For many, setting up an operational home/office is a daunting task. Probably most of us have enjoyed the comfort in our working lives of having others do it for us. Why else do companies both big and small employ such large IT departments? Answer: because we all use computers yet most of us don’t know what makes them tick, let alone know what’s inside them!

In order to eliminate some of the mystery about computers, we shall try to clarify in layman’s terms (with apologies to those who already know about this) one main point that is the ‘memory’ of your computer.

Firstly, there is the size of the hard disk expressed in gigo-bytes (GB). This is the amount of memory that is available when you save files and programmes onto your hard disk. In other words, this is the amount of space in your computer’s filing cabinet.

Then we have the ‘memory’ that comes into play at the time when you are actually using your computer. This allows you to look at text (hardly any memory), look at pictures (a lot more memory) or edit pictures or videos (tons of memory).

So here is our ‘Rough Guide to Technology’ or what you might need to pass muster when stepping out on your own account.

• Computer
• Personal Printer
• Scanner
• Facsimile
• All in one (scanner/fax)
• Operating System and other software
• Internet & Broadband

Computer

There are two basic types of computer: Personal Computer (PC) and Apple Mac. PCs are the choice of the large majority of users because they are easy to use and benefit from a much more comprehensive collection of software than is available for Apple Macs. The latter are generally favoured by designers and engineers. Fierce competition has existed between these two systems but, since Microsoft bought shares in Apple, the two types have moved closer together and many features are available on both.

PCs come in two forms; desktop and notebook (laptop) and we shall look at them in the following groupings.

Prices are excluding VAT and are for guidance only. It is well worth shopping around as manufacturers endeavour to ‘buy’ there way into the market place with ever changing prices and extras. Having fixed your budget try to get as much crammed in for your money, particularly memory, as modern applications, especially graphics and photographs, demand a great deal of space.

When choosing a monitor, remember that the stated size, whether 17” or 19”, is measured diagonally across the screen and not from side to side. Finally, some manufacturers are dropping the ‘A’ drive (floppy disk) from their standard range and if this is important to you, make sure it is added.

Power PCs

In this price range you can expect to get a 2.8/3.0 GHz Pentium processor or an AMD Athlon XP processor and anything over a 2400+ would be good. You should be able to get at least 512MB of RAM and just check to make sure it’s DDR (double data rate). An 80GB hard drive is about the minimum specification at this level and 120GB is already available.

File back ups are carried out effortlessly with a 40-/32-/10-speed (read/write/rewrite) CD-RW drive, and most manufacturers will include a DVD player. DVD writers are becoming more widely available but will add considerably to the cost of your system.

Look for a 19” monitor at least with a resolution of 1,600x1,200 and a dot pitch of 0.25mm; you will probably be looking into it a lot so it pays to get the best that you can afford. Other hardware will include a 56K modem, graphics card and sound card, and all manufacturers in this price range will provide an acceptable standard for every-day general usage.

Budget PCs

When buying a budget PC it is important to have in mind what you will be using your computer for, so that you can concentrate on the elements which you need most and thereby make the most of your money. The standard memory is shifting away from 256MB DDR (double data rate) although that is more than enough for most users, and 512MB DDR is appearing more and more. As with Power PCs, an 80GB hard drive is about the minimum specification, and 120GB is sometimes on offer.

Look for a 19” monitor at least with a resolution of 1,600x1,200 and a dot pitch of 0.25mm and it pays to get the best that you can afford.. Only accept a 17” monitor if it comes with the highest specification. A DVD player is pretty much standard, so too is a 48-/48-/12-speed (read/write/rewrite) CD-RW drive.

Other hardware bundled with the machine will include a 56K modem, graphics card and sound card suitable for every-day general usage, assuming you are not playing the latest video games (this is an office computer!). Try to avoid on-board speaker systems; they are never really good. The reliable SoundBlaster 5.1 with its 5 speakers and subwoofer provides excellent surround sound audio.

Super budget PCs

As with Budget PCs, it is best to plan your requirements in advance so that you ensure you get the very best value for money. As a minimum, you should be looking at 256MB DDR of RAM and if you are lucky you might be able to get 512MB DDR. The Intel Pentium 4 2.41/2.53GHz and the AMD Athlon XP 2200+ are the principal processors and both offer excellent results. A 60GB hard drive should be the minimum and 80GB is becoming more common.

In this price range you will be mainly offered a 17” monitor but if you are offered 19” do check it out carefully; larger is not always better. Try to get a resolution of 1,600x1,200 and a dot pitch of 0.25mm although a resolution of 1,280x1,024 and a dot pitch of 0.25mm might be acceptable. You will most likely be offered a DVD player and CD-RW drive but with slower speeds of typically 48-/48-/16 (read/write/rewrite).

As with the budget PCs, the machine will come with a 56K modem, graphics card and sound card suitable for every-day general usage. Similarly, try to avoid on-board speaker systems; they are never really good. The reliable SoundBlaster 5.1 with its 5 speakers and subwoofer provides excellent surround sound audio.

