£300 budget for laptop

Pete.g

Looking for a laptop for my mum for xmas. She's a total beginner with a pc and at 68 you do need to explain things a couple of times before she grasps them so would like something easy to work and understand. Like I said I have a budget of £300.

Thanks,

Pete.

Pete.g

Hi,

I'm buying my mum a laptop for xmas, the only thing is she lives in the middle of nowhere in the countryside.

Now, me always having had ntl cable I've never had to worry about getting connected to the net.

Can you tell me how to get her connected to the net? Is it just through her bt line and then with a wireless router tapping off it?

Thanks,

Pete.

chunter

Leopard wrote: »

If she's miles from anywhere, the only Internet she's going to get will be 56K (if that) analogue dial-up via her telephone line unless she's within 3G range of a mobile 'phone mast.

It may well be a more sensible option to go to somewhere like Sam knows, put in your mother's phone number and see if it's a broadband enabled line.
We can proceed from there.

chunter

Pete.g wrote: »

Looking for a laptop for my mum for xmas. She's a total beginner with a pc and at 68 you do need to explain things a couple of times before she grasps them so would like something easy to work and understand. Like I said I have a budget of £300.

Thanks,

Pete.

It' Christmas - £350 is about the cheapest you'll get a laptop for now.

What about a netbook? It's cheaper than a full laptop and easy (apparently) to learn.
Sort out your internet first though.
Not sure if you get dialup modems on netbooks.

GunJack

How about this:-

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?nav=&product=SOLV092&title=HP+Compaq+NC2400+Core+2+Duo+1.2Ghz+%282.4Ghz%29+Laptop+-+1Gb+RAM+-+60GB+-+COMBO+-+Wi+Fi+-+XP+Pro+COA

Got my kids a couple of IBM Thinkpads from them, after someone else on this board recommended them. This one is a less powerful model than my works lappy, but build quality is brill and should be more than adequate for your mum. Check out both this and your mum's broadband situation. good luck,