I am out of this thread. You are impossible. When e say it is dual band it is. If you can't believe why don't you ask HP? So much hassle buying a laptop.
I am out of this thread. You are impossible. When e say it is dual band it is. If you can't believe why don't you ask HP? So much hassle buying a laptop.
I apologize and agree. I had posted a screen shot of all the information that HP provides: But that's all I have.
The problem is, if I look at a DELL or Toshiba or Lenovo laptop, I'll still have the SAME PROBLEM of figuring out whether it has 5GHz or 2.4GHz or both, from the specs.
So, it behooves us to be able to read the specs.
From what Jeff said, all I can tell is (is this correct?):
802.11 a ==> 5GHz only 802.11 b ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 g ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 n ==> 2.4GHz only? 802.11 ac ==> 5GHz onlyBasically, if it has an "a" in the description, then it's 5GHz. Otherwise, it's 2.4GHz.
Since this thread is really about INTERPRETING specs, is this interpretation correct?
So, if 'n' can run on either, when a spec only says 'b/g/n', how do you know whether the 'n' is 2.4GHz or 5GHz?
If you don't believe the numbers, then what do you believe?
Nope. Office 2007 will run on Win 10: Grab Belarc Advisor, run it on the XP machine, and PRINT the results. Somewhere in there, it will have the various serial numbers needed for the installation. If the ancient XP machine crashes without a backup or a list of serial numbers, she will not be able to reinstall Office
2007 on a new machine:Right. With only one machine, Office 365 doesn't make economic sense. I was thinking of a skool, not an individual user. I still think the various alternatives (Google Office, LibreOffice, etc) are worth investigating.
Good luck.
It tells me that HP marketing is clueless. The assumption is that anything that does "ac" will also do the lesser protocol of "a". Since "ac" only works on 5GHz, and nobody today makes a 5GHz only radio, it's a fair assumption that anything with "ac" will be dual band. However, that's an assumption. I tried to find the Intel card used in the 15z and failed. You'll probably have to ask HP pre-sales, this I predict will be clueless. You might try the HP support forums.
Nope. It should be: 802.11 a ==> 5GHz only 802.11 b ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 g ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 n ==> 2.4GHz or 5GHz 5GHz only
Yes, but the "a" and "ac" are a concidence. The IEEE 802.11 committee(s) ran out of letters when they hit "z", so the started using two letter suffixes as in "as", "ab", "ac", etc. There fact that "a" and "ac" are both "5GHz only" is purely coincidental and should not be relied upon to determine if something operates on 5GHz.
As I mentioned before, if it does "ac", it should be able to do "a". Nobody makes a 5GHz only radio these days, so if it does 5GHz in any form, it should also be able to do 2.4GHz. However, these are logical deduction and assumptions which should not be relied upon. To be sure, you need to pry the Intel product number out of HP and lookup the specs on the Intel web site, which should have a better description of the products capabilities.
You have absolutely no idea what you're suggesting.
Here is the transcript!
Read it and then suggest I contact HP.
