A docking station is a bridge to the past for many newer computers, but you might find you need one even if you have the latest on-the-market laptop computer. A docking station is a device into which you can plug your laptop in order to gain extra functionality, such as access to printers, mice, scanners, full-sized monitors and keyboards, and external hard drives. All of these peripherals can be plugged into the docking station. Then, when you connect the laptop to the docking station, you can gain access to all of those peripherals without having to plug each one into the laptop. This can be especially helpful if your laptop has a minimal number of USB or Firewire ports.

Actually, most newer laptops have more than enough USB or Firewire ports for casual use. You might find, however, that you want to access your desktop monitor while using your laptop. You might also find that you want to use a larger keyboard than the one that comes standard with your laptop. In each of these cases, you can certainly plug the monitor or the keyboard directly into the laptop. Plugging that laptop into the docking station, however, allows you much more flexibility.

One instance in which you would probably need to use a docking station is when you want to hook up a newer laptop to an older printer. Printers of even the recent past routinely have serial port connectors, something you won’t likely find on the latest laptop. In this case, you can certainly buy an adapter, but you can also use a docking station, which has serial port connectors as well.

In essence, using a docking station converts your laptop computer into a desktop computer, even for a short period of time. You can plug the laptop into the docking station and have all the comforts of home, while accessing the laptop’s data and functionality. When you’re done, just unplug and walk away with the laptop. In some cases, the laptop, which is likely a newer computer than the desktop, will have more up-to-date or advanced features. For example, the laptop may have a super-charged graphics or video card that can play games or movies that the desktop cannot; hooking the laptop up to the docking station and accessing the desktop’s larger monitor can make the video or gaming experience all the more rewarding.