Buying a computer through work

pistol · Post by **pistol** » 24 Aug 2007, 22:52

smokerjim wrote:How do you get one of these pcs ( I presume on the never-never ) cos mine frankly was obselete when I bought it ( it was my first & I've learned a lot since then )

Jim mate,iv'e heard that theyv'e stopped the scheme now but basically,i got a brand new top-o-the range pc,i get money deducted from my wages for 3 years,almost up now,you pay over the top but you don't really miss it.it's on loan to you so it's not never-never persay,if it goes wrong they sort it for you then at the end of the 3 year period you pay Â£35 and it's yours.if it's still running could you let me know as a mate at work has asked me to find out more.cheers

smokerjim · Post by **smokerjim** » 24 Aug 2007, 23:11

pistol wrote:
smokerjim wrote:How do you get one of these pcs ( I presume on the never-never ) cos mine frankly was obselete when I bought it ( it was my first & I've learned a lot since then )
Jim mate,iv'e heard that theyv'e stopped the scheme now but basically,i got a brand new top-o-the range pc,i get money deducted from my wages for 3 years,almost up now,you pay over the top but you don't really miss it.it's on loan to you so it's not never-never persay,if it goes wrong they sort it for you then at the end of the 3 year period you pay Â£35 and it's yours.if it's still running could you let me know as a mate at work has asked me to find out more[/b].cheers

Cheers pistol, and if it is still running, I'd be interested also.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 24 Aug 2007, 23:24

The computer one has stopped,but the bike one's still going i think.

smokerjim · Post by **smokerjim** » 24 Aug 2007, 23:48

POSTMAN wrote:The computer one has stopped,but the bike one's still going i think.

What sort of bike? A proper bike, with an engine & gearbox or a piece of s**t with pedals ( Mailstar, anyone? )

Post by **POSTMAN** » 24 Aug 2007, 23:53

smokerjim wrote:
POSTMAN wrote:The computer one has stopped,but the bike one's still going i think.
What sort of bike? A proper bike, with an engine & gearbox or a piece of s**t with pedals ( Mailstar, anyone? )

Beforenineoclockgoodone · Post by **Beforenineoclockgoodone** » 25 Aug 2007, 12:19

I got the cheaper of the three at the time so when mine is up in Nov I may buy a flat screen & do away with the Lexmark printer, have you seen the price of the Ink for those things?

Post by **POSTMAN** » 25 Aug 2007, 12:36

Beforenineoclockgoodone wrote:I got the cheaper of the three at the time so when mine is up in Nov I may buy a flat screen & do away with the Lexmark printer, have you seen the price of the Ink for those things?

Yeah,Lexmark ink sucks,printers are 10 a penny now,i need a new one just so i can get cheaper ink!

Post by **Carnoustie** » 25 Aug 2007, 17:51

smokerjim wrote:
What sort of bike? A proper bike, with an engine & gearbox or a piece of s**t with pedals ( Mailstar, anyone? )

Nah, it's a pedal-bike. The CWU are trying to encourage people not to use their private cars on deliveries, but I think Leighton and Crozier are hoping they will use their own cycles instead

Post by **dvbuk55** » 25 Aug 2007, 17:56

POSTMAN wrote:The computer one has stopped,but the bike one's still going i think.

I tried sending an e mail on a bike once but it didn't work.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 25 Aug 2007, 18:31

dvbuk55 wrote:
POSTMAN wrote:The computer one has stopped,but the bike one's still going i think.
I tried sending an e mail on a bike once but it didn't work.

Hmmm depends,Broadbands ok but dial up no chance!!

catch · Post by **catch** » 26 Aug 2007, 02:26

AVG free edition and zonealarm firewall (also free) work fine.

It's also worth having spybotsearchanddestroy and adaware installed since they catch some tracking cookies and malware that antivirus can be slow to pick up on or ignores.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 26 Aug 2007, 04:30

catch wrote:It's also worth having spybotsearchanddestroy and adaware installed since they catch some tracking cookies and malware that antivirus can be slow to pick up on or ignores.

Got both of those and ASquared and "Advanced Windows Care" both are pretty good at catching what the other 2 miss. I also have windows defender as a final back up but don't rate it much.

norbet colon · Post by **norbet colon** » 26 Aug 2007, 10:49

TrueBlueTerrier wrote:
catch wrote:It's also worth having spybotsearchanddestroy and adaware installed since they catch some tracking cookies and malware that antivirus can be slow to pick up on or ignores.
Got both of those and ASquared and "Advanced Windows Care" both are pretty good at catching what the other 2 miss. I also have windows defender as a final back up but don't rate it much.

