Help me find the best laptop for Network Engineers

[jweinster]

As a network engineer for a global corporation, there are things I and my team look for in a laptop that are not that common any more:

1) built-in 9pin serial connector (for roll-over console cables)
2) Dual PCMCIA slots (one above the other) for specialize dual-height cards
3) 2x RJ-45 Network adapters
4) 1x RJ11 Modem
5) Wireless/Bluetooth a/b/g/n adapter

Does anyone know of a laptop make and model hat supports most, if not all, of these features?

I know that most of these features can be accomplished with USB adapters, but the thought of numerous dongles and adapters dangling off of my laptop, banging around in my laptop bag, added hassle, etc. is something we would prefer to avoid.

Please help.

Thank you,

JW

 

[pukemon]

Most IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T-series and Dell Latitude D-series made in the last year will have the option for all of the above, minus the dual Cardbus slots. It's just that Type-III adapters were/are fairly rare, and were mainly used for hard drives. I've gotten by fine with the single Type II slot. Newer machines will have an ExpressCard slot, the Latitude D830 has both a Type II and and Expresscard slot. As for dual NICs, you may have to use a Cardbus Ethernet adapter for the second NIC - that's what I do...

On the other hand... I've used an 11 year old notebook with Windows 98, Hyperterminal, and a null-modem cable to configure the network controllers on two of my storage arrays as well as two KVM over IP switches. Ugly, but hey it works.

 

[stlcardinals]

I wouldn't worry about the serial ports for the console cables.

You can pick up serial to usb convertor cables for around $5 that work fine.