kosman

im a proper amateur with computers,can i buy a laptop for 300quid that i can go on internet with but not have a phone line? want to take it work with me,but want a decent ish one,and can you get a pay as you go thing that you top up like a mobile phone.

Fil

comet are/ were doing this instore for £69.99 http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/pro...inks-_-generic

or are you with virgin media? if so, a dongle with 1GB per month from them is £5

kosman

now all of that means nowt to me mate

whats a dongle? dunno who or what this computer im on now is with,its me mums,i just plug in and turn on,but she wants it back now,its got a box thing with it upstairs but i cant take that in truck with me,me brother in law got 1 that he plugs something in to and it works on internet,he then just plugs it in to wall and there you go,i could do with that sort.

Fil

using wifi the box up stairs is a wireless router, conected to a phone line or cable.

that'll be you dongle, looks like a usb memory stick, except has a sim card in like a mobile, and is either pay as you go data or a contract including an amount of data allowance.

Fil

Oh and as for a laptop ( im no expert so might want to wait for others to add advice on this ) but will do internets ok

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi...GB/version.asp

£329.99

Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-26P

• Processor - Intel Pentium T4200 2 GHz Dual-Core
• RAM - 2 GB (installed) 4 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM
  - Please call 0844 412 4525 for double memory offer
• Hard Drive - 120 GB
• Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
  - Buy now and upgrade to Windows 7 for FREE
• Screen - 15.4 in TFT active matrix 1280 x 800
• Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
• Graphics - Intel GMA 4500M
• Bluetooth - No
• Warranty - 1 year warranty

tho no bluetooth would that be something you want built in?

kosman

what do i buy then? a laptop and a dongle? not bothered by bluetooth,just want it to go on internet and keep pictyers on

BM08

easily get a laptop for 300 that will be good enough for the net and small tasks.

Ive heard the dongles are not great though, there not the most reliable of things

Fil

hmm just a thought, have you / can you add a data plan to your mobile?

if so a laptop with bluetooth and a mobile with 3g or higher will do as a modem, may work out cheeper than getting a dongle.



Its what i do, im on t-mobile with unlimited ( tho fair usage, never had an issue ) internet, and use that as a modem with my netbook all the time

Fil

Yep they all give it the big, mobile broad band speed, well if your talking about when broadband came out then there right,

my experiance with T-mobile fastest ive ever seen was 1.2Mbps, but normally somewhere around 300-600kbps

simular experiance with 3, see a max or 1.6Mbps once! normally under half that,

and i mainly use it eastlondon areas were theres allways a 3.5g signal.

BM08

No comments on reliability? i thought 3 were shit for dongles to be honest? from what ive read on here in the past that is.

kosman

so if i want a laptop like my mums what would i need? a phone line? ive got a pay as you go fone and want a pay as you go computer like,not a fan of set bills etc.

Fil

signal drops in and out a fair bit in some areas, but the dongle i had was ok, still works ( well my dads no complained ) it was an unlocked one, thats now has an O2 ( i think ) pay as you go chip in, he uses it twice a week to check emails and thats it tho.

i hardly used it as allways used a mobile as a modem, which works well enough on t-mobile for internet brousing and music streaming, watched the Gp qualifying once on bbc iplayer, buffered a fair few times in the hour it was on

Fil

your mums laptop, will have wifi built in , going from your discription, this is like 99.9% of laptops these days,

you could plug a wired conection into this laptop and use the internet that way, or wifi to her wireless router as she does and you could just plug a dongle in on a contract or pay as you go.

as going back to the first link, i posted @ comet that dongle gives you 12GBs worth of data that can be used in the 1st year, and can be toped up with 3 pay as you go vouchers, ( off the top of my head its £10 for 1gb of data )

kosman

nice one for info,how long would 1gb last me? on internet most nights for 4hrs ish,i couldnt use my mums thing because i work away in a lorry,want to take it work with me and use it when im parked up so need a stick thing that plugs in the side,do all computers have the hole for the stick or do i have to buy a specific one? can you buy vouchers anywhere or is it just from comet etc?

Fil

when your at your mums you can use your laptop with her wifi connection, no cost to you, the same with any other unsecured networks whilst out and about , macdonalds is free.

the dongles plug into a usb slot, most laptops have 3/4 of these

as for how long 1GB will last, they give a rough guide of, If 150 kilobits is the average size for a website, then its 55,924+ webpages. This doesn't include Youtube videos or sound clips.
If you are taking maximum of 500 web pages in an Hour, you will get 111 Hours to utilise 1GB.



as for topping up credit same as a pay as you go mobile, you can have an online account, or tescos, newsagents etc

kosman

so a tenner would last me ages? bout a month and a half using passionford as the main website like so it should be reet,cheers for your help