This is an automated email sent from the HP Home & Home Office Store Server. The following information is a log of your session. Please save the log for your records. Your session ID for this incident is 1938843. Time Details
09/06/2015 08:15:30PM System: "Welcome to hp.com sales serving the United States. Your chat transcript will be emailed to the email address that you input when registered shortly after the chat is completed." 09/06/2015 08:15:32PM System: "If you are looking for HP product support, service, parts or non-US help, please visit:802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1] Included in price
802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] +$10.00 Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] +$30.00" 09/06/2015 08:21:45PM Agent (Paige M): "Thank you for your patience." 09/06/2015 08:23:06PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, Also, is there tax and shipping to NJ?" 09/06/2015 08:23:59PM Agent (Paige M): "The 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] is 5GHz. The Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] is at 433 Mbps stream at 3GHz." 09/06/2015 08:24:38PM Agent (Paige M): "I beleive there is tax in the unit but not in the shipping." 09/06/2015 08:25:37PM Agent (Paige M): "I am not entirely sure though, it is best to contact our Product Expert to have more details about your concern." 09/06/2015 08:25:49PM Agent (Paige M): "I?ve checked all of my resources and I'm still unable to validate this." 09/06/2015 08:25:54PM Agent (Paige M): "Please call 866.221.4553? An HP expert will be able to assist you and answer any remaining questions that you have. Their hours of operation are: 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM Mountain, Monday-Friday and Saturday & Sunday from 8AM ? 10PM MT." 09/06/2015 08:26:21PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, I have never seen in my life a WiFi card that was 5GHz and not ALSO 2.4 GHz; but I have seen many 2.4GHz WiFi cards that were not 5GHz. I have NEVER seen in my life (I don't believe it exists) a 3GHz WiFi card. Are you sure about those specs? Th"   ey make no sense, to me, and I know this stuff pretty well. 09/06/2015 08:27:27PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, Are the HP telephone support folks open tomorrow? (Labor Day)" 09/06/2015 08:28:40PM Agent (Paige M): "I beleive they are open but you can try calling." 09/06/2015 08:29:16PM Agent (Paige M): "We did not get any instructions if they are closed or not. But it is better to try to call still." 09/06/2015 08:29:31PM Agent (Paige M): "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?" 09/06/2015 08:30:29PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige This was not satisfactory. May I talk to a supervisor? The question is SIMPLE. It's actually EXTREMELY SIMPLE. It's not a difficult question. The answer you gave makes absolutely no sense. Is there someone else I can speak with? This is not a dif"   ficult question. 09/06/2015 08:32:30PM Ewald Bohm: "Are you there?" 09/06/2015 08:33:15PM Ewald Bohm: "?" 09/06/2015 08:33:31PM Agent (Vann): "Hi!" 09/06/2015 08:35:14PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann Thank you for trying to help me. I am asking a simple question. Do you need me to repeat the question?" 09/06/2015 08:36:41PM Ewald Bohm: "Is anyone there?" 09/06/2015 08:36:47PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I am here." 09/06/2015 08:36:53PM Agent (Vann): "Sorry for the long wait." 09/06/2015 08:37:02PM Agent (Vann): "I was reading your chat session with Paige." 09/06/2015 08:40:18PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann, OK. I'll wait while you review the session so that I won't need to repeat anything. Basically, I can't believe it's this difficult to just ascertain whether the laptop has a WiFi card that handles both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands. Also, since"   that simple question wasn't answered, it's hard to know if the answer I got regarding the shipping being free but that there was tax, is correct, or not. Neither of these questions is difficult for someone who handles basic (and these are EXTREMELY BASIC   questions) computer questions. 09/06/2015 08:41:03PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I see that you have questions, Ewald." 09/06/2015 08:41:05PM Ewald Bohm: "If the spec sheet simply gave the information that it should give, I wouldn't even NEED to ask these questions." 09/06/2015 08:41:47PM Ewald Bohm: "I know the broken record; and I know that you're taught to "reflect" the customer's question - but let's just get the answer please (I was a customer support manager for two decades)." 09/06/2015 08:41:54PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I understand that our website product information is very limited." 09/06/2015 08:43:31PM Agent (Vann): "The shipping charge is zero and that is for free." 09/06/2015 08:44:03PM Agent (Vann): "Sales tax will apply to the product price itself and its computation is based on the shipping zip code and state." 