Super budget PCs are generally last year’s specifications and they may well be slower and the technology may have moved on a bit. Remember though that last year they might have been the equivalent of today’s Power machines so do not dismiss them lightly. It could even be said that if you are uncertain as to the specification you need, go for a cheap model now and upgrade in a year or two.

Notebooks

Busy people on the move now have an excellent range of notebooks to help them in their work whether on a client’s premises, whilst travelling or for keeping in touch when abroad. Notebooks also have the advantage of taking much less space so if that is a problem for you, these might provide a solution. On the other hand, if space is not a consideration, you could connect your notebook to the office monitor and even the keyboard, getting the best of all worlds.

If you want a machine to take on your travels, a mobile processor is essential. They are specifically designed for this purpose and use less power when running off batteries so that the power lasts longer and the batteries need charging less often. At the top end of the range you should be looking at up to 2.8GHz mobile Pentium 4, whereas in the budget group your best deal would probably be a 2.4GHz mobile Pentium 4 or an Athlon XP mobile 2200+.

Processors on notebooks are smaller and slower than desk tops so it is important to get the highest RAM that you can afford to achieve a smooth performance. Power models should have at least 512MB and budget models around 256MB although 512MB on these machines begin to appear more frequently. Power notebooks should have a hard drive capacity of 60GB and budget notebooks about half that. Bearing in mind that notebook users generally do not have large applications loaded, then for most purposes 30GB is quite adequate.

Curiously, unlike desktops, screen sizes are measured across the display and if you want an ultra compact machine (both small and light), a 13” screen is quite usable especially if you use it in conjunction with an office monitor. A 15” screen will add size and weight to your machine but offers similar productivity to a 17” office equivalent so that may be tempting. If you can find a 1,600x1,200 resolution that will be good but down to 1,280x1,024 is quite acceptable.

56K modems are standard so that your internet connection is as near as the closest telephone point (or even nearer if you are using WAP) for instant connectivity anywhere in the world. You can expect 8x (read rate) DVD players and CD-RW up to 24-/8-/8 (read/write/rewrite) speed disks to be installed and, if you are lucky, you might even find external USBs on budget machines.

Personal Printer

If a computer is used as an extension to the human brain for downloading thoughts and ideas, then the printer has to be the most practical and graphical means of passing those thoughts and ideas to others. When looking to buy a printer, do not be guided by the manufacturer’s claim for either print speed or the number of pages per cartridge (and therefore the running costs). Where they derive their statistics from nobody knows, except them of course!

For example, a leading manufacturer recently quoted these speeds: colour 13.9ppm (pages per minute) and b&w 14ppm, whereas independent tests revealed actual times of colour 5ppm and b&w 7ppm. For help, search the computer magazines (e.g. PC Advisor who have teams of people testing all types of equipment, and producing their own data which can be reliably compared on a like-for-like basis).

There are three main types; colour inkjet, mono laser and colour laser.

Colour inkjet

Printer prices have plummeted in recent times and the inevitable has now happened and it can actually be cheaper to buy certain printers than to buy the replacement ink cartridges for them. That says less about the subsidies put on new machines by manufacturers than it does about the whopping profits made on ink cartridge sales.

However, for general business use the very cheap printers will not do, and for printing text documents at 600x600dpi (dots per inch) there is little point in spending more than £100. If you need photo quality you may have to spend £200 and you will need a minimum resolution of 1,200x1,200dpi. Do compare the cost of replacement cartridges; they can vary enormously. Always keep a spare set because they have a habit of running out without warning and invariably in the middle of a most important job.

Mono laser

For business use, mono lasers offer several advantages quite apart from the incredibly sharp images that they produce. They print at 2 to 3 times faster than inkjets (actual time!), they often have upgradeable memory for those larger jobs and, whilst the toner cost can be double that of the inkjet, the number of pages that each toner can do is as much as ten times more.

Prices for home/office use range from £150 to £400 but generally speaking, a really good one will be well under £300. If you have a huge amount of printing to do, larger models costing up to £800 can offer double sided printing to increase productivity.

Colour laser

Colour laser printers are somewhat a rarity in the small office largely because of their price. Prices can start from around £600 but you will probably have to dig a bit deeper to find one that produces consistent quality over the life of the machine which may cost as much as £1,500. Using cheap copy paper the colour laser will out-perform an inkjet, yet there is no comparison with the superb output of an inkjet printing on photo quality paper. Running costs are about 1.5p per page in mono and 6.5p per page in colour.

Scanner

Whilst a flatbed scanner might not be high on the list of requirements, at entry level they are amazingly inexpensive and can be such a useful tool. They are used to scan photographs which can be imported into your work, they are useful for archiving documents or, when used with the appropriate optical character recognition (OCR) software, can be used to scan documents which you can the edit. A scanner with a resolution of 600dpi is quite adequate for the home/office and can be purchased for around £60.

