Bear in mind that any notebook will need to be connected to external devices at some point, which is why manufacturers like Toshiba have been equipping their systems with parallel and serial ports for some years now.

A modem is one thing you shouldn't need to hook up, however, as all serious notebooks now feature a fast internal modem as standard. Any ports not in use should be deactivated, if possible, to maximize battery life.

Good notebooks have two Type II PC Card slots. If the card slots are arranged on top of each other, it means that a Type III PC Card is also supported.

To allow efficient use of your notebook as a full desktop replacement, you will need a docking station or port replicator. The notebook just slides into the station/replicator without the hassle of attaching numerous cables. Typically, this set-up supports the following options: external mouse, keyboard, sound, printer, USB, and additional PC Cards or PCI slots (PCI cards are the standard expansion cards used in desktop PCs).

USB ports
Increasingly, notebooks are being fitted with the latest USB technology, including all notebooks in Toshiba's current range. There are now many devices on offer that support USB, such as printers, scanners, modems, sound systems and other peripherals. Theoretically, up to 127 devices can be attached to a single USB port, although since they all share the available bandwidth speed would suffer. However, if you concentrate on attaching just the key devices, though, USB is an excellent feature. Note that older operating systems such as Windows® 95 (first edition) and Windows® NT do not support USB.