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Buying your first computer? Read this!

richfolkes

New member
For those who are setting up their first computer; some advice to avoid various traps.

Purchasing:

If you are purchasing a new computer, and you don't know where to start; it is advisable not to purchase one off the shelf from one of the major stores such as Office Depot. Such is the most common mistake made by a first time computer buyer. The computers from the major stores are mainstream machines which are aimed at large businesses, schools, colleges, universities, government departments, etc. Such machines are designed to be purchased in quantity for typing pools, offices, classrooms and so on; installed and maintained by contractors, depreciated by the accountants and then auctioned off at the end of their depreciation period.

One should contact a friend in computers, or an IT teacher or professional to take care of the purchasing side of things.

Getting on the Internet:

If you are getting the Internet on for the first time, choosing the plan is important.

Don't choose the base plan. The operating system of the computer, the anti virus and other software programs will have automatic updates working as soon as you get online. And in many cases, the automatic updates will chew up your entire download allowance within 24-72 hours. And that's before you even get a chance to surf the 'Net.

If the ISP charges for excess downloads, say 10 cents per extra megabyte, and the download allowance is 500 meg; you download 3 gigabytes worth of data within that month, you end up with a bill of more than $300 in that first month. So much for the $14.95 per month they promised you for high speed internet access.

Or if the ISP speed limits your internet access once the download allowance is reached, you end up wondering why the Internet is so slow and end up asking the ISP some questions that many people end up asking. They then spell out to you the contract terms and you realise what happened, or still end up wondering how you used up your entire allowance within the first day.

You are best to choose a mid range plan which has a download allowance of say 5 gigabytes per month. Hence the automatic updates will not eat up your download allowance. Nor will your broadband speed be slowed down.

So more or less, there is as much risk in buying new computers and purchasing Internet access as there is in buying used cars and taking out insurance policies respectively.
 
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