow. I have a
>> large collection of Windows install discs lying around and my plan is
>> to install an older version of Windows onto the laptop. I'm
>> primarily concerned with being able to get onto my school's wireless
>> network and to use a decent, new-ish version of Office on it. So my
>> question is, which version of Windows should I install? My options
>> are 95, 98, 98se, 2000, and XP. I want to maximize performance
>> without sacrificing wireless and Office capabilities. Any advice is
>> appreciated.
>>

You should consider buying more memory. I have a similar situation,
with a 650 MHz PIII with 128 MB of memory.When I installed Windows
XP it was remarkably slow. When I upgraded to 512 MB of memory
it became much, much faster. You should not go back to older versions
of the OS if at all possible. Windows 95 is no longer supported by
Microsoft,
and few programs are written for it. Windows 98, 98se, and ME are just
barely supported by Microsoft and as time goes on will have less software
written for them. Besides, they are less stable than either 2000 or XP.
Likely, you should check with your school, and they will probably tell you
that t
he only options are Windows 2000 and XP Pro anyhow. Large organizations
don't like to network to XP Home because of its lack of network security.

If you absolutely have to switch OS's, and won't do XP Pro, Windows 2000
is the only real choice. Make sure that your wireless card has drivers for
Windows 2000. Although pretty much all cards will work with Win 2000,
some don't support all Wi-fi features. WPA encryption is a possible
problem, since Windows 2000 doesn't support it natively like XP does.
More memory would help Windows 2000 too.

Hope this helps.

Dick Kistler

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

triforium@bellsouth.net (Max) wrote in
news:6d5c639c.0408151648.329533c8@posting.google.com:

> Hi there. I'm inheriting an old laptop from my father and I want
> to use it with my school's wireless network. It's a Sony VAIO, P3
> 700MHz, and 128 MB of ram. My father, not exactly a technological
> whiz, installed WinXP Home on it and it runs horribly slow.

Just spend a few bucks and upgrade to 512MB RAM and you'll get a
surprising improvement in performance. No need for extreme measures.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@visi.com

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

Hi.
Increasing memory and leaving WinXP in is the way to go.

However if it is not feasible to increase memory I will go with Win98se.

It seems that public places are more compatible with Win98se than Win2000.

Jack (MVP-Networking).





"Max" <triforium@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:6d5c639c.0408151648.329533c8@posting.google.com...
> Hi there. I'm inheriting an old laptop from my father and I want to
> use it with my school's wireless network. It's a Sony VAIO, P3
> 700MHz, and 128 MB of ram. My father, not exactly a technological
> whiz, installed WinXP Home on it and it runs horribly slow. I have a
> large collection of Windows install discs lying around and my plan is
> to install an older version of Windows onto the laptop. I'm
> primarily concerned with being able to get onto my school's wireless
> network and to use a decent, new-ish version of Office on it. So my
> question is, which version of Windows should I install? My options
> are 95, 98, 98se, 2000, and XP. I want to maximize performance
> without sacrificing wireless and Office capabilities. Any advice is
> appreciated.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

"Jack" <JackMDS at veriz0n.net> wrote in message
news:%23%23teqD8gEHA.1724@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi.
> Increasing memory and leaving WinXP in is the way to go.
>
> However if it is not feasible to increase memory I will go with Win98se.
>
> It seems that public places are more compatible with Win98se than Win2000.
>
> Jack (MVP-Networking).

Maybe so, but if it is a large university or school system, I would check
what they recommend first.
I know a couple of universities that get real grumpy if you don't use XP Pro
and downright violent if you mention XP Home.
Although they can cope with ME, 98, NT, etc.

Dick Kistler

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

"Dick Kistler" <dickkist@Remove-hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23wD$VQ8gEHA.3272@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I know a couple of universities that get real grumpy if you don't use XP
> Pro and downright violent if you mention XP Home.
> Although they can cope with ME, 98, NT, etc.
>

Maybe those educators need an education. Bending to that ridiculous rule
just encourages them. Maybe someone that knows enough about the differences
between XP home and pro should ask them specifically why, and make them
explain it with real facts that make sense, which of course they won't be
able to. Why let idiots who apparently rely on hearsay and "what they've
heard" tell you what to install on your computer? I wonder how many extra
$$ are spent needlessly just for the ego boost of using "pro" instead of the
lowly "home" version?

I agree with the idea of increasing RAM to 512, or at very least 256 for XP.
A 700 mhz P3 with 512 should run XP pretty nicely if the graphics card is
reasonable. I'd never suggest Win2000 for what's basically a home machine,
unless someone likes to tinker all the time for the simplest networking and
sharing tasks...wireless with Win2k sounds like a nightmare. If he has to
stick with 128 MB RAM, then ME would be what I'd pick, it networks easily
and smoothly, but since that wasn't one of the options given, 98SE would be
a tolerable choice I suppose.

Gary