09/06/2015 08:45:12PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann, Thank you for confirming that the sales tax is based on where the item will be shipped and that the shipping is free. Now all we need to know is whether the three WiFi card options available for this laptop are 2.4GHz or 5GHz or both." 09/06/2015 08:45:30PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I am actually checking on that." 09/06/2015 08:46:04PM Agent (Vann): "Honestly, our tools and resources are very limited to answer your question." 09/06/2015 08:46:16PM Agent (Vann): "I totally understand why the agent referred you to our product expert." 09/06/2015 08:46:25PM Agent (Vann): "However, let own this question and I will this to you." 09/06/2015 08:46:28PM Agent (Vann): "*answer." 09/06/2015 08:46:35PM Agent (Vann): "Now, can you give me 1-2 minutes of your time." 09/06/2015 08:46:41PM Agent (Vann): "I am checking on something here." 09/06/2015 08:47:43PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald," 09/06/2015 08:47:46PM Agent (Vann): "I am sorry for that." 09/06/2015 08:48:10PM Ewald Bohm: "I am here - and will wait." 09/06/2015 08:49:00PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald, I can tell this by the decription of the WLAN card. Everytime you see a wlan card listed as b/g/ n, it is a single band (2.4 GHz) card." 09/06/2015 08:49:58PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann" 09/06/2015 08:50:03PM Agent (Vann): "I found more information here." 09/06/2015 08:52:01PM Ewald Bohm: "oooPS. Hi VAnn, I believe you can have 5GHz on "n"but not on "g" but I can check that out. Certainly "ac" would benefit from 5GHz, but are you saying that only the "ac" card is 5GHz?" 09/06/2015 08:52:54PM Agent (Vann): "I am verifying that." 09/06/2015 08:53:17PM Agent (Vann): "I cannot confirm it yet and this is based on something that I am not sure of." 09/06/2015 08:54:33PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann Look at this web site- dards, the number of send and receive antennas and stream configurations are noted as 1x1 (o"   ne antenna supporting one data stream), 2x2 (two antennas sup
- porting two data streams), and 3x3. Table 2-2 compares the performance of antenna and stream configurations in the 802.11n and 802.11ac standards"
09/06/2015 09:25:31PM Ewald Bohm: "So, the 2x2 just means the number of antennas. It tells us NOTHING about the frequency." 09/06/2015 09:26:15PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald, I will have to refer this to our product expert and I shall email you the answer." 09/06/2015 09:26:38PM Agent (Vann): "This would consume so much of our time and this is something that I cannot confirm." 09/06/2015 09:26:44PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi VAnn, An "n" card can be dual band - but an "n" card can also be single band. That is why the SPECIFICATION is so important. We'd never have to ASK the question if the spec simply said what it should say!" 09/06/2015 09:26:48PM Agent (Vann): "I admired how you are really want to get the answer of this." 09/06/2015 09:28:23PM Agent (Vann): "I will email the product expert with your questions." 09/06/2015 09:28:24PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann, If the specifications were written correctly, we'd never have to ask. In the book you kindly referenced, you'll see this exact quote on the first line of page 11: "Wi-Fi works over two spectrum bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Older 802.11bgn uses the"   2.4 GHz frequency" 09/06/2015 09:28:35PM Agent (Vann): "Can you summarize your questions now so I can forward this now." 09/06/2015 09:28:54PM Agent (Vann): "I will be able to email you within 24-248hrs once I get a reply from the product expert." 09/06/2015 09:29:09PM Ewald Bohm: "Later, in that same page, it says what I'm trying to tell you, which is that "n" can be either 5GHz or 2.4GHz or both." 09/06/2015 09:29:14PM Agent (Vann): "This is already beyond on my basic technical knowledge, Ewald." 09/06/2015 09:29:23PM Ewald Bohm: "OK ... gimme a sec... to simplify..." 09/06/2015 09:30:12PM Agent (Vann): "Sure." 09/06/2015 09:32:36PM Agent (Vann): "Please do as this already rambling in my head." 09/06/2015 09:33:10PM Ewald Bohm: "I would like to know if the three available WiFi cards for the HP 15z laptop802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1] Included in price
