Notebook for solo attorney

I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

Thanks to all.

Ken

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:54:39 -0400, cagey wrote:

I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

Thanks to all.

Ken

Ken,

If you want reliability and good support forget Dell. Dell will lock
you in phone mail jail, when you do get through to a CSR they will
make you exhaust every last avenue before shipping a replacement part.
I have been a Dell customer for six years, support used to be
fantastic, now it sucks. Although I have a Dell desktop, I would
recommend you buy an IBM Thinkpad as your laptop. I have an a22p and
it has been fantastic. Thinkpad's cost more than Dell's, but the
quality difference is apparent when one compares side by side. If you
plan to move from location to location with your machine, you will
need something that is robust, I have seen parts fall off Dell's after
a year or two, my thinkpad has taken a hammering and still looks new.
IBM support is still American and they pick up the phone right away,
no menus, no phone mail jail. And best of all, support is American,
not some Indian kid called Vishnu pretending to be American called
Chuck. A friend of mine asked me for advice, I told him buy a
Thinkpad, he bought a Dell, now he is cursing his decision. Please
bear in mind, folks on this group are Dell customer's, they will tend
to recommend Dell. Do yourself a favor and google Thinkpad. I'm not a
Dell basher, they make great desktops, but support is lousy and the
laptops are inferior to IBM's.

Best regards,

Code4U

cagey wrote:

I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

Don't do laptops, so I'll stay out of the laptop recommendation
business, except ...

Yes, a docking station makes the most sense for you, IMHO; and
....

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

I would recommend buying two laptops, and having a desktop at
home. All three to be kept synchronized with your crucial
documents nightly over your home network. Sure as god made
little green apples, one day, when you're due in court for the
opening of a major case, your primary laptop will go south. With
a back-up, you can still make the appearance without worry.

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

My experience with all-in-ones is that they are never as good at
any one of their individual tasks as a dedicated machine. That
said, if you have a nearby Kinkos, your scanner/fax combo will
make usable working copies, and you can use Kinkos/etc. for the
major jobs [lawyers always charge the client for copies, anyway,
don't they? ;-]. I would go with a standalone printer, and the
best office-quality laser you can afford.

[I've survived with my inkjet, but barely. The next HO printer I
get will be a laser.]
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.

In this instance some form of external (duplicated) storage *and* offsite
backup would probably be a very good idea.

Wouldn`t want you losing case files !

Offsite backups come into their own if, for instance, there was a fire or
the building is flooded while putting it out - thus rendering anything in
the building soggy trash :-}

Laptop hard drives are almost classed as "disposable" due to the range of
conditions they may be subjected to, so its best not to tempt fate too
much :-p

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

cagey wrote:

I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

Thanks to all.

Ken
1. Just be sure to have backups, one too hard drop of the laptop or someone
else thinks your car looks like it might hold expensive stuff and its gone
along with all your data. Being that you may have sensitive client info
that your opponent could find helpful to his case you should consider
setting the bios password that encrypts the data on the drive (most newer
business machines have it). Stick with what the company uses and they will
be more likely to help than if you have something different. I would make
the guess that your firm issues people the Latitude C400 or D400, or maybe
the x200/300 and the IT guys probably carry the C/D500/600 series.
2. Inspiron and Latatude lines have different support lines and the
difference can be night and day, you will notice that most who have
problems with support have a"home" machine.
3. They work, I'm partial to HP myself, couldn't even wear out my last one
after 6 years and gave it away to someone else who still uses it and I have
had my current one for 4 years.

Code4u wrote:

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:54:39 -0400, cagey wrote:

I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

Thanks to all.

