Help please

[westrich]

A few years ago I set my mom up with a computer. She's 79 years old and lives in Margate. I know nothing about these things seeing that we are on an ADSL setup at work. I know that she is on a dial up connection with telkom and her email address is [email protected]. Now this ISP namely risccom in Pretoria where I live says she must move to broadband because the old system is too slow. SHE CANNOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET ANYMORE, IS RECOVERING FROM AN OPERATION AND STUCK IN HER HOUSE WITHOUT HER PASSION, EMAILS. HE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO HELP HER, OR WANT TO, SHE'S ON GOVERNMENT PENSION AND NEEDS ABSOLUTELY THE CHEAPEST EMAIL SERVICE AVAILABLE. WHERE DO WE START, PLEASE

 

[bwana]

A few years ago I set my mom up with a computer. She's 79 years old and lives in Margate. I know nothing about these things seeing that we are on an ADSL setup at work. I know that she is on a dial up connection with telkom and her email address is [email protected]. Now this ISP namely risccom in Pretoria where I live says she must move to broadband because the old system is too slow. SHE CANNOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET ANYMORE, IS RECOVERING FROM AN OPERATION AND STUCK IN HER HOUSE WITHOUT HER PASSION, EMAILS. HE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO HELP HER, OR WANT TO, SHE'S ON GOVERNMENT PENSION AND NEEDS ABSOLUTELY THE CHEAPEST EMAIL SERVICE AVAILABLE. WHERE DO WE START, PLEASE

From the look of the list here http://www.hellkom.co.za/ispprices/dialup.php the cheapest dialup internet is r35pm from Sainet Internet although it is off peak only.

 

[LazyLion]

A few years ago I set my mom up with a computer. She's 79 years old and lives in Margate. I know nothing about these things seeing that we are on an ADSL setup at work. I know that she is on a dial up connection with telkom and her email address is [email protected]. Now this ISP namely risccom in Pretoria where I live says she must move to broadband because the old system is too slow. SHE CANNOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET ANYMORE, IS RECOVERING FROM AN OPERATION AND STUCK IN HER HOUSE WITHOUT HER PASSION, EMAILS. HE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO HELP HER, OR WANT TO, SHE'S ON GOVERNMENT PENSION AND NEEDS ABSOLUTELY THE CHEAPEST EMAIL SERVICE AVAILABLE. WHERE DO WE START, PLEASE

The cheapest e-mail service would be Gmail cos that is free... but it does not work very well with Dial-up Internet (too bandwidth intensive).

but I agree with Bwana... rather go to that link...

http://www.hellkom.co.za/ispprices/dialup.php

and compare the prices....

some pretty cheap ones there... .like R35 a month.... bargain!

 

[westrich]

Richard from Pretoria

From the look of the list here http://www.hellkom.co.za/ispprices/dialup.php the cheapest dialup internet is r35pm from Sainet Internet although it is off peak only.

I want to rephrase my mom's predicament. Our's.
She pays the normal rent on her telephone account. I pay this risccom organization, I think they must be the service provider judging by her email address.

She can't connect onto her emails, the computer says the password is not correct. Risccom says it is.

So I'm thinking: What is the minimum added cost if she subcribes to a thing I hear is called ISDN. Will her modum in the computer work, if not what will a modum cost and where, and who will guide her through the set up and installation and who is the service provider in this case and can she keep her email address????

 

[LazyLion]

I want to rephrase my mom's predicament. Our's.
She pays the normal rent on her telephone account. I pay this risccom organization, I think they must be the service provider judging by her email address.

She can't connect onto her emails, the computer says the password is not correct. Risccom says it is.

So I'm thinking: What is the minimum added cost if she subcribes to a thing I hear is called ISDN. Will her modum in the computer work, if not what will a modum cost and where, and who will guide her through the set up and installation and who is the service provider in this case and can she keep her email address????

You probably want to post this as a new thread, since you are currently in a thread dealing with Mweb ADSL.

There is a forum specifically for ISDN over here...

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=111

 

[bwana]

I want to rephrase my mom's predicament. Our's.
She pays the normal rent on her telephone account. I pay this risccom organization, I think they must be the service provider judging by her email address.

She can't connect onto her emails, the computer says the password is not correct. Risccom says it is.

So I'm thinking: What is the minimum added cost if she subcribes to a thing I hear is called ISDN. Will her modum in the computer work, if not what will a modum cost and where, and who will guide her through the set up and installation and who is the service provider in this case and can she keep her email address????

ISDN costs considerably more than dial up - she might be better off even with the cheapest ADSL than with ISDN.

Either way she'll need a new 'modem' and if she changes ISPs she will end up with a new email address. To this end I would suggest a gmail address which is free.

 

[Ou grote]

Maybe just get her a 2nd hand Blackberry?

 

[frailwings]

if she has a cellphone you could get yahoo mobile email for her

 

[SuPaStA]

I want to rephrase my mom's predicament. Our's.
She pays the normal rent on her telephone account. I pay this risccom organization, I think they must be the service provider judging by her email address.

She can't connect onto her emails, the computer says the password is not correct. Risccom says it is.

So I'm thinking: What is the minimum added cost if she subcribes to a thing I hear is called ISDN. Will her modum in the computer work, if not what will a modum cost and where, and who will guide her through the set up and installation and who is the service provider in this case and can she keep her email address????

Her problem isnt to get a new isp or a new isdn line.It just seems its a issue with her establishing a connection to the isp.Have you tried setting up a new dialup connection within windows xp?

 

[Yotch]

According to this website she is already paying R100 per month just for the dialup access at Risccom. She would still have to pay Telkom call charges on top of this amount. You could ask her to send you her ISP details and try to dialup yourself from Pretoria. If this works then you know the fault is not with the ISP but with her setup.
http://www.risccom.co.za/Connective.php

Alternatively you could try to help her over the telephone to set up a dialup connection to a new ISP. It shouldn't be too difficult if she has been using a similar service previously. Pick 'n Pay have a prepaid dialup service called Surftime for R59 per month (R39 off peak hours). This can be purchased at any Pick 'n Pay till point - you could even purchase it for her and just e-mail the voucher code to her every month. If this works then you no longer require the Risccom service. Take a look over here.
http://www.surftime.co.za/

You could consider getting her the cheapest ADSL access from Nashua Mobile at R139 per month which includes a free router and 1GB of bandwidth. You would probably also need to purchase a USB WiFi adapter for ~R200 to link the PC wirelessly to the router. You might be able to help her to set it up over the telephone.

Alternatively if you have an ADSL service from Telkom yourself you could let her use your dialup ISP service free of charge - she would then only have to pay for calls. Telkom has an Internet call option on their Closer plans - R80 for 75 hours of dialup access in Callmore time.

Maybe you could look on Bidorbuy for cheap Blackberrys as suggested above - the Blackberry service costs R69 per month. You could first set everything up for her yourself and then mail the device to her. This option does not require a PC.
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/7923...OCKED_PDA_PHONE_in_South_Africa_next_day.html