802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] +$10.00 Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] +$30.00" 09/06/2015 08:21:45PM Agent (Paige M): "Thank you for your patience." 09/06/2015 08:23:06PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, Also, is there tax and shipping to NJ?" 09/06/2015 08:23:59PM Agent (Paige M): "The 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] is 5GHz. The Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1] is at 433 Mbps stream at 3GHz." 09/06/2015 08:24:38PM Agent (Paige M): "I beleive there is tax in the unit but not in the shipping." 09/06/2015 08:25:37PM Agent (Paige M): "I am not entirely sure though, it is best to contact our Product Expert to have more details about your concern." 09/06/2015 08:25:49PM Agent (Paige M): "I?ve checked all of my resources and I'm still unable to validate this." 09/06/2015 08:25:54PM Agent (Paige M): "Please call 866.221.4553? An HP expert will be able to assist you and answer any remaining questions that you have. Their hours of operation are: 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM Mountain, Monday-Friday and Saturday & Sunday from 8AM ? 10PM MT." 09/06/2015 08:26:21PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, I have never seen in my life a WiFi card that was 5GHz and not ALSO 2.4 GHz; but I have seen many 2.4GHz WiFi cards that were not 5GHz. I have NEVER seen in my life (I don't believe it exists) a 3GHz WiFi card. Are you sure about those specs? Th"   ey make no sense, to me, and I know this stuff pretty well. 09/06/2015 08:27:27PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige, Are the HP telephone support folks open tomorrow? (Labor Day)" 09/06/2015 08:28:40PM Agent (Paige M): "I beleive they are open but you can try calling." 09/06/2015 08:29:16PM Agent (Paige M): "We did not get any instructions if they are closed or not. But it is better to try to call still." 09/06/2015 08:29:31PM Agent (Paige M): "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?" 09/06/2015 08:30:29PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Paige This was not satisfactory. May I talk to a supervisor? The question is SIMPLE. It's actually EXTREMELY SIMPLE. It's not a difficult question. The answer you gave makes absolutely no sense. Is there someone else I can speak with? This is not a dif"   ficult question. 09/06/2015 08:32:30PM Ewald Bohm: "Are you there?" 09/06/2015 08:33:15PM Ewald Bohm: "?" 09/06/2015 08:33:31PM Agent (Vann): "Hi!" 09/06/2015 08:35:14PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann Thank you for trying to help me. I am asking a simple question. Do you need me to repeat the question?" 09/06/2015 08:36:41PM Ewald Bohm: "Is anyone there?" 09/06/2015 08:36:47PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I am here." 09/06/2015 08:36:53PM Agent (Vann): "Sorry for the long wait." 09/06/2015 08:37:02PM Agent (Vann): "I was reading your chat session with Paige." 09/06/2015 08:40:18PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann, OK. I'll wait while you review the session so that I won't need to repeat anything. Basically, I can't believe it's this difficult to just ascertain whether the laptop has a WiFi card that handles both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands. Also, since"   that simple question wasn't answered, it's hard to know if the answer I got regarding the shipping being free but that there was tax, is correct, or not. Neither of these questions is difficult for someone who handles basic (and these are EXTREMELY BASIC   questions) computer questions. 09/06/2015 08:41:03PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I see that you have questions, Ewald." 09/06/2015 08:41:05PM Ewald Bohm: "If the spec sheet simply gave the information that it should give, I wouldn't even NEED to ask these questions." 09/06/2015 08:41:47PM Ewald Bohm: "I know the broken record; and I know that you're taught to "reflect" the customer's question - but let's just get the answer please (I was a customer support manager for two decades)." 09/06/2015 08:41:54PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I understand that our website product information is very limited." 09/06/2015 08:43:31PM Agent (Vann): "The shipping charge is zero and that is for free." 09/06/2015 08:44:03PM Agent (Vann): "Sales tax will apply to the product price itself and its computation is based on the shipping zip code and state." 09/06/2015 08:45:12PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann, Thank you for confirming that the sales tax is based on where the item will be shipped and that the shipping is free. Now all we need to know is whether the three WiFi card options available for this laptop are 2.4GHz or 5GHz or both." 09/06/2015 08:45:30PM Agent (Vann): "Yes, I am actually checking on that." 09/06/2015 08:46:04PM Agent (Vann): "Honestly, our tools and resources are very limited to answer your question." 09/06/2015 08:46:16PM Agent (Vann): "I totally understand why the agent referred you to our product expert." 09/06/2015 08:46:25PM Agent (Vann): "However, let own this question and I will this to you." 09/06/2015 08:46:28PM Agent (Vann): "*answer." 