[ale] laptop advice needed

[William Fragakis]

what is the current laptop? (PPC/Intel)

We experienced something similar on an old iBook ppc running 10.3.9 that
somehow corrected itself after an update a few months back.

wf

On Thu, 2009-05-21 at 15:10 -0400, Sean wrote:
> Problem:
> Wife's Mac laptop at random times decides it will not connect to
> the wireless LAN, which uses WEP and further restricts connections
> to the approved list of MAC addresses.
> It is as if the damn thing can (without warning) no longer locate/read a 
> key configuration file.  Not only does it not properly authenticate, after
> several tries it no longer even admits the existence of the wireless LAN.
> Its driving her nuts.  And me too, because the usual drill is for me to 
> spend an hour or more pounding on the damn thing using the GUI to get it
> to rewrite the .conf file.  Because she works at Emory the IT folks there
> know the root password and won't release it, so I am extremely limited in 
> what I can do.
> 
> Anyway, I am just about totally fed up with the entire scene. And so is 
> she.
> 
> So, she needs a replacement laptop that, while running Linux, has working
> wireless, and (if at all possible) a working camera so we can Skype with 
> our grandkid in Denver.
> 
> I have on hand live CDs for FC 10 and kubuntu 8.10, so I can go "play" with
> laptops at Fry's/Microcenter/wherever.  But I would like some advice on
> what to stay away from and/or look for.
> 
> Sean
> 
> 
> 
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