<p>what's the best laptop to get (not a mac)? and what kind of connection wireless/wired does the school have in dorms, and public buildings? what kind of network card or wireless network card is needed for the laptops?</p>
<p>What do you need the laptop for? Gaming? Just word processing?
Princeton offers dells at discounted prices over the summer, but you can get yourself a laptop if you want.</p>
<p>Get Centrino (PentiumM + Intel Wireless) because it's light, cool, and still fast. A 1.8 ghz Dothan Centrino has about the processing power of a 3+ ghz P4, believe it or not.</p>
<p>If you're looking for Dell alternatives check out the guys at <a href="http://www.notebookforums.com%5B/url%5D">www.notebookforums.com</a></p>
<p>Princeton offers students special deals on Dell and Apple laptops. See <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/sci/buy/model.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/sci/buy/model.htm</a> for this year's models. </p>
<p>There is one high-speed ethernet port for each student (in the dorms). I'd say the typical speed range is 400-700 Kbps, which is about equivalent to medium-high quality DSL. </p>
<p>Official wireless coverage is very haphazard...OIT has a map, but it's only accessible to students, etc. Areas with full coverage: Nassau Hall, Alexander Hall, Alexander Beach, Art Museum/Marquand Library, McCosh (academic) Hall, fountain area outside WWS, Corwin/Fisher/Bendheim, Tower, 1879/Marx Hall, Engineering Quad, Center for Jewish Life.
Partial coverage: Firestone, East Pyne, Frist, Robertson, Forbes, McCosh (health), Friend Center, Cloister, West College. You can often use other wireless networks that students set up with their own routers (OIT does not like students to have these routers, but they do). </p>
<p>I think they're on 802.11g. Just get a current laptop with built-in wireless capabilities and you should be fine. </p>
<p>One final note, don't rule out macs. About 25% of the 08 class who ordered through Princeton chose the Powerbook...and most are very satisfied. Macs connect seamlessly (by themselves!) to the school network and wireless networks, and you don't have to worry about viruses/spyware. Plus for compsci types OS X works great with UNIX, since that is what the OS is based upon.</p>
<p>DL speed for me off the internet is usually at 1.5mbps (~190kB/s). Not bad at all, but there's always internet2 filesharing if you need faster speeds (aka ethernet-speed downloads). Occasionally the internet will just peter out and stop working for a few minutes, and I've managed to get some very heavy lag on the connection at times. Overall I would say that the internet is fine here.</p>
<p>I'd recommend one of Princeton's macs if you're interested. OSX is very stable. </p>
<p>If you're ordering your own laptop, please get Windows XP Professional. XP Home may possibly have problems with the Princeton network, or so says OIT.</p>
<p>one in a pastel color, preferably diamond encrusted.</p>
<p>zing!</p>