09/06/2015 08:46:35PM Agent (Vann): "Now, can you give me 1-2 minutes of your time." 09/06/2015 08:46:41PM Agent (Vann): "I am checking on something here." 09/06/2015 08:47:43PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald," 09/06/2015 08:47:46PM Agent (Vann): "I am sorry for that." 09/06/2015 08:48:10PM Ewald Bohm: "I am here - and will wait." 09/06/2015 08:49:00PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald, I can tell this by the decription of the WLAN card. Everytime you see a wlan card listed as b/g/ n, it is a single band (2.4 GHz) card." 09/06/2015 08:49:58PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann" 09/06/2015 08:50:03PM Agent (Vann): "I found more information here." 09/06/2015 08:52:01PM Ewald Bohm: "oooPS. Hi VAnn, I believe you can have 5GHz on "n"but not on "g" but I can check that out. Certainly "ac" would benefit from 5GHz, but are you saying that only the "ac" card is 5GHz?" 09/06/2015 08:52:54PM Agent (Vann): "I am verifying that." 09/06/2015 08:53:17PM Agent (Vann): "I cannot confirm it yet and this is based on something that I am not sure of." 09/06/2015 08:54:33PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi Vann Look at this web site- dards, the number of send and receive antennas and stream configurations are noted as 1x1 (o"   ne antenna supporting one data stream), 2x2 (two antennas sup
- porting two data streams), and 3x3. Table 2-2 compares the performance of antenna and stream configurations in the 802.11n and 802.11ac standards"
09/06/2015 09:25:31PM Ewald Bohm: "So, the 2x2 just means the number of antennas. It tells us NOTHING about the frequency." 09/06/2015 09:26:15PM Agent (Vann): "Ewald, I will have to refer this to our product expert and I shall email you the answer." 09/06/2015 09:26:38PM Agent (Vann): "This would consume so much of our time and this is something that I cannot confirm." 09/06/2015 09:26:44PM Ewald Bohm: "Hi VAnn, An "n" card can be dual band - but an "n" card can also be single band. That is why the SPECIFICATION is so important. We'd never have to ASK the question if the spec simply said what it should say!" 09/06/2015 09:26:48PM Agent (Vann): "I admired how you are really want to get the answer of this." 09/06/2015 09:28:23PM Agent (Vann): "I will email the product expert with your questions." 09/06/2015 09:28:24PM Ewald Bohm: "HI Vann, If the specifications were written correctly, we'd never have to ask. In the book you kindly referenced, you'll see this exact quote on the first line of page 11: "Wi-Fi works over two spectrum bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Older 802.11bgn uses the"   2.4 GHz frequency" 09/06/2015 09:28:35PM Agent (Vann): "Can you summarize your questions now so I can forward this now." 09/06/2015 09:28:54PM Agent (Vann): "I will be able to email you within 24-248hrs once I get a reply from the product expert." 09/06/2015 09:29:09PM Ewald Bohm: "Later, in that same page, it says what I'm trying to tell you, which is that "n" can be either 5GHz or 2.4GHz or both." 09/06/2015 09:29:14PM Agent (Vann): "This is already beyond on my basic technical knowledge, Ewald." 09/06/2015 09:29:23PM Ewald Bohm: "OK ... gimme a sec... to simplify..." 09/06/2015 09:30:12PM Agent (Vann): "Sure." 09/06/2015 09:32:36PM Agent (Vann): "Please do as this already rambling in my head." 09/06/2015 09:33:10PM Ewald Bohm: "I would like to know if the three available WiFi cards for the HP 15z laptop
You have to realize what you're saying, & that your suggestion can't work.
If you were suggesting to "me" to use openoffice or staroffice or libreoffice or framemaker or numbers-pages-keynote or polaris office or kingston office or wps office or any number of freeware office look-alike apps, then your suggestion might actually make a lot of sense.
But, you can't take the average extremely non-technical grade-school teacher, and seriously suggest they use a free office-like equivalent, when they have enough trouble just getting used to the ribbon changing from one Microsoft office version to another.
They complain when they have to open an office 2013 doc in office 2007, and they fail at that, half the time, without help.
They can't even print something as simples as a protected PDF without my help.
So, if you're suggesting that free office-look-alikes are "equivalent" to office for such a person, then you fundamentally don't understand people.
It's just not gonna happen.
You missed the point.
I'm trying to *recommend* a laptop for a teacher who is not technical. I started at Costco, but the Costco laptop wasn't dual band. I went to the HP site and can't figure out if it's dual band.
If it's dual band, I'll recommend the teacher buys it. If not, I will choose another laptop.
I don't actually care what laptop she gets. I'm just trying to help her.
The laptop has to be about the right size & shape. It has to be within her price range (around $500 out the door). It has to have MS Office on it. It has to be Windows.
Everything else, she's leaving up to me. One thing I'm requiring is dual band 2.4GHz & 5GHz simultaneously (with backward compatibility).
All I'm trying to find out is if this HP 15z laptop is dual band. It's amazingly difficult to find this out.
I'm online right now with a supposedly-special HP customer support sales hotline (888-999-4747), and they STILL don't know the answer.
