I know this has been discussed many times on this forum - but I'm looking to buy myself a good laptop, printer/scanner/fax combo and sign up for wireless service.

I searched and seems like you guys prefer EFAX as you fax provider but still would like you input on the laptop and printer before I sink my hard earned dollars into a setup. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

One thing I do not like about my laptop is the mouse pad. My hands always hit it when I type and it screws everything up. Stupid place for it if you ask me.

Printer/scanner: Small and cheap is good because it's going to break anyway.

I spent $135 CDN on the GPS version of Streets & Trips. I spent about 10 hours and entered scale houses, rest areas, low clearances, restricted routes and truck stops in the northeast. Also mapped out some common permitted routes for wide loads. Pretty handy for $135 IMO.

 

I bought a Durabook laptop and use Verizon air card,went thru a toshiba in about 6mos. due to wear and tear

 

Been running a Dell for 4 years, it's worked well. Didn't go with the cheapest printer/scanner I could find as the quality of scans varied quite a bit. My HP ran about $150 and had the best scan and print quality of the 10 or so I tested. Verizon on the wireless.

 

I use Efax. I didn't research it, know one told me about it. I just did a Google search on it and it was the first one I picked. It's worked for me without problems since last year and believe me, I use it almost every few days.

The printer/scanner I use is the cheapest HP they make from Walmart and works great. Your not printing or scanning pictures and the most I use it for is Greyscale and very low level resolution scanning of documents.

 

Thanks! I use Dell at home. Didn't know if it was worth the money to invest in one of the Toughie laptop models. Guess it depends on how much you will be dragging it in and out of the truck. I don't expect that to be often.

Does the vibration of the truck effect it?

How much does the monthly service cost with Verizon. I already have phone with them.

 

I've been using Dell for many many years and no problems at all. There web support for drivers and updates is the best. I've never had a laptop break and I replace them just because I want a new one. The vibration does not effect laptops at all, they are built with that in mind.

Unless you play games, buy the cheapest Dell laptop you can, you won't know the difference anyways.