I got this HP laptop:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218094855118

Apparently someone from Geek Squad "optimized" it before I bought it, which I think means they removed some of the free trial software.

So far all I've had time to do is turn it on and make recovery disks. Next I'll get the internet access working. I have Comcast (cable) internet, which comes with McAfee for security, so I'll install that right away.

I already have a Netgear router which I bought a few years ago but never used (couldn't get wireless to work with my desktop so I gave up trying). Hopefully I won't have trouble getting it to work with the new laptop.

I've been looking into external hard drives so I can buy one. They seem to have some problems when you look at the customer reviews. I've looked at reviews for specific drives on Amazon and cnet.com, and there seems to be a sizeable minority of customers whose drive fails within a short period of time. But all of the different brands I've looked at have these bad reviews, so I guess they're all pretty much the same when it comes to reliability. Someone at work recommended that I get a Seagate FreeAgent. I've also heard good things about Clickfree, in terms of their automatic backup software.

Thanks for all your advice!!!