Thank you Jeff for clarifying this spec:
After a half hour on three separate HP calls, I learned something (I think) that nobody told me yet...
HP: They first told me the ac card was just ac. ME: I told them that this was unlikely, so I asked them to doublecheck.
HP: After a long wait, they told me the "ac" card was backwards compatible, but it was only 5GHz. ME: I told them that was impossible.
HP: Then, after another long wait, they told me it was NOT dual band, but that it had both bands. ME: I told them that this confused me, and I asked them to clarify.
HP: Finally, they came back and said that the "ac" card was backwards compatible, so that it had two frequencies, but they don't operate at the same time, so it's not dual band. ME: I said thank you but I would like to ask you, Jeff, to clarify.
Does that HP answer make sense? The "ac" card is backwards compatible, so, it has both frequencies, but it doesn't do both frequencies at the same time?
What does that really mean?
This should be correct, by now, where I appreciate Jeff's patience:
802.11 a ==> 5GHz only 802.11 b ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 g ==> 2.4GHz only 802.11 n ==> 2.4GHz or 5GHz (or both?) 802.11 ac ==> 5GHz onlyJeff: Notice the question mark in the "n" spec. Is "n" always just *either* frequency (i.e., one or the other). Or can "n" be either one or the other or *both* frequencies?
Jeff. You are correct. But you were thinking differently than I was.
You were thinking of bringing the (winxp desktop) 2007 license upward to the new (win10 laptop), and I discounted that out of hand.
This is a hand-me-down desktop that someone else didn't want, so they gave it to this teacher, many years ago. It came with zero discs!
But that wouldn't stop you or me.
If it were you or me, we'd use Belarc to find the original office product key (or serial number, I forget which) and we'd then find the Office 2007 download ISO hidden deeply on the Microsoft web site - and we'd download that Microsoft-provided ISO, perhaps burn it to optical disc for re-use, and we'd simply install Office 2007 on the new laptop from that ISO, and we'd bring over the old key that we unearthed using Belarc Advisor.
In the end, you or I would have Office 2007 running on their one (winXP) desktop and their one new (win10) laptop, which is within the license constraints (I believe).
But that ain't gonna happen with these people. They are not technical. They can't handle the complexity.
Plus, it's time they moved into the new century, so, if they stick with Office 2007 (which they continue to call "Word 2007", not realizing there are multiple office apps), they will eventually have problems reading Office 2013 documents.
So, it's time they got a new Microsoft Office suite.
Since they will *keep* the WinXP desktop with Office 2007 on it, all we're looking at is a *single* license of Office 2013 (which they continue to call "Word 2013", which means they're not using Outlook).
So, the price comparison is the following:
To me, unless I missed a step, it's a no brainer.
See my post of a few seconds ago where I reported the results of three sets of phone calls to HP today.
I have asked Jeff to clarify what they told me, but here's the scoop.
In the end, they said, that the "ac" card was backwards compatible, so, that meant that the ac card contained *both* frequencies, but the caveat was that the "ac" card was *not* dual band.
When I asked them to clarify, they said it doesn't work on both frequencies at the same time.
What does that really mean? Is having two bands dual band, or not?
After my conversation with HP today, I found out that their "ac" card has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz because it is backward compatible, but they said that backwards-compatible-ac-card is *not* a "dual band" card.
Apparently they defined "dual band" in a specific way, that excludes the fact that it has "two" bands.
Finding Office 2007 replacement CD's is trivial. Hint: BitTorrent.
If it were purchased online from the Microsoft site, and you have the magic serial number, you can download a replacement ISO image.
Yep. I vaguely recall that Office 2007 works on 2 machines. Not sure.
I'm technical and I hate complexity. Teachers have students, which just love to help with such things. Some of the teenage hackers are quite knowledgeable and have impressive experience in the dark arts of computing. Ask the students for help.
Maybe, but that hasn't been my experience. I can read most anything produced by Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 with Office 2003 and the MS Compatibility Pack: However, if there's a problem, I just ask the author to Save As: Word
97 format.
