Question prior to purchase.....

[Silver]

Hi all. I'm a newbie to both this forum and Linux - so please go easy on me.

I'm considering buying a CnM minibook for my wife as a Christmas pressie, but have four must haves prior to spending on something - also considering the Acer netbook.

Have managed to sort three of the four 1) wi-fi, 2) web browsing and 3) e'mails but am having considerable difficulty with the fourth - attaching photos from an SD card into e-mails, and thought you guys (as users) maybe able to answer the question that Maplins couldn't. Will it do it?

The guy at Maplins tried every which way to show me that it could - but he couldn't. The e-mail application refused to respond to any clicking of the 'attach' button and for some reason he thought the op system needed upgrading - strange for a new machine.

So basically, my question is can you do it? or does the system/app need upgrading?

Thanks

Silver

[tonyk]

Hi Silver, personally I don't use the email program - I use web based Yahoo mail instead. I can do attachments ok from there, although I have to use Classic mail.

I hate to say this in a CnM/Onet forum but Maplin is selling the CnM for £139... for an extra £40 you can get the Acer Aspire One and web browsing will be a far better and more pleasing experience. The CnM/Onet however is very compact and lightweight and the battery does pretty well. I have no complaints with the screen or keyboard either.

[Silver]

Thanks for replying Tony.

I too use Yahoo for e-mails (think the guy in Maplins was trying with Hotmail and not the default e-mail prog) so this goes some way to answering my question re attachments - thanks.

However, just so that I'm absolutely convinced, I wonder if you could do me a favour please? If I send my e-mail address to you via a PM, could you send me an e-mail with a picture (anything will do) as an attachment.

I've e-mailed the CnM Tech guys posing the same question but, to date, they have not replied which doesn't bode well for any later tech support I may need.

Thanks for your help.

Silver.

[tonyk]

Of course, just send me a pm with your email address and I'll reply with an attachment

[tonyk]

By the way, I just put my Yahoo account details into the Mail application and successfully sent an attachment, so there doesn't seem to a be a problem as far as I can see. There are several system updates you can pull down once you've got these things connected up to the net - could it be one of these updates fixes this problem? - I don't know.

[Silver]

For anyone following this thread, I have received an e-mail attached photo from tonyk, so the answer to my original question is - yes it can be done.

The problem appears to stem from what e-mail prog you use and not with the CnM minibook itself.

I'm off to Maplins now to buy one.

Thanks to tonyk for his valuable assistance in helping me with this problem - nice to know there are people out there willing to take the time and make the effort to help others out, especially as the CnM Tech Dept guys couldn't be bothered to provide a response to my e-mail request for help.

Thanks again tonyk.

Silver

[SilverAnalyst]

Let us know how you get on with you new minibook.

[Silver]

Sure will... Picked one up Friday, still waiting to be unpacked.

Might be a little difficult during the next 4 weeks as I said in my first post it's an Xmas pressie for my wife and we don't open things until the day. However, if I get chance, I'll sneak in my 'Den' and try to set it all up for her so she's ready to go straight out of the box.

Silver

[Silver]

Update;...

New Sitecom WPA router installed, tried the minibook and it worked first time great. Seems to lose the signal quite easily but that's maybe because I'm up in the attic away from prying eyes, I'll wait till she goes out and then try again nearer the router signal.

Start downloading some goodies now.

Thanks for everyones help.

Silver

[tonyk]

Update;...

New Sitecom WPA router installed, tried the minibook and it worked first time great. Seems to lose the signal quite easily but that's maybe because I'm up in the attic away from prying eyes, I'll wait till she goes out and then try again nearer the router signal.

Start downloading some goodies now.

Thanks for everyones help.

Silver

Don't forget to check for updates.

[Silver]

Don't forget to check for updates.

Thanks for the reminder Tony. Without having a look, is there a way the CnM can do this automatically - checking what updates are required or, is this something that needs to be done manually?

Silver

ps.When booting up my CnM shows 'V66' at the top left of screen. Does this mean it has the latest upgrade already installed?

[tonyk]

The Software Update button downloads application updates and (as far as I know) only a manual process. You'll probably find there's quite a few updates - it ties up the computer so plug it into the mains and leave it updating for an hour.

[Silver]

Everything so far going according to plan but I do find it difficult to get a signal when I'm in the loft (the router is in the hallway downstairs). On the one chance I've had of testing downstairs when hooked up via an ethernet cable - spot on, via wi-fi in the lounge (where SWMBO will do most of her browsing) good reception and opens web pages with no problem at a reasonable speed - (that's reasonable as in reasonably slowly compared to my XP lappie, but quick enough for my wife who's not computer minded).

One thing that bothers me however is the CnM doesn't seem to want to automatically connect to the wi-fi. When I wish to connect to the 'net I first have to go through the procedure of manually hooking it up. I click the wi-fi icon, the system searches and finds my router, I have to click connect, enter the long WPA string and then wait whilst it verifies the IP address. Once this is done everything is okay but I can't help thinking this should be an automatic procedure when booting the machine and not something that needs to be done manually on each and every occasion I hook the CnM to the net. I'm trying to simplify everything as much as possible so my wife can just get on the net and surf/check her e-mails etc.
Is there something I have missed. I haven't yet updated any patches etc as I don't want to leave the machine upstairs in the loft running for hours on it's own - maybe do this after Christmas once she's got it running and had a play, so does one of these patches cure this problem?

By the way, my router is the only one listed in the preferred networks box in the wi-fi pop up box.

Silver

[tonyk]

I'd strongly advise downloading the updates - they fix several bugs and a couple of them address wifi

[Leven2e]

 Updating the software should not last more than 2-3 mnutes.Tony,if this is this is how much time your laptop took ,I think it has serious problems.