computer illiterate needs your help..please anyone!

[hex]

Am completely useless so needs basic questions answering...

1. Can I download free windows 2000 (or later) or do i have to buy it (have windows 987 at mo which won't let me access ikea kitchen design site)

2. I know it sounds stupid but can i really be on broadband (this is what tiscali are charging me for) as it's so slow and when i type in my password, a box comes up 'dial-up'...??? can broadband be 'dial-up' too then (we don't have cable)? I thought they were different things??
   Any help much appreciated!

(1) No

(2) Yes. Broadband (ASDL) means that you use the telephone line (in the same way as you did with 'dial up' - but it's meant to be quicker. Very slow broadband service can indicate that your computer is infested with nasties. Do you have an antivirus client and firewall running?

Thanks.
Any ideas about how much it is?

And I have no idea about firewall. We had Norton sthg or other that came with the computer. Can I download free virus software, etc then or do I need to buy that?

Too much to justify for Ikea kitchen design!!!!

Seriously, a hundred quid or so.

You want this site for free antivirus and antispyware

I tried IKEA kithcen design and was unimpressed. I could not find any symbols for laundry (washing machines and tumber dryer). If you go to any big DIY chain, they will do a kitchen design for free.

You need to go into the Internet settings on your Control Panel and tell it to stop using the dial up connection.

You can't get a legal version of later Windows, and there's a good chance that if you did, your PC would be too old to run it well.

The Ikea thing is probably down to you running an old version of Internet Explorer, which you can upgrade for free.

You ought to upgrade that by going to the downloads section of Microsoft.com, or maybe choosing to use Firefox on www.firefox.com

errrm... ..sort of agree with DC. If you're running windows 98 then your pc is likely to be a little under-specced for XP although windows 2000 might be fine... ..what're the specs?? Right click on My Computer icon, click properties and it'll tell you what processor and how much RAM you've got.

Disagree on the 'stop dial-up' bit - some USB adsl modems do appear as dial-up connections so you can appear to be on dial-up but the connection is actually establlished through the USB adsl modem..

Slow connection speed could be down to anything including slow computer, bad line, high contention for adsl services at your exchange (remember most adsl is a 50:1 contention ratio so you may experience slow connections at busy times if you live in a high contention area), could be that you've got a virus that's hammering the connection so take a look at some of the free virus software etc that's been mentioned.

As for browsers, Microsofts Internet Explorer 7 is for XP SP2 and higher so firefox 2 would probably be your best bet - or Opera
www.firefox.com or www.opera.com

And if you're looking for free sofware then take a look over at www.tucows.com