Ken

Ken,

If you want reliability and good support forget Dell. Dell will lock
you in phone mail jail, when you do get through to a CSR they will
make you exhaust every last avenue before shipping a replacement part.
I have been a Dell customer for six years, support used to be
fantastic, now it sucks. Although I have a Dell desktop, I would
recommend you buy an IBM Thinkpad as your laptop. I have an a22p and
it has been fantastic. Thinkpad's cost more than Dell's, but the
quality difference is apparent when one compares side by side. If you
plan to move from location to location with your machine, you will
need something that is robust, I have seen parts fall off Dell's after
a year or two, my thinkpad has taken a hammering and still looks new.
IBM support is still American and they pick up the phone right away,
no menus, no phone mail jail. And best of all, support is American,
not some Indian kid called Vishnu pretending to be American called
Chuck. A friend of mine asked me for advice, I told him buy a
Thinkpad, he bought a Dell, now he is cursing his decision. Please
bear in mind, folks on this group are Dell customer's, they will tend
to recommend Dell. Do yourself a favor and google Thinkpad. I'm not a
Dell basher, they make great desktops, but support is lousy and the
laptops are inferior to IBM's.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

We've all heard about Dell's terrible support.

The fact is, good support is available. If you purchase your system through
Dell's Small Business Division, or higher, "Gold Tech Support" is available.
You're guaranteed not only shorter wait times, on the phone, but also that
you'll be speaking to a U.S. based tech.

Look into it!

Notan

"cagey" wrote in message
...
I am an attorney in a large law firm who is going to go into business
by myself. My current firm is all Dell (as am I at home). By myself,
there will be no IT support, other than myself and what Dell offers.
I would appreciate the group's advice with several questions.

1. I think a notebook with a docking station makes the most sense for
me - I will be able to use a keyboard, monitor, and bring my files
home with me. I mostly use word, outlook, ie/mozilla. I do a lot of
cutting and pasting of documents from the net. Recommendations on
which notebook models/lines I should consider? Any advantages to
Latitude vs. Inspiron to a solo like me?

2. I will be by myself, so reliability will be absolutely critical.
Dell's support seems to be taking a lot of lumps these days. Should I
be worried?

3. I currently send documents out in pdf format over the net. I have
been thinking of buying an all-in-one device to combine
printer/copier/scanner/fax ($'s are tight). Any pros, cons,
recommenede models?

Thanks to all.

Ken

Ken,

I'm a big Dell fan, but I do think that IBM laptops are superior. I have
the ultralight Thinkpad X40 and love it. Under 3 pounds. A multifunction
copier, etc. is fine.

Get an external USB2 drive and backup DAILY!

Tom

For a printer, I just bought an HP 2300 (on the internet) for $560, and it
is a great laser printer.

I also have a Canon Model D780 , which is a combined digital
copier and fax machine. It is super, and can be bought for about $600.

I have a small business myself, and have never seen a need for a scanner. I
think you would love the HP 2300 for laser printing, and the Canon D780 for
digital copying and faxing. They both provide a lot of value for the
price.

Good Luck !!

--James--

James Nipper wrote:

For a printer, I just bought an HP 2300 (on the internet) for $560, and it
is a great laser printer.

I also have a Canon Model D780 , which is a combined digital
copier and fax machine. It is super, and can be bought for about $600.

I have a small business myself, and have never seen a need for a scanner. I
think you would love the HP 2300 for laser printing, and the Canon D780 for
digital copying and faxing. They both provide a lot of value for the
price.

I've always been a big proponent of separate components. If you've got
an all-in-one unit, and anything goes wrong, you're dead in the water.

With money being tight, I'd seriously consider purchasing a separate
fax machine, which can also be used as a backup scanner, copier or
(sometimes a) printer.

Notan

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:22:56 -0400, "Tom Scales"
wrote:


Ken,

I'm a big Dell fan, but I do think that IBM laptops are superior. I have
the ultralight Thinkpad X40 and love it. Under 3 pounds. A multifunction
copier, etc. is fine.

Get an external USB2 drive and backup DAILY!

Tom

Good advice. Once you get your laptop setup the way you like it, use
Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/) to
make an image of your laptop's drive on the external USB drive. If a
catastrophy occurs and you lose the laptop or it is damaged, you can
get a replacement and copy the image to it. Most people only take this
advice after they've gone through the pain of losing a machine and
data, be smart and backup, Ghost is very easy to use.