The way you can tell when it's time to upgrade is when you can't get the work done or that it's painful to use. I have no problems reading or writing with Office 2003 and various file format converters. I find Office 2007/2010 to be tedious, awkward, clumsy, and not much of an improvement over Office 2003. In other words, a step backwards. If your really think it's time for a change, I suggest they step into the (disk) space age, and take the great leap forward to Cloud Computing with a Chromebook and Google Office.
Outlooks is dead anyway because Windoze 10 includes mail and calendar apps.
Well, you're right about not using your brain. What I find odd is that your primary reason to spend the money is the inability or unwillingness of a teacher to learn something new. I've seen this phenomenon with teachers in the past, where the monotonous repetition of cramming facts into students heads eventually leads to intellectual ossification. Even in computing, I guess perpetual reptition of the same mistakes is considered a good reason not to change one's habits. Personally, I find the logic disgusting, but I promised to improve my diplomacy and won't push the point any further.
Here's what I suggest:
Please note that I did not suggest that you call support. I suggested you call pre-sales support (shopping team or something similar) and ask what model Intel wireless card is the "ac" device.
Sorta, if I read between the lines.
"ac" is always backwards compatible to "a". It has to be. Short lecture follows:
If you force the wireless router (not the client radio in the laptop) to do only "ac", then the maximum from router to laptop will be rather short. Basically, at a fixed power level, you trade range for speed. "ac" is all about speed, so the range decreases when it's used. If the BER (bit error rate) increases above some pre-programmed level, the router in "ac" mode will slow down, eventually going to the slowest "ac" mode speed. To go slower than that, it would need to revert to some "n" mode. Once the router slows down to the slowest "n" mode, it will need to go to ordinary "a" mode. If it didn't go: ac -> n -> a the wireless connection would not work more than a few feet in "ac" mode. Therefore, to obtain tolerable performance at reasonable ranges, the wireless devices need to support all the modes down to "a".
There is one exception. 802.11b is so disgustingly slow that the
802.11n spec (and others) demand that 802.11b be disabled if 802.11n is active.End of lecture section (for now). Quiz to follow.
Now, on to the "dual band" problem. The issue of "simultaneous dual band" is more of a router problem than a client radio problem. The usual idea is that you can have different devices use different bands as required. To do this requires simultaneous dual band in the router, but not in the laptop client radio. For example, I've setup Roku wireless media player boxes to use 5GHz, while the laptops and tablets are all on 2.4 Ghz. I've also done the reverse, when there's so much screaming media traffic on 2.4Ghz that the only band that's usable is 5GHz. Simultaneous dual band is (in my opinion) a requirement for wireless routers and access points. However, for laptops, tablets, and wireless client radios, it's only useful for marketing types that want to advertise higher speeds. There are protocols for bonding both the
2.4 and 5GHz channels between a laptop and a router in order to get higher download speeds. You're not going to see that on a $350 laptop and don't need it anyway. Therefore, the HP phone person was right that it's one band at a time, not both simultaneously.Incidentally, the Bluetooth device shares the same radio as the 2.4GHz wi-fi section and are setup to alternate their operation so as to not mutually interfere with each other.
It means you've educated the HP phone support person. Somehow, I don't think that was your intent.
I just hate it when you ask consistently good questions. I feel obligated to answer when I would rather roll over and die from spending most of the Labor Day holiday running wires under a house. I'm getting too old for this kind of work.
Operating on both frequencies at the same time is called "simultaneous dual band". This is commonly found in wireless routers and wireless access points, but not in wireless client radios, like the one in your prospective HP laptop. The wireless router needs simultaneous dual band because it might have two different users, connected at the same time, each on a different band. Were the radio NOT simultaneous dual band, the traffic bandwidth would be roughly cut in half because the wireless router radio would need to switch back and forth between the two users. However, with simultaneous dual band, it could service both users at the same time without any loss of bandwidth.
For completeness, there is the original 802.11 (with no suffix) that is also on 2.4GHz. IIRC, maximum speed for that is 2Mbps.
[snip]
Yep, however those were incorporated into the 802.11b specification. The two slowest speeds of 1 and 2 Mbit/sec became part of 802.11b when
5.5 and 11 Mbits/sec were added. Besides DSSS (direct sequence spread spectrum) there were also a few FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) promoted by Raytheon, Breezecom (Alviron), and TI. However, you won't see these in modern equipment, unless you include BlueGoof, which is FHSS.Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.