[Simon & Emily]

Can anyone out there help a confirmed ludite :o ?

We are currently with AOL, but once we move out of our house will need access to the internet and have e-mail in the UK, which we will obviously need to be able to carry on using once in NZ. We plan to move in with my folks here for a while, and then into hotel and rented before we buy in NZ.

Are there any information sites out there on this wonderful web that can give me info on how to get started with this, preferable in non-technical words of one syllable?

As you may have guessed, I have no idea where to start with this, so feel free to give any advice, no matter how basic or obvious it may seem to you.

Thanks,

Emily

[G&K]

Apple tend to make thing easy for us non technical people...

I've got email access wherever I go - on any computer, and even our own website to show friends and family what we're up to here in NZ...

Worth every penny in my mind !

[G&K]

Sorry that'll be

www.mac.com

:-)

[Avalon]

Im not sure if this actually answers the question - but I have email with Gmail - which is a bit like hotmail (but better imho - not so many limits).

Gmail is a web based email account - so your email address is something like emily@gmail.com

With web based email accounts - you access your email from any computer that is linked to the internet - such as in internet cafes. To do this you go to www.gmail.com and enter your username (which is your email address emily@gmail.com) and then a password.

Hey presto - up comes all your email, with all your contacts as well.

Gmail is still on Beta Test at the moment i think (which means they are still developing) and you may need to be invited to join. If you are interested pm me with your current email address and ill send you an invite.

Ive used gmail since before I left the UK - exactly to get around the whole moving lark - and its been great.

If that wasnt anything like what you wanted to know - oops :o

Hugs

[Simon & Emily]

Thanks Avalon, that's exactly the sort of thing I mean. We will be shipping our windows XP system, so a mac is not the answer I'm afraid, no matter how much better they may be, and we plan to get a laptop to go with us as well, to enable instant communications. (We may just fly the computer over on it's own, but we need to sort our all our priorities before we get anyting sorted)

Have you encountered any problems with your gmail? Are there any sites that you can't access, or register to? I have yet to try to find a local internet site that we can use in the UK. I think one of the business in the UK town we will be staying in with my Dad has access, but it's very limited / expensive / needs booking in advance.

I'll have a look at the site in more detail over the next couple of days, and mail you if I have trouble getting in, thanks very much.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks,

Emily

[katandbob]

Im not sure if this actually answers the question - but I have email with Gmail - which is a bit like hotmail (but better imho - not so many limits).

Gmail is a web based email account - so your email address is something like emily@gmail.com

With web based email accounts - you access your email from any computer that is linked to the internet - such as in internet cafes. To do this you go to www.gmail.com and enter your username (which is your email address emily@gmail.com) and then a password.

Hey presto - up comes all your email, with all your contacts as well.

Gmail is still on Beta Test at the moment i think (which means they are still developing) and you may need to be invited to join. If you are interested pm me with your current email address and ill send you an invite.

Ive used gmail since before I left the UK - exactly to get around the whole moving lark - and its been great.

If that wasnt anything like what you wanted to know - oops :o

Hugs

I have 90 left on my quota for inviting to Googlemail (Sad I know! billynomates :wah ) :laugh so anyone wanting an email setting up let me know....I even set up one for a friend, we used another friends (work)email addy at his house, and bobs your uncle he had an email account he can access from anywhere.

Kat

[Jonathon1977]

Internet is not cheap, unlimited and as reliable in NZ as people from the UK or US might be familar.

I am not on my 3rd internet provider and after chatting with some people at work found out that it's not going to get much better anytime soon.

I currently pay 79.95 per month for 10 Gigs of data. I seem to use that up halfway before the month is over so they slow me down to dial-up speeds. I find this about as frustrating as the fact that you have to pay to ring a mobile phone from a landline and that the mobile phone rates are so high.

Just an FYI, I don't mean to tag onto your post and complain.

[Avalon]

Emily-

I have had no problems with gmail. Actually im now getting lots of spam - but that coincides with my making a complaint to Rates To go ( an accomadation website that I raved about till they narked me off- and I think they have listed my address with someone as revenge). And even that gets sectioned off into its own little mailbox so i dont even have to look at it.

The only thing you can sometimes find is that forums (including this one :( ) wont accept web email addresses (hotmail or gmail) when you register. As you are already registered here that wont matter - you can post from gmail accounts easily enough - no problems there.

You will still need an internet provider - but till you get that any internet cafe would do to get email.

Internet providers are not cheap - jonathan is dead right about that.

Your choices from memory are: Xtra (telecom), Telstra, Whoosh, Slingshot, Ihug (good reputation im being told by hubby) or Orcon.

Our internet is through Wisenet - we havent much choice as we are so rural, butthey have given us a fantastic service.

[Simon & Emily]

Thanks Avalon - brilliant info, as ever. Hubby went almost white when I 'reminded' him that once we leave our house here to move into my Dad's we wont have easy internet access (although we're working on him, as we want to get him up and running with mail and a web cam - that will be another info request later :D )

Emily

[Avalon]

Your very welcome!

[bob_the_engineer]

AOL are awful,

Having said that I thought that I’d add something that may be helpful LLLLOL

When you log into you internet connection you have a user name and password. Instead of opening outlook express to get or write your email you can go to www.aol.com and click on the button that says aol mail, using your usual username and password you can access your email account on any computer.

Think of outlook as a program that just logs in for you and collects-sends your mail.

When you leave aol you can ask them to leave your email account live, this shouldn’t cost anything, you can then continue using your old email address from anywhere, including NZ, by logging in on the AOL web page.

While living with your parents you can get broadband from virgin, without a minimum contract period, so you should be able to plug your hardware in at your parents and simply changing the username and password (router address is often 192.168.0.1).

If your parent’s / friends have a broadband connection I recommend skype for keeping in touch. Its free to talk but uses up you data allowance in NZ, much much better than msn messenger.

IHUG provides broadband in NZ and the good thing about them is downloaded data isn’t counted in your usage (i.e video you send from you web cam) and you have two data allowances, on and off peak.

Telecom 10Gig anytime

IHUG 10Gig on peak +10Gig off peak

This costs around the same, when you consider you will spend your time, late at night talking to family the additional off peak allowance becomes attractive.

Hope that helps Bob

[Simon & Emily]

Thanks Bob - great info. The trouble with all of this is that it's all double dutch to me, and that makes it much harder to sort things out.

AOL are great, I must agree. I will be sooooo sorry to see the back of them. It costs £2.95 a month to keep your email accout open - also guess that means they lose all my business then :D Can you believe that there is some sort of glitch in my AOL software loaded, and so I cannot export a list of my bookmarked web sites anywhere. I cannot even get a list of any description. So, to keep a record of all the hundered of pages that I've saved over the last couple of years, I've got to go into each and every page, copy the address, and paste it into another document. And this is totally acceptable to AOL.

Oh well, I'd only be sat at home with nothing to do before we move otherwise ....


Emily