IBM Docking Station

Hi Guys...

I just bought an IBM T42p laptop computer. I`m not very computer savy, and I`d appreciate any advice you could give me on what further equipment I should consider buying to set up a docking station for it at my office.

I won`t be moving it around all that much, and I want a setup that will allow me to easily use a regular keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give to me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Hmm.. not familiar with the T42, but I've used docks before and they are cool.

A dock will generally have all the essentials, such as external keyboard connectors, external monitor, and such. Plug all your peripherals into the dock, drop the laptop in and go. It's quite simple, really. I'm doing up a laptop for someone right now that involves a docking station. All you need is just the dock. It will make things a lot more convenient if you get a separate AC adapter for the dock unless you don't take the laptop out often enough that it's a hassle. You generally want to connect as few things as possible, the dock makes it possible to drop-in-and-go with no additional connections. All you need is the docking station and its AC adapter.

I think a lot of docks come with an additional AC adaptor, but I guess YMMV

Yeah, they should... forgot to mention I'm buying my Dell docks cheap off eBay and some didn't /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif but I was aware of it in advance, so that's ok. Think I picked up an L400 dock once for $20. The D-series docks for my current laptop are ~$80 but come with integrated power, all you need to supply is a plain computer power cord.

Docking stations are not completely necessary, you have the connections on your laptop, they are handy if you move around with it as when you come home, you don't have to hook up a bunch of cables everytime, you merly plug you laptop into the dock.

I have one for my toshiba. It gives me extra jacks I do not have on the system and dual pcmcia slots. I just have to add the spacer to the pc and remove the plug in the rear for it to work. Also allows use of dual monitors the laptop screen and the vga port.

My latest laptop does not have that option. I got one of those blue tooth keyboards and mouse.