You can do IT in later life - 57
September 2005
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You can do IT is a regular feature
of laterlife.com aimed at trying to help
laterlife visitors make the most of Information
Technology on or off the web.
Jackie Sherman who runs the
You can do IT Question & Answer
section is an IT trainer and author. Jackie has spent
her career in education and specialises in teaching
IT to adults. Her courses for adults include such
topics as MS Office, the Internet, e-mail and basic
web page authoring.
Jackie
has also written several books - you can find more details about these by
clicking here. Jackie has
also been running a course specifically for over
50s.
Via laterlife.com Jackie aims to
particularly help those new to IT and the web to build
up knowledge and confidence, so no question is too
basic. At the same time she will cover Q&As for the
more experienced user.
So if you would like to ask a question of Jackie, or if you have discovered something which may be of interest to others in making the most of the web, then she would love to hear about that too. Why not email her jackie@laterlife.com
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September 2005
| Q: |
Like many people, I am considering moving to broadband. Do you
have any tips or are there any problems I should look out for when
doing this? |
| A: |
I have recently done exactly this, including linking two machines
in different rooms, and all I can say is that I wished I had done it
years ago!
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Here are a few suggestions for how to make your decisions:
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Is it really necessary? However cheap it might be, broadband is
still more expensive than dial-up. If you don't use your machine
very much and won't be playing games or downloading vast amounts of
information, it may well not be worth it just for the increased
speed when browsing on the Net. As an example of prices (for those
not involved in cheap telephone and cable deals), dial-up pay as you
go is the same as the cost of telephone calls – the shorter your
time on the Net, the cheaper it will be. If you use the Net a fair
amount, a 'lite' subscription that offers 50 or 80 hours per month
will cost around ?9. Most broadband services cost from ?15 - ?20 a
month.
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What are the key factors?
a. PRICE: There are various deals around which offer a cheap first 3
months (but BEWARE and check the price shift for later in the year).
b. SERVICE: I ended up choosing a company that existed on the high
street and was easy to contact by telephone, e-mail or even walking
into a shop. When buying a service from an Internet-only
organisation, it can be extremely hard to contact anyone if you get
into difficulties. Test this out by sending them a query and see how
they respond, before you buy their package.
c. DOWNLOAD: Some of the packages limit how much you can download a
month. This is fine if you don't want videos, pictures or music but
you may need an unlimited download system so look for these in the
details.
d. CONTRACT: Most companies expect you to agree to 12 months with
them, so decide if you need a company that will let you give in your
notice earlier than that. Remember, you may have to balance one or
more of the above factors to get your preferred deal.
e. SPEED: The more expensive packages offer the fastest service, but
is it really necessary? My new system is 10x faster than dial-up and
is wonderful in comparison, yet much cheaper than the very fastest.
Decide how much you are prepared to pay for instant responses.
| Q: |
How do you link two computers so that they use the same ISP
service for broadband?
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| A:
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No-one wants to pay for a monthly subscription to the Internet
for every machine in the house, so linking them to one connection is
vital in large households. It is quite simple to do. You need the
following equipment: a router that incorporates a modem for your
first computer, and a connection for each extra machine. You can use
cables, or a wireless adaptor that simply plugs into a USB port on
the second machine. For every telephone or fax machine in the house,
you also need a filter that will allow you to continue to use the
line whilst browsing.
Use the Internet to find the best deals, but two companies that
produce excellent hardware are Belkin and Netgear and retailers such
as www.amazon.co.uk will sell them to you at good prices.
A tip: you may be sent a modem and filters by your new ISP aimed at
a single-use machine. Although you can make use of the filters, take
care not to try and install the software running the modem – you
must install the router's software instead. You will need the
details of your ISP such as the log-in and password as this is
needed for part of the process, but once you have installed the
software your system will be up-and-running straight away.
Note that your e-mail system will not be installed via your
broadband ISP's installation disk so add it yourself (see later
question for how to do this.)
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| Q: |
I am thinking about moving my ISP and taking up broadband, but
want to keep using my dial-up e-mail address as well. Is that
possible?
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| A:
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Yes, you can download emails from any number of accounts as long
as you set your system to find them all. However, you will not be
able to SEND e-mails using a different account unless you dial that
particular number. This means that, if your broadband account is
with company X, the e-mails you write will automatically have that
address and will be sent as normal when you click Send, as you will
be connected to the Internet via that particular company. If you
want to send a message from your dial-up account Z, you will first
have to dial the telephone number given to you by your ISP and can
then send just your Z e-mails.
To make sure you receive all the messages from your various
accounts, open e.g. Outlook Express, click on Accounts and then
check the Properties of any named account. On the Connections tab,
make sure you take off a tick in a box labelled "Always connect to
this account using…." Back in the main account window, you will see
that the connection is now via "Any Available" and so it will be
checked each time you open your e-mail system. |
| Q: |
I want to use a second ISP but keep my original
for the e-mail address. How do I add an account to Outlook
Express?
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| A:
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When setting up a new ISP connection, the e-mail address is often
set up automatically. However, this is not always the case and it is
relatively straightforward to do it yourself as long as you know or
can find out the following: your account name and password used to
set up the system, and the servers used by the ISP to receive and
send messages. These are often the following:
Incoming mail (POP3): mail.isp name.com (or net)
Outgoing mail (SMTP): smtp.isp name.com (or net)
But some wording can vary e.g. outgoing can be just
'mail.isp name.com/net'
Or
'smtpmail.isp name.com/net
(If you open the Tools – Accounts menu and check the Properties for
a current account, click the Servers tab and you will see the
details they used.)
To set up a new address, open Tools – Accounts and click Add – Mail.
Give your new account the name you want displayed at the top of
messages, click Next and type in the full e-mail address you will be
using. Complete the server details as explained above together with
the Account name and password boxes. You will now find your new
Account listed in the window. If you want to use the new account
most of the time, click the button to set it as the default for
dialling up. |
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and under the books section select Computers and
Internet.
