For the most part I am the go-to-gal for my mom wrt computers. Letter written? Me. Look something up on the net? Me. Something wrong with the computer at church? Here I am.
She was garage sale-ing last week and bought herself a computer. sigh
I went over today and set it up. It’s not horrible, especially for her planned use. She’s not going to be downloading music, playing huge games or anything like that. Word, solitaire, e-mail, Google and the Food Channel.com are her main interests. Due to a monitor problem I was not able to note specifics of the system. I did purchase a new (used) monitor and will hopefully be able to navigate without the monitor turning itself off/on every 5 seconds.
However, it’s running Windows 95. I haven’t used Windows 95 in eons. I know of no ISP that works with Windows 95. Considering how little she spent on the whole set up, she will not spend a heck of a lot to move up to at least Windows 98, let alone XP.
My question(s) to you:
Are there any ISP’s that will run with Windows 95 anymore? If so, are they halfway decent and cheap?
Tell me of a cheap way to get her moved up to at least Windows 98
Side note: Mom used to work with 95 and 98. She tried to navigate on my computer with XP and became confused. She is in the first stages of alzheimers so the simpler the better.
ISP’s don’t care what OS you’re running, though the easiest would be with cable or DSL where it just appears to the computer as a network connection. If she’s just wanting a dialup connection, I’d go with one where you can just set it up in network connections rather than having to load software like Earthlink. It would still work, but it’s just another layer of complication.
I’d hit eBay for a full or upgrade 98 CD unless you’re in an area that has an electronics flea market.
Windows 95 is great for word and solitaire. For everything else, on the list, it’s downright horrid. Windows 98 isn’t going to be much better. The minimum specs (IMHO) for what she needs is an old 300 or 400 MHz computer running Windows 2000 with AVG anti-virus (free) and Firefox (also free). I don’t know what she paid for that computer, but people toss 300 MHz machines into the trash these days.
If you are absolutely determined to get 98 working, you will probably have to set up the networking manually, whether it’s modem, dsl, or cable. ISP installations don’t put some “magic” into the computer. They just set up the operating system’s own network connections in a way that works for the ISP. You don’t need to use the ISP’s install disk (chances are the ISP’s disk won’t work with 95 or 98). All you have to do is set up the network connection the same way that the ISP’s disk would set it up.
The music sites are mostly requiring XP or Vista to use their services.
Once you have to buy a couple things like a OS and a card or two, you will have wasted money that would have bought a new bare bones system. People like your mom don’t understand that a new system could be almost paid for by the money they did a couple upgrades with. Using an old system can be harder than a new one, because of all the support issues. Do you want mom to call you all the time?
I visited my mom a few years ago, and brought my ancient (1998) laptop along. Screaming 166mHz processor! w00t!!1 I ran into a problem when I tried to check my email with it. My ISP had recently changed to 128-bit encryption on their WebMail. No problem, I’ll just download a new version of IE. Only there weren’t any 128-bit-capable downloads available for Win95.
If it was me, I’d get her a basic new computer with Vista (since XP generally needs to be special-ordered anymore, but you can walk in and get a basic Vista 'puter at Wal-Mart in about 5 minutes, take it home, set it up, plug it in, and bingo) and set up everything with icons on the desktop. “Click this for foodchannel, click this for e-mail…” That’s about as rock-bottom simple as it gets.
Her early-stage Alzheimers means that she should start learning new computer habits now, and start un-learning all the 95 and 98 computer habits she may have. So I’d have her start learning now to “click the icons” for what she wants, and start un-learning “Start” or “Programs”. She’s not going to be able to retain learning her way around XP or Vista the way she already knows how to navigate around 95.
I’d just give her a desktop with a few icons. And I’d also investigate cable or DSL, since dialup is going to be too slow for her increasingly short attention span–as her Alzheimers gets worse, she’s going to forget what she was doing by the time her website loads, with dialup.
I too have a late lamented Win95 computer down in the basement gathering dust, as well as a WinME. And I’ve got two XPs and a Vista upstairs. Really, don’t let the anti-Vista people scare you: Vista works fine for normal everyday use. But definitely pop for the increased RAM, it makes a big difference.
None of this is a low-budget solution, I realize, but then, computers aren’t intrinsically a cheap hobby. But this is what I would do if it was my mom, and if I thought she would listen to me.
Considering my personal computer is a pieced together hunk of bleep, and I can only dream of being able to purchase a new computer for myself, providing her with one is out of the question.
I did tell her that she probably will not be able to get online and that finding a printer will be nigh on impossible. “Oh.” And, WRT music? I mean she will NOT care about that stuff. She is just now getting comfortable with CD’s. Whenever she sees my mp3 player I have to explain it. Let’s not discuss DVD’s and how they will NOT play in the CD player.
If anything I did point out that on Black Friday she can get a basic system for like $250 at WalMart - one that she would just be able to plug in and go. We’ll see what happens.
I don’t think the transition from Win95 to Ubuntu would be any more difficult or problematic, either in terms of user experience, or driver support, than the transition from Win95 to Vista. However, this is not one of those cases where I’m going to make the argument for Ubuntu.
My suggestion would be to get an XP machine from a surplus reseller and set the visual theme to ‘classic’ - it will look almost exactly like Windows 9x - I can’t think of any situation (apart from the adverse ones like random crashes and limited multi-tasking that were more common in Win95) where it wouldn’t behave almost the same as Windows 9x too.
If you we not so far away, I’d just give you a 98se system all ready to go. I do that here for old folks and poor folks and kids who’s parents won’t pony up for a system for them, really need on to keep up with all others in school stuff.
I am on WIN98SE BOX RIGHT NOW!!! Our main use puters in the house are 98se’s + a Linux box and XP pro laptop.
Got LAN cards and modems, USB cards etc. All works great, even on a Satellite hook up.
Call the local Tech college, usually have a computer club that will help you. Also local computer repair places, independent kind, they have a lot of old parts that they might sell cheap. I have lots of 128 & 256 meg sticks of SDRAM that cost next to nothing.
Sending you an email if I can, maybe I can help you.
Hey-I ran with dial up to AT&T on my Win 95 box, but I quit using their crappy software and configured OE to do the job. 12 years later, still on dial up, but using XP. Some of us live where there isn’t cable or DSL.
Missy, I’ve got a PCI NIC card that came with my old Dell 8100 that shipped running WinMe (and what an abortion of an OS that POS was.) Finding drivers won’t be a problem either that way. I’m sure the box has a modem but if not I’ve got one of those too. Unfortunately, the modem is here and the NIC card is in Albuquerque, but I can probably get my folks to pull that card out of the tower (I pretty much stripped it, but there’s a couple things left in it) and send it down here. Or I’ve still got that internal DSL modem Dag lent me (you want that back Dag?) that should work if she got DSL.
IM me sometime. I think I’ve got some stuff that can help.
Oh, let me guess. You’re still running the Fischer-Price UI scheme on your copy of XP. The “classic” version (which is what I run) is exactly the same (well, close enough) as the Win95 interface. I don’t blame her for being confused. The first thing I do when someone asks me to help with their XP box is to switch back to the older interface because remembering how to navigate that new UI takes me twice as long.
