Hello Clive, Monday, November 11, 2002, 1:52:51 AM, you wrote:
<snip> Maybe tbudl will tolerate one last OT post on this thread. Then let's move to tbot? (I hope you're subscribed there.) MB>> I'm about to hire my local ISP (who have given me reliable MB>> trustworthy service for 5 years) to build my dream machine MB>> for me. CT> Curious to know why a ISP should be in the business of building and CT> supporting PCs. ... I used the term ISP loosely. It is a local company which has a "computer sales" business as part of its services. Among those services is ISP. This is not unheard of. In another state, last summer, the ISP (local domain--would that be a way to put it?) of my sister, which has an actual computer store and lab attached as part of its business, built a machine for her from generic parts. They used everything they could out of her old machine, to keep down costs. Klez-h had done a major mean number on hers. So she transferred no data. She just supplied them with the cds for the old applications she wished to keep. Mine is in good shape except for being way too small; an old Compaq tower, not simple to upgrade; running Win95B; and not interfacing well with the HP LaserJet 6L black-and-white printer. Plus all the symptoms point to a diagnosis that the Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES monitor is "overscanning," such that I have no vertical scroll bar and cannot reach the corners of "windows" to re-size them. All this hardware will be five years old in January. Time for a change, wouldn't most agree? In the best interests of Mary and The Bat!? CT> How local is this ISP? It is truly local. The owners live here. They were just beginning to expand when I signed on as a customer in 1998. As a courtesy to me, they brought in the boxes from the trunk of my car--I had bought everything "off the shelf" at the in-town branch of a chain office supply store--set it up on the computer desk which I'd just had delivered from a local furniture store, and showed me the "on button" and the modem icon and the e-mail client program icon on the Desktop. They had installed Netscape at my request. I had bought Microsoft Office Small Business Edition and Eudora Pro 4.0 also at the office supply store. The ISP technician had put these on for me as well. I was truly a beginner. This was at no charge to me. Future house calls would be $35 an hour (US dollars). I never needed any. They did give me support over the phone once or twice--no charge, of course. This is a small city. Population about 50,000. The last time I was at the Premiernet website I believe they were saying their ISP customer base (mostly businesses) was under 2,000. CT> What computer equipment do they CT> offer and how do prices compare to, say, Dell or other mainstream CT> manufacturers? They are offering anything I wish. Just as a ballpark offer (and I mean to buy a much larger hard drive and more RAM than quoted): They wrote me that they could build me a machine, with the price including a new monitor comparable to my old one, and, read on ( :) ): With an HD of 40 GB and 128 MB of RAM, a Pentium 4 chip, Windows 98SE (my own choice for OS) and transfer all my data and applications for $1100 US. We haven't discussed length of warranty yet. This is for all new parts. I don't wish to keep any components from the old Compaq. The offer includes a good upgradeable case with plenty of expansion room and good fans. BTW, the technician is coming to pick up the Tower and test it to see if it is my old monitor or something else making my vertical scroll bar and "windows" corners inaccessible, on Tuesday morning, November 12. That's tomorrow. At that time we will arrange all the specs and the final price of what I am engaging them to build for me. Any further discussion OT on this thread--carry on privately or on tbot? I'm still open to input on the specifications for my new system. -- Best regards, Mary ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
