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

portlandboy

mummy2three wrote: »

thanx sb18180 will take that info on board

also has anyone had any experience or know anything about assisted technology needs? i beleive my friend will be claiming for this and cant seem to find anything out about it

thanx in advance

Try calling either of the following companies who have freephone numbers on their websites:

http://www.cihomeaccess.co.uk/

or

http://www.xma4ha.co.uk/Home_Access.aspx

Both will advise you on the options of the scheme and how to order for special needs extras.

bestpud

thestephensons wrote: »

How long does it take after posting paperwork back, before you get the award? i heard it takes ages.

3 weeks for me, or 2 weeks 6 days to be precise.

That was from requesting the form to receiving the laptop.

Form requested on 16th January, received and sent back on 21st.

Child benefit letter returned around 3 days after that and entitlement letter received on 30th January.

Card and pin arrived on 3rd February.

Laptop ordered on 4th Feb and arrived on 5th Feb.

HTH

sexysmet

It took less than 3 weeks from requesting the application form to receiving my laptop.... absolutely over the moon with it :j

I went for the Toshiba Satellite Pro L450 and got a t-mobile dongle which is impressively fast

fazeypie

Ordered my laptop at about 4pm last Monday from xma and would have had it Friday if I was in to receive the delivery but got it today. It's the samsung r519, very similar to my sons last laptop the samsung r60. He's so pleased with it, I've hardly seen him all evening! It came with a great laptop backpack, USB mouse and t mobile dongle and also had Microsoft office installed on it, not the freely downloadable open office.
The setup was minimal as everything was pre-installed, just a case of choosing your own passwords and setting up parental options. It's really good as ds needs to ask me for password when he downloads stuff as there are 2 users set up, parent and learner. The parent one is the master or admin account that has full control of everything.
I'm so grateful for this, its great to see ds laughing with his mates on msn again.

prowla

I guess the system specification for the machines was defined maybe a year ago, and so the disk and memory were restricted to fit the budget.
But the versions of the machines that you can buy in the shops with real money have a bigger hard disk and more memory.
Has anybody had any luck in trying to barter the included Microsoft Office for a memory upgrade?

kizzykizzywizzy

Have just missed the postman with a recorded delivery letter - wondering if it was my grant.
Can anyone tell me if this came as recorded ? - Many Thanks

looby75

kizzykizzywizzy wrote: »

Have just missed the postman with a recorded delivery letter - wondering if it was my grant.
Can anyone tell me if this came as recorded ? - Many Thanks

any child benefit or other entitlement letters you sent them are returned via recorded delivery, everything else is sent normal post.

DS's laptop was delivered today :j TBH I'm not exactly impressed with the co I ordered it from (centerprise). I was ordered on 30th Jan, received an email minutes after ordering saying the item was in stock and would be delivered on either the 2nd or 3rd Feb. It didn't arrive, phoned on the 4th to find out where it was, the phoned back and said it would be delivered by today, no explanation of why it hadn't been delivered as promised on the 2nd/3rd.

When it arrived the "quick start" guide that came with it was all about windows xp, the laptop comes installed with windows 7, so was totally useless. The laptop is supposed to come set up with an admin account and a user account, this one wasn't so I had to do all that. I know my way round a computer well enough that it wasn't really a problem but it might be for someone not used to computers.

The other problem is they haven't supplied the access key for the home access software, so I'm going to have to phone the support line to try and get it.....is there anything really worth using in that software?

kizzykizzywizzy

Thanks Looby x I imagine it's my child benefit letter coming back then;)

Lucky you know what you are doing - I would be very stuck!!

looby75

kizzykizzywizzy wrote: »

Thanks Looby x I imagine it's my child benefit letter coming back then;)

Lucky you know what you are doing - I would be very stuck!!

The letter saying ds had been given a grant came just a couple of days after they sent the cb letter back so fingers crossed you will get yours soon

I'm sure the helpline will be able to talk you through anything you need help with

bestpud

looby75 wrote: »

any child benefit or other entitlement letters you sent them are returned via recorded delivery, everything else is sent normal post.

DS's laptop was delivered today :j TBH I'm not exactly impressed with the co I ordered it from (centerprise). I was ordered on 30th Jan, received an email minutes after ordering saying the item was in stock and would be delivered on either the 2nd or 3rd Feb. It didn't arrive, phoned on the 4th to find out where it was, the phoned back and said it would be delivered by today, no explanation of why it hadn't been delivered as promised on the 2nd/3rd.

When it arrived the "quick start" guide that came with it was all about windows xp, the laptop comes installed with windows 7, so was totally useless. The laptop is supposed to come set up with an admin account and a user account, this one wasn't so I had to do all that. I know my way round a computer well enough that it wasn't really a problem but it might be for someone not used to computers.

The other problem is they haven't supplied the access key for the home access software, so I'm going to have to phone the support line to try and get it.....is there anything really worth using in that software?

That doesn't sound good!

DD's arrived within 24 hours and I was able to track it from the order right through to it being delivered. The courier tracking service told me what day and between what times it would be delivered too. That was from Misco.

The only problem I had was with the 3 dongle software. It is preloaded but there must have been an error of some sort as it only worked when I reinstalled it. It was easy enough as they instructions were all there but it said I wouldn't need them as it is preinstalled.

I was a little confused by the Misco support user account on mine too, as I took that to be the admin account and couldn't work out why the password wasn't working. :doh: I now know the parent account has full admin rights too and the support one is just in case I need techie support!

Hope you get your access key soon - dd has found the read and write software fab.