I have used Dell, HP and Compaq laptop computers. Compaq is awful (the screen
hinge fell off and it was vvveeerrryyy slow), The HP one is great ( i still have it in one peice after 2 years of rugged treatment.), the Dell WAS great (I dropped it off of a two story building and it busted into shreads.) In all, I would recommend a Dell or HP Laptop, just stay away from Compaq laptops. Also, for online protection use Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007 because it blocks Viruses, Spyware, and hackers. I am currently using the HP laptop, I also have a 4 Year old HP Desktop which is slow but it would speed up alot with an 256MG memory upgrade. Here is www.dell.com and www.hp.com . dont go to the Compaq part in the hp website because HP and Compaq are the same companies.