Facsimile

Fax machines have largely been replaced by fax software installed within many computers. However, many users like the flexibility of being able to use a fax machine for sending documents whilst using the computer to receive documents. All fax machines contain a scanner and reproduction has vastly improved in recent years. A little over £100 would buy a good machine with a separate handset and using plain paper. You will be able to set up your own details which will print out on the recipient’s paper and change those details whenever you wish.

All in one

Both scanners and fax machines share a common component so it seems logical to combine them into one unit. Taken a stage further as several manufacturers have done, the new all-in-one product provides presentation-quality ink jet printing in colour, faxing, scanning and copying for the home/office. The best ones are able to perform several tasks at one time. For instance, while printing, a user can scan, send a PC fax, send a paper fax or receive a fax to memory, queue up a copy job, or queue up more print jobs. These machines may be the perfect answer where space is at a premium, but do remember that technology is changing constantly and it is easier to upgrade component products singly when required. Prices range between £170 and £250.

Operating System and other software

In just a very short space of time, Windows XP has become the norm for computer manufacturers to install. In reality it does seem much more stable than earlier operating systems, and offers a real number of benefits to those who use computers rather than those who understand them. In other words it is ‘user friendly’. Given that Microsoft are planning to withdraw support for some of the earlier systems it is vital that you should have XP. If you can afford it, go for the Office edition, which we are advised is more robust, but if not opt for the Home edition.

Next you will need office applications and here you will find computers supplied with programmes such as Sun Star Office, Ability Office 2002 and LotusSmart Suite but don’t be fobbed off with these. Go for Microsoft Office which is the accepted standard and which will allow you to communicate directly and easily with others. Try to get an up-grade but if your manufacturer won’t supply it, tell them not to load their own programme (it will take up space and may cause conflicts) but bite the bullet and buy Microsoft Office.

Next you will need anti virus protection to stop mischief makers causing havoc with your files, or worse, your hard drive itself. Viruses don’t just come from the internet, but also from floppy discs and CDs so it is vital that you protect yourself and that you check for new viruses on a regular basis. Most operating systems will allow you to programme checking and up-dating automatically so that you do not have to worry about remembering to carry out these tasks. The two leading contenders in this field are McAffee and Norton (both incidentally owned now by the same company). If not already bundled with your computer, for around £40 including a year’s free updates, this really is a ‘must’ and will afford you considerable peace of mind.

Internet and Broadband

In a very short space of time the internet has become almost indispensable to business whether for sending e-mails, advertising your business or simply surfing through literally billions of pages for just about anything that you could possibly want to know.

You will need a modem, which should be supplied automatically with your computer, and 56K speed is the latest standard although faster ones are on the way. Try to get one that is upgradeable to the faster speeds when they come. Next you will need an internet browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer that will act as your ‘window on the world’. Finally, you will need an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which allows a connection to the internet but also, importantly, acts as kind of sorting office for your e-mail traffic. Connections are made via telephone lines and you will, of course, have to pay your usual telephone provider for these calls, normally at local call rate.

There are as you might imagine, many ISPs to choose from and you must search carefully for the best package for your needs. Some you have to pay for (usually about £10 per month) others are free and rely on advertising for their revenue. So you may ask, why would I want to pay for something that I can get free?

The old adage ‘you get nothing for nothing’ is partly true here. You only have to read in the press and the computer magazines about the poor service provided by the free companies and to understand that the sheer volume of users has put enormous pressure on the systems at certain times. In addition, the ‘paid for‘ ISPs invariably give you much larger space in which to store and retrieve your messages as well as the means to host your very own web-site.

Finally there is another consideration which, depending on your personal attitude, may or may not be important to you. How do you feel that others may perceive you and your work if your business e-mail is ‘johnsmithinterim-management@freeserve.co.uk’ rather than, say, ‘johnsmithinterim-management@aol.com’? You may think that the former is perfectly OK and you would rather not spend that £10 every month, especially if you have no plans for an extensive web site. That’s what makes it a very personal decision and either way can be exactly right for you!

In recent years, British Telecom in the UK has developed exciting new technology that they now market under the name of Broadband. Put simply, they have found a way of splitting the signals down a single cable so as to separate sound signals from internet signals. A Broadband service can be capable of transmitting data at up to 10 times the speed of a standard 56K modem. Equally importantly, it is always 'on' - you don't need to dial up every time you want to 'log on'.

If you use a standard modem you may find yourself waiting several minutes for emails with large file attachments, while web pages with lots of pictures, complex graphics or animations appear on your screen very slowly. You may also find it difficult to view video on the web, or listen to music or sound. Not so with Broadband which can be lightning fast depending on where you live. Not all of the country is covered yet but if sufficient demand is established within a particular telephone exchange area, BT are committed to provide a Broadband service.

BT has also offered this service through a wholesale arrangement to many other ISPs all of whom will be jostling for your business. So just keeping checking those advertised deals and remember, you are on line 24 hours, 7 days a week and you do not have to pay telephone charges to do this. This is all included in your chosen ISP’s monthly charge which currently is in the region of £24/27 per month. This is new technology and exciting for all those that know about it and can use it, so as more people sign up we can expect rates to drop especially in the face of considerable competition.