Friend bought his first computer. What router does he need for AT&T DSL?

[Article Accelerator]

Michael wrote:
[quote=Article Accelerator]
[quote=Dennis S]
He has never used a computer except a few times at school before he retired from teaching. I saw him in Walmart and steered him to a Dell laptop with i3, 6 GB RAM and a 500 GB HDD for $350.

A $350 Dell laptop? That oughta work out well…
I've been buying low-end Dell laptops for years. I've always planned on just tossing them if/when they go bad. But, I've not ever had a Dell laptop have any problem except 1 needing a new keyboard when a key got stuck and I broke the holding device for the key messing with it. That cost me maybe $15 for a new Dell keyboard on eBay. I think I'm on my 3rd Dell laptop--I've just replaced them when new specs make the old look pitiful.
Is that a good thing, especially for a neophyte like the OP refers to?

And then there's Windows…

[silvarios]

A good thing to buy a laptop that tends not to die, but simply get out specced after 3+ years? Probably. I generally prefer OS X over Windows, but I rarely suggest Macs to my clients looking to spend less than $600 on hardware.

[AllGold]

Dennis, there's an important piece of information missing. Specifically, what flavor of AT&T DSL? Is it U-Verse or the old aDSL?

U-Verse comes with a router/gateway so no need to buy one.

[Dennis S]

AllGold wrote:
Dennis, there's an important piece of information missing. Specifically, what flavor of AT&T DSL? Is it U-Verse or the old aDSL?

U-Verse comes with a router/gateway so no need to buy one.

I don't know. It's probably an old basic AT&T phone line he has.

[silvarios]

Dennis S wrote:
[quote=AllGold]
Dennis, there's an important piece of information missing. Specifically, what flavor of AT&T DSL? Is it U-Verse or the old aDSL?

U-Verse comes with a router/gateway so no need to buy one.

I don't know. It's probably an old basic AT&T phone line he has.
If your neighbor doesn't mind setting at a desk or table he can get the most basic modem and simply connect the Dell with a $5 or less Ethernet cable. If he wants WiFi, he'll likely be better off getting his own router not a crappy combo unit from AT&T.