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[sevenlayermuddle]

Why stay with AOL for the email Address , i moved to Newnet last year and my original AOL is still in use, in fact i have 6 aol email addresses for the family and every one can still be accessed and used to send or recieve mail . I havent even used my Newnet Address , and  i sign into my newnet account with my AOL name

I'd heard that as a rumour before, and now I've heard a first-hand account which is nice.  I'd be tempted, if it was for myself.  But I'm not sure I'd be able to explain the risks and don't want them to feel let down...

[dizzy4528]

You can create a free email address from here using the (aol.com) prefix https://new.aol.com/freeaolweb?ncid=snsuswebr00000004&promocode=824087&promocode2&icid=snstest8&icid=snstest8
This is why when you migrate from AOL you can carry on using your original Screen name and address ,you even carry on accesing via the AOL mail server.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I had my first support call on this project not long ago, from Dad, shortly after the new PC arrived.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind if I raised a smile fromk Kitzers (but I'm not going to tell him in case I'm wrong.  Remind me never to identify myself on this forum)...

"Hi Dad, how's it going"
"Going well, I have all the wires plugged in but the television doesn't work"

[- Clunk, a penny drops, for 'television' hear 'monitor'...]

"Right.  Are you sure it's plugged in and switched on?"
"Yes.  It says I need to press the power button now"
"And what happens when you press the power button?"
"I don't know, what's a power button?"   

On a more serious note, I've set him up with a Belkin USB WiFi stick so he can try (AOL helpdesk be warned) and get going with his broadband before my visit.  I'm sceptical of USB WiFi.  Does anybody think I'd be advised to buy an internal PCI card and substitute it when I'm there?  I'll happily trade it for his  USB WiFi as I've not got one and, what I haven't got, I want.

[HPsauce]

PCI every time over USB for wireless LAN.
Just do it, you know it makes sense. 

(USB is useful for temporary lash-ups of course)

[sevenlayermuddle]

Thanks HP.

Dell offered PCI wireless as quite a cheap add-on but, irritatingly, it disappeared from the options list once you selected XP as the installed OS.

[kitz]

lol - sounds like my dad.   
Its much easier for me to go round do it... I end up tearing my hair out on the phone and getting frustrated.

PCI - if theres a spare slot.

[HPsauce]

And a personal preference is the type of card that is supplied with a desktop aerial (spike on a weighted base) and a reasonable lead - 2 or 3 feet long.
Aerial positioning can be critical and the little stubby ones on the card can easily be shielded by the system case. I've seen several setups where just turning the box round has transformed performance.

[sevenlayermuddle]

And a personal preference is the type of card that is supplied with a desktop aerial (spike on a weighted base) and a reasonable lead - 2 or 3 feet long.
Aerial positioning can be critical and the little stubby ones on the card can easily be shielded by the system case. I've seen several setups where just turning the box round has transformed performance.

Thanks again, I'll bear that in mind.  However, they live in small modern flat and the separation of PC and Router will be only about 20ft, with a couple of (stud partition) walls in between, so I suspect signal strength won't be too big an issue.   I've actually got an old 'cheap as chips' card lying in a cupboard somewhere.  I used to have it in an old wreck that I use for kernel device driver testing when I work from home, and I may just pass that onto them as I now (smug smug) have the luxury of Cat 5 everywhere.  Trouble is, it worked well, but the admin GUI was a bit temperamental which might make it harder to explain to him by phone when any issues subsequently arise.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Please regard this as just an interim update, which I hope will raise a smile, as well as maybe emphasising some of the real difficulties involved in this kind of endeavour.

Mum & Dad got their PC, and their router, and their DSL, all delivered last week.  He's trying to get DSL going now.

He has no phone socket in the room where his computer is, so I'd hoped to be able to get his PC talking to the router over ethernet, and then configure wireless, and disconnect ethernet and take the router to the room with the phone socket is.  No way!  It seems, AOL insist uon using some kind of setup wizard,  and the darned setup CD insists upon PC & router & BT line all being connected together for the entire duration. 

So, I thought, I'll not use the wizard, I'll talk him through the configuration, how hard can that be?   The router's a Speedtouch 585 (don't know which 'V') but I've a 585V7 in a cupboard, so thought I'd hook up my own to use as example, and then talk him through what I was doing to configure it.  It was clear that  plan was doomed after I lost a good hour just trying to explain what I meant by the 'address bar' in IE.  It seems he's never typed an address into explorer, I think he's just allowed some AOL (or DELL?) search utility to find what it deems to be appropriate when he wants to visit (say) amazon.  Scary.

A few years ago, when they were on dial up, I gave him a modem-compatible DECT line extender which was a godsend as he was able to do away with the trailing lead, all through the house, that fed the PC.  Unfortunately of course, he'd assumed that the DECT link would also be the way to connect his router.  You know, I can't fault him for that.  It's 'blindingly obvious' that you can't run DSL over a DECT link, but why should it be obvious to him?  After all, all the plugs & sockets fitted, so "surely that'll work then?"

Tonight's phone call came from a neighbours house because "AOL said I had to disconnect all the phones".  Grrrrr.

Anyroads, thanks again for all advice. I look most of it on board, except the bit how to avoid AOL without losing email addresses.  We live and learn.  And despite all frustrations, Dad's thoroughly enjoying himself   

[kitz]

lol...  when I read parts of it I could sooooooo relate - particularly when it came to the typing address into IE...  I almost wondered if you were my brother for a min  - till I realised that no way would I let my dad go AOL .  Ive so been there done that with the rest of it.
 

[roseway]

If your Dad's enjoying himself 7LM that's the most important bit.

[mr_chris]

I think he's just allowed some AOL (or DELL?) search utility to find what it deems to be appropriate when he wants to visit (say) amazon.  Scary.

The number of people who do this is unbelievable. I'd say well more than half of the kids at school do this too - why type www.youtube.com when you can just type youtube.. or utube or whatever and google will invariably find it? I kinda see the logic actually!

It's funny, when I hear them telling each other about sites they like, instead of just giving the address, even if it's a simple one, the instructions invariably start "go on google and type... "

Although the number of people that type the full website address into a search bar is also quite amazing.

This all probably comes from the fact that the address bar normally contains so much gobbledegook that it's viewed almost as "computer thing" that they don't need to bother about, perhaps?

[sevenlayermuddle]

The trouble with letting search engines find the site is that they might accidentally hit on some malicious, or otherwise undesirable site, that includes the same string as the domain name you're after. 

Another thing that annoys me on this front is that when I mis-type something in the address bar (say,  I miss a letter from 'johnlewis.com',  so the browser fails to open it, I want to just go back and fix the missing letter.  I don't want to be redirected to some seacrh engine, as that way I lose the original text and have type it all in again. 

That should just be a case of (un-)ticking the 'search from address bar' in options/advanced.  But on anything I've bought from Dell recently it's not so easy.  You have to jump through a lot of hoops to stop the Dellware from intervening, regardless of whether you've ticked that box.

Oh dear, am I beginning to sound like BBC's "Grumpy old Men"?

[UncleUB]

Oh dear, am I beginning to sound like BBC's "Grumpy old Men"?

Not at all Mr Meldrew. 

[sevenlayermuddle]

I don't believe it.