Some questions about the Dell 9300 & genral notbook stuff.

[Sead0nkey]

Alright I just bought my first laptop the dell 9300: total came to 1400ish

M 740 Processor (1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp? Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife?
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800
40GB Hard Drive 5400
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8X Max DVD ROM Drive
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Alright now for some questions. Fairly soon I would like to reload windows xp PRO. I don't want all the other crap that will be preloaded so a fresh install works best. Will they have any hidden partitions, if so how do I remove them? I plan to load all new drivers, I'm guessing I can just download the latest one from the web burn them to cd and be fine. What will I need to get my wireless set uo going, just a wireless router? I already have cable Internet and a 5100 SB modem. I'm worried about all the security issues with wireless does anyone have some links to some good info on it/ or have any tips. I'm sure more questions will hit me soon, until then thanks.

 

[uOpt]

Wireless doesn't really require especial security software. The encryption or non-encryption is in the card, and on top of that it is a normal network interface. It is never secure against snooping, at least not when you do a lot of traffic over it.

 

[mdahc]

Dell always creates a utility partition (for hardware testing, etc.), but it's usually only a few MB. In terms of wireless security, it's a combination of the wireless router and the wireless adapter (mostly the router). The router should have the option to restrict access to your wireless network by allowing only certain clients' MAC addresses, so definitely enable that. You'll probably also want to disable the "Broadcast SSID" option as well so no one else can detect your network. Also, when shopping, make sure you get a router that supports WPA (the Intel 2200 already does) so that you can take advantage of the latest consumer-level encryption. Lastly, any decent wireless router should have a built-in SPI and/or NAT firewall, which really should be more than adequate for keeping out most intruders.