Looking to give my family back in Pommyland some IT advice as apparently I know something about it! They need a laptop and ISP.

Am looking at a Dell Inspiron 1345, which comes in at about GBP350... Are there any other current deals/manufatcurers anyone would recommend? One of the key factors here is my understanding of Dell's service when things go wrong, as the family member buying it isn't that technically minded.

Also who would be a good ISP? Not necessarily looking for absolute best speed, but anyone who does actually give reasonable customer service without needing to be on the phone to Bangalore for 6 hours! This would be for Telford in Shropshire.

TIA
2R

I'd recommend Dell as their kit is reliable and service is first rate. I have 4 Dells round the house and have only ever had probelms with the work laptops I have - and the service is excellent for those as well. RRS TDV6 SE Java Black +towpack +tintent +Permagrin

What a difference between this and my old Disco3
Formerly mxgeldar7

I don't live a million miles away from Telford and I use Virgin Media as my ISP. If your relative lives in an area covered by Virgin cable network they could do alot worse.

Virgin are currently upgrading certain areas to 50mb broadband. Arctic Frost TDV6 SE. Aspen Leather, Cherry Wood, Privacy Glass, PTI, Tow Pack, Mudflaps, Tasmods, a new Fuelflap, a RRSport.co.uk umbrella in the boot & a RRSport.co.uk sticker on the rear glass.
__________________

Some people accuse me of thinking the world revolves around me, but I'm not stupid . . . I know it revolves around the sun. Which shines out of my @rse!!!

Go for 02 broadband....speeds up to 20mb....fatest phone line IP in UK

2nd I have a dell for business, the only reason being the company use them, i would not waste my own cash on them to be honest, out of a long line of Work laptops, from IBM, Tosh, etc, the Dell i find to be the most frustrating .. and sloooww. For a home user Dell no doubt will stack up their with the rest of the mid range laptops.

Personally i would get a mac i just got the new macbook 13" for my daughter who is at college, excellent bit of kit and less likely for the IT illiterate to them up Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

p.s. Up to 2005 i was a NTL customer with NTL Home including high speed internet, not an experience i would wish on anyone Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

Last edited by Zilch on Mon Mar 16 2009 8:23am. Edited 1 time in total

you won't super speeds in Telford I'm afraid, although I believe things are changing at the minute. My offices are in Telford and we use BT - very reliable and consistantly get 8Mb which is plenty fast enough imho.

In case of avoiding Indian Call Centres, you could try 'Plusnet'

Kaine

I use an ACER Travelmate 5720 for work and it's fine but cannot compare it to Dell as never used one. Runner up - 2009 Best Avatar Award
Joint runner up - 2009 Outstanding Contribution Award
WINNER - 2008 ‘Best Thread’ Award – Beautiful Women Of The World
Runner Up - 2008 Comedian Of The Year Award
Runner Up - 2008’s Funniest Incident

06 RRS TDV6 HSE, Java/Ebony, PTI, Running Boards, Privacy, S/C Grille/Vents, Stormers, Tasmods - GONE - (

Dell kit is perfectly fine, over the years I've experienced 1000s of Dell laptops and PCs, with excellent service from their call centre, which isn't in India. You probably won't get the absolute best deal as far as cost goes, but if you're concerned about support capability then it's worth paying the extra £20/30 that the Dell might cost you over something less well known.

As K said, for the ISP go with Plusnet. I've been with them across various homes for about 8 years now. Speeds are good, and the customer service is excellent either by phone or by their online help system.

 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

Like it here? Then Donate to RRSPORT!!

HP for a laptop -very reliable. My experiences of Dell laptops are not good although these have been work provided and maintained. I was looking at mac books yesterday and was stunned at how poor the storage space was.

ISP - cable if you can get it in your relatives area. If not - any ISP that doesn't "share" your bandwidth with other users at the exchange. If they don't have access to cable check out www.adslguide.org for best copper based providers. Also check the distance of your relatives from their local exchange if they opt for adsl - anything over 3 Km and performance starts to degrade quite badly. WINNER - 2009 Best Newcomer Award
'09 TDV6 XS Stornaway Grey

'06 BMW 730 D SE (Gone)
'08 A4 TDi SLine Avant (Gone)
Large pack of Flake Cakes (Gone)
6 pack of Guiness (Gone)

i have to admit my latest HP is a disappointment - very unreliable and crashes/hangs and locks up frequently. I am seriously considering sending it back

Its a high spec HP 6735b - not good at all

Just my recent experience.

Kaine

btw I am a HP fan

Business has 3 HP Laptops, 1 HP Server, 1 HP Desktop, HP A1 Plotter and HP Laser Printer so normally I am very pro HP

My work laptop is an HP too.... it's OK, but the screen is

Higher end HP laptops are quite decent though. Seems to me that the major concern for 2nd's folks isn't the highest spec laptop and fastest ISP, more the reliability and available support. 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

Like it here? Then Donate to RRSPORT!!

HP's are being introduced at work and those that have them prefer the HP's in terms of overall reliability and performance over the existing dells.. Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

Zilch - my experience has been the same until this latest Laptop - my colleague has a lower spec 6735b too and he has similar issues. Maybe a glitch with the 6735b??

Kaine