A Challenge

[Bergman]

CAn someone tell me in simple English how I can access Internet and E-Mail from my laptop.

The thing is nearly 5 years old so if it means buying a new one what should I buy. I mean facilities, gizmos etc. not necessarily make.

Please note I do not understand any jargon (gibberish) that normally goes with computers.

I do not know what a domain is nor a cache nor operating system nor application or any of the rest of the perversions of the language that salesmen try to dazzle me with.

You may have guessed I have just got back from PC World - empty handed!

(Can any IT specialist speak more than 3 sentences without lapsing into Serbo-Croat?)

An idea of costs may help. Also I want to access NTLworld (my ISP)

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Bergman,

You need to expand upon where you would like to access the internet from?

 

[Bergman]

Yes

Fair point

Suppose land mobile is best description, sort of anywhere accessible by cell phone. Not think particularly of boat, more a work thing.

Again if I need to get any cellphone bits or things I would appreciate any advice on that.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

OK...

This is one of those areas where IT manages to be quite complicated while thinking its pretty straightforward....

What you need is:

Your mobile phone. It needs to be one that support 'GPRS'. It also needs to be one that can be connected to a laptop by a cable. If you look on the website of your phone manufacturers, and look at your paricular model, they will offer acessories, including a cable to a PC. This cable will have a proprietary connector on one end (to attach to your phone), and on the other it will have either a USB connector, or a serial connector (which in this case is a D shaped plug with 9 pins on it).

With your cable or phone, you will get a CD Rom that sets up your computer to allow the phone to conect to it... if all goes well, simply running and installing the software provided, and connecting your phone will allow internet access.... this is usually charged at about £1 per Mb, which isn't actually that bad if you manage your usage carefully.... if you are looking at a new phone for this purpose then in particular Vodaphone are good at providing this, and have a good helpdesk to talk you through getting this working....

Accessing your existing ISP can be more challenging. I am assuming that you mean E-Mail from your ISP....
Caveat 1 is that sometimes ISP's won't let you collect or send E-mail this way at all.... suggest you ask NTL world before making any kind of investment...
If they are OK, then its just a case of connecting as above, and then using Outlook or whever client you have as you have always done......
Caveat 2 is that some ISPs will let you collect your mail, but won't let you send e-mail this way....
If that is the case, then you are going to need what is known as the 'SMTP relay server address' from your mobile provider... and again they should talk you through how to set up outlook to allow you to send e-mail this way.....

Hope that helps as a starter... I've tried to keep it as jargon free as possible, but it isn't easy!

 

[BrendanS]

For email and internet browsing, your 5 year old laptop will be fine. You don't need a new one for that. Describe in simple language what you want to do, and where you are having difficulties, and we'll do our best to sort you out.

If you want a simple cheap basic laptop, then I have a link to a very good price and spec machine that I found recently for another forumite on PBO forum

 

[Bergman]

Ok

My work involves lots of travel and I would like to access Internet as an info source and E-Mail for general use whilst I'm in hotels, offices etc.

If I could use it abroad it would be a bonus

I guess cellphone is most likely comms medium but I know nothing about wireless etc.

Hope that is OK

Cheers

 

[wishbone]

Please post spec of your laptop...ie: floppy drive, cd rom drive, connectors, internal modem, slot at the side for a card! as all these will affect what type of sofware is avaiable for your machine as a lot is now on cdrom, an infra red could be of help some will talk to mobile that has infra red connection abeit slow but dose work I used this method from Cyprus in the wild using dialup to my Isp in the uk It was an expensive connection but as I was using it for fax and internet for running business it was worth it...for a short period!

good luck hope we can be of further help

 

[BrendanS]

OK, for the sort of intended use, your present laptop will probably be fine.

You can obviously connect to internet on your home or office computer, so who provides that service (this is your ISP, Internet Service Provider). Some provide worldwide access numbers, so you can connect from most countries.

Connecting via cellphone can be expensive.

Would you mind reposting this in the 'Feedback' forum, as this will get quite involved and this forum is probably not the best suited to in depth discussions of the options if we are going to avoid any technical speak.

 

[Bergman]

The machine is a Packard-Bell

Its got a 3 and a bit floppy drive
A cd drive
A USB connector, in fact its got 2
There is a credit card sized modem in a slot
and 2 D type connectors on back

Hope this helps

And I appreciate your help