Free Computer & Internet Access for Children aged 7-14 of Low Income Families

wazza

unless i am mistaken it is a pity one is limited to the laptop one can use. If my sister has a free choice of laptop i can easily set it up with a free zonealarm, AVG and use a free K9 parental filter a lot cheaper than those shown by the links provided by lucinad. As someone said you are getting a basic laptop marked up heavily.

Then again it is free so just accept it. The helpline should be a boost for her because i am fed up helping my friends/family how to sort their pc over the phone.

fazeypie

wazza wrote: »

unless i am mistaken it is a pity one is limited to the laptop one can use. If my sister has a free choice of laptop i can easily set it up with a free zonealarm, AVG and use a free K9 parental filter a lot cheaper than those shown by the links provided by lucinad. As someone said you are getting a basic laptop marked up heavily.

Then again it is free so just accept it. The helpline should be a boost for her because i am fed up helping my friends/family how to sort their pc over the phone.

yes it is a shame, i was hoping that you could use it to buy whatever you wanted as i already have some money saved in a laptop fund since my sons one broke. (i dont go out or drink and i save money using this site before certain people start questioning how i manage to put money by)
ideally, i would have combined my savings and the home access allowance to buy a macbook. i'd never go back to windows now. i was fortunate enough for my brother to give me his mac mini, the operating system is faster and a lot less flawed than windows. no blue screens or random disk errors or hanging or reformatting the whole thing.
still, as you say, its a freebie that comes with tech support and will still be an absolute godsend if i can get one as i will use the money i have saved to buy a printer to go with it.

lucinad

my child benefit letter took 6 days to come, the entitlement letter took a week to arrive after i sent it off with my child benefit letter in. it said the card and pin will arive within 10 days hth

UN17ED

Just a query as to which is the best laptop to go for? and again which is the best desktop to go for?

fazeypie

yay! got my letter today, should get my card and pin soon. my son is so chuffed as his old one broke a couple of months ago.
to un17ed- the links to the computer dealers and the computers they have available are on this page so just click on them and see what you think is the best for you. i think there was only one desktop on one of the sites.
personally, i favour the samsung r519, the other samsung is a netbook which runs on windows xp which i think is too slow, especially if you are using a mobile dongle.
i'm not too sure about the other makes.
i noticed bli education is charging £547 (allowance is £528) for the full laptop and modem package but trying to make out theres over £500 software included free for that (the software looks like stuff that could be downloaded for free or just not bothered with at all)
i will most likely end up going for the acer laptop at comet though. i was happy with the acer laptop i had a few years ago and also comet chuck in a laptop bag and they arent using three for their mobile dongles.
i've had one of them before- you could go off and do your weekly shopping waiting for a page to load up!

Zziggi

fazeypie wrote: »

i will most likely end up going for the acer laptop at comet though. i was happy with the acer laptop i had a few years ago and also comet chuck in a laptop bag and they arent using three for their mobile dongles.
i've had one of them before- you could go off and do your weekly shopping waiting for a page to load up!

I've had the same problems with mobile dongles from 3!!

fazeypie

Zziggi wrote: »

I've had the same problems with mobile dongles from 3!!

They are horrific to deal with aren't they? I complained for the last year of 18month contract as the service had gone so bad it almost wasn't worth using it. They were even worse when I tried to cancel my contract, kept trying to Keep me on the phone and offer this and that. I ended up screaming at the guy telling him the only way I'd have their dongle again is if they paid me £20 every month to take it off their hands. I'd previously been quite happy with three for 5 years as mobile customer but I ended that too. They will never get a penny through me again after the way they treated me and the awful dongle.

BirdG

Unfortunately my husband and I were made redundant in August 2009. A bit of a shock for us both and as yet neither of use have found new roles. My laptop was returned when I finished work so we have relied on nipping into our neighbours house or booking slots at the local library. My sister told me about the scheme and as I have a 14 year old son I was thrilled that I might be able to enhance his home life a bit - and save dragging him up to the library a couple of times per week. I have just called the help line and although he is 14 and meets the criteria, because he is in year 10 we are not eligible. This is a great initiative but I would have thought that a year 10 child studying for GCSEs would benefit more than a year 3 7 year old....so disappointing.

Does anyone else feel the same or am I just a grumpy old woman?

wazza

It would be nice to hear of people who received their grant which pc/laptop they bought and from which supplier and the service they received.

This will give the rest of us a guide for whom and what to go for.

fazeypie

BirdG wrote: »

Unfortunately my husband and I were made redundant in August 2009. A bit of a shock for us both and as yet neither of use have found new roles. My laptop was returned when I finished work so we have relied on nipping into our neighbours house or booking slots at the local library. My sister told me about the scheme and as I have a 14 year old son I was thrilled that I might be able to enhance his home life a bit - and save dragging him up to the library a couple of times per week. I have just called the help line and although he is 14 and meets the criteria, because he is in year 10 we are not eligible. This is a great initiative but I would have thought that a year 10 child studying for GCSEs would benefit more than a year 3 7 year old....so disappointing.

Does anyone else feel the same or am I just a grumpy old woman?

you're not grumpy at all, i think you're dead right. i think the scheme couldve been narrowed to 12-16yr olds to make sure they can use them for their gcses and by narrowing it to this age group, they could have extended the grant to families on low incomes, not just in receipt of benefits.