This MAY answer some people's issues - The Computer purchase through work was stopped as it turned into a fiddle for firms to get new computers which were "supposed to be" for staff's "personal" use. New Lie-bour also had a scheme stopped, where people could get IT Training , however less than scrupulous firms were getting government money for providing training which never materalized ,which was unfortunate for people who'd applied in good faith. Typical New Lie-bour " blue-sky thinking " like the Tax Credits fisacio , didn't work very well in practice . Remember Brown was responsible for these cock-ups and now he's Prime Minister.
There was a scheme that you paid Â£20 for the Broadband and got a free PC ( supposedly worth Â£500} and a good LG Monitor& after 3 years the gear was yours ; but the firm went bust .
Broadband's a joke in this country , people in Europe pay Â£6/7 a month , service & speeds are far better . Problem is a antiquated infrastructure is only really for phone calls . Whether a lot of this can be laid at the door of deregulation and privatisation is "interesting ".
Windows XP's problem is a ricketey firewall, apparently Microsoft have to know everything you are doing with your computers but it means there's a way into the back of your computer ; which can be exploited . To be fair to Uncle Bill, XP did come out in 2002 and there has been a increase in usage and different ideas as to what people want from thier computers like Web 2.0 , Media / Entertainment etc which wasn't a option back then .Plenty of unscrupulous people to exploit these weaknesses . Vista is a improvement but it eats memory and is expensive , 15.5 Gig on the Harddrive .Vista is just a rip off of Mac OSX Tiger which came out in 2005 . If you can get a " HackIntosh" from a P2P and put Mac Tiger on a pc you're laughing !, 10,000 e-mails to Dell to keep XP on thier machines , to say Uncle Bill has upset a few people is a understatement . Even Michael Dell has Linux Ubuntu on his computer. Dell only sells Ubuntu loaded machines in the States but it's certainly upset Uncle Bill.
Virus and Security Protection is a absolute rip off , I got hold off someone's Computer Shopper , they used 251 viruses they'd found in a fortnight which usually went for Outlook Express MS E-mail programme then they downloaded 183 Malware Programmes to see what the Security Software could catch . They should catch 76% on Email and 32% from the web.
RESULTS
ALWIL Avast 4.7 Home Edition ( Free} - Poor E-mail detection - even worse spyware 44% Email - 22.4 Web **
BULLGUARD 7 - Â£35 ( Complete Security Suite ) 73% E-mail 31% Web ****( Any Security Question will be answered within 1hr for Licence Holders)
ESNET NOD 32 2.7 - Â£27 - 76% & 46% ****( can be bought for old systems like 95 & ME -which is ****)
F -SECURE ANTI-VIRUS 2007 42.6% & 63.1% ( You have to do a Manual Scan to catch the nasties it didn't catch on Auto Scan ) ( The Licence can go on 3 PCs) Â£28 -*****
GRISOFT AVG ANTI-VIRUS FREE 7.5 67%& 49% **** - thrashes MCAFEE & NORTON -ONLY COMPLAINT OLD FASHIONED INTERFACE -On Windows 95/98& ME can do a rescue disc if the Harddrive's infected .
KAPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS 6 -Â£28 91%& & 48%-Email notification system off other people's PCs if they've encounterd viruses. Also you can make a bootable CD if the PC is very infected .
MCAFEE VIRUS SCAN PLUS 2007 -Â£20 ***-75%e-mail-16% web -does have a firewall
PANDA ANTIVIRUS 2007 Â£17 89% Email - 11% Web - Friendly Interface , not complicated - Can go on 2 PCs with it's Licence ***
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2007 Â£27 75%&28% Web Malware - Easy to use ***
STEGANOS ANTI-VIRUS 2007 -Â£20 90% & 45% Spyware etc *****- THIS IS THE SAME AS KASPERSKY just a few cosmetic differences Â£12 to renew after 12 months
AVG was better than Softwin Bit -Defender & Trend Micro PC -cillin
As for Lexmark Printers and Scanners ,they'll sell you something cheap but they'll more than get thier money back off you with the cartridges . Some of the cheap Chinese Refills are supposed to be crap , Computeractive is a excellent magazine, written in plain, English deals well with people's consumer issues and thier letters/emails. There's adverts for compatible cartridges , free downloads with programmes , competitions , good website . If you get a subscription you get the magazine for 92p a issue and it comes 1C before it's on the magazine racks .
My source Computer Shopper April 2007 www.computershopper.co.uk
I'm not some expert /geek or nerd , I just read or listen to people who do know. I've only had mine since April , my only experience was going on OCR / OCNW courses in my own time at a community centre underneath the stand of the not so mighty Lillywhites ground . League 1 beckons , beaten by Morecambe at home . lost to WBA away ,hammered by B*****d Rovers in a friendly, even the substitutes and bench booed the team off at half time against Colchester yesterday. We're in the capable hands of Simpleton and dear old Uncle Derek , no ambition just sell all your players to the opposition the Premiership & Championship is a A-Z of former Knob-Enders .There's the Lashers and the Dingles to come !.
www.computeractive.co.uk