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Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:03 pm
by Great Plum
Wow, the boarding houses have Wifi?????

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:35 pm
by wurzel
I was guessing about house wifi - as it is now so cheap to set up I would expect it as easier for people to use laptops etc. I set up the office wifi to a reasonable high security standard for under £100 which was a wireless router and 6 wireless cards for the pc's, now anybody with a laptop or mobile device can (as long as I give them the SSID & key) connect via our wifi. The router also allows blacklisting of certain addresses in it's inbuilt software.

I personally use a pay as you go basic phone but that is because i am either in an office with desk phone and internet access, at home in a mobile dead spot or likely riding a motorbike where answering a phone is a tad tricky. The last PAYG I got was a nokia from Robert Dyas on Orange that cost £12 without a compulsory top up.

It depends how often you talk to your child as to whether that will make sense - i only ever rang my mum < 1 per week and never spent over 10p (zero on the old phone that you could shout into before the pips) as she rang back but I know some people like more communication so was giving an option

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:10 pm
by CHDad
I believe there is wi fi but the younger pupils do not have access to it.

My son does have a phone that can reecive e.mail, what he has found very useful is that the school IT dept have now set his phone up so that it can receive his CH e.mails. Every pupil gets an e.mail address at the school and it would appear that a lot of communication from teachers to pupils is by e.mail. That is fine if you regularly log onto a computer in the house to check your messages, however my son was missing music lessons etc because he had not checked his e.mails, there is always the noticeboard in music school but D.S not organised enough for that!

I do not think an e.mail phone is at all neccesary for a new second former (cheap phone that txts and calls is all that is req'd), however as they move up through the school it does become quite useful.

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:25 pm
by wickedwitch
daughter needed to access her emails after she returned home - is there a way of doing that externally ? She doesnt have the capacity to receive emails on her phone though apparently "absolutely everyone else in her house does" !!!

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:10 pm
by CHDad
I think my son knows, he had an e.mail from school about this. If I can find out from him I will P.M or e.mail you the instructions.

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 8:41 am
by YadaYada
I have PM'd you with how to do it :)

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:18 am
by Mrs C.
I don`t know about Wi-fi in Avenue houses, but I believe Grecians Houses may get it "sometime over the summer".... which summer is anyone`s guess!!

I`ll be able to take my laptop to work with me when/if it ever happens!

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:47 pm
by wickedwitch
thanks for that xx

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:07 am
by eowyn3099
My DS starts this Sept and we have just reluctantly gone down the phone route too! We are T-mobile so made sense for him to have the same for free calls to each other, We paid £20 for a basic t-mobile phone that has blackberry pretension! (In looks only not useage, lol)! We pay £15 per month but for that he gets unlimited texts and 300 mins of calls. The phone is capable of getting internet access and writing and receiving emails, but we have blocked this for the moment. If we need to add it later we can do so through T-mobiles flex benefits, but frankly I'd rather not go there! The plus point of this package is that once he has used his call allowance it blocks all further outbound calls, so I know we won't get any additional bills, which was my main worry. This way if he has run out of call time, he can just text and ask to be called back! :D

Re: Mobile phones

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:02 pm
by sejintenej
wickedwitch wrote:daughter needed to access her emails after she returned home - is there a way of doing that externally ? She doesnt have the capacity to receive emails on her phone though apparently "absolutely everyone else in her house does" !!!
IF she has a semi-recent lap-top then she should be able to pick up WiFi. A lot of places have WiFi with varying degrees of security; my local MacDonalds has totally unsecured WiFi (you don't even need their reference code) whilst several local coffee bars also have them - you get the code with a cup of coffee / tea / whatever and it is a permanent one (just remember it / write it down). Having found a suitable place then you simply need to be within 50 or 100 yards of the place - in the carpark for example and depending on your lap-top you may not even need the code the second time.. (I did this a month or so ago when the entire internet system went down - there were 7 different WiFi systems available in the square). Alternatively there are always internet cafes which cost.
HTH