Can you buy PCs that don't connect to t'internet?

[MrsMuddle]

Two DSs, both in secondary school, both with lots of homework. A bit of research, but mostly writing. They all seem to do it on PC, save it on a stick and take stick to school. Fair enough.

I'd like to get them a small (notebook?) between them for Xmas, just for doing homework on. I DON'T want them to be able to get MSN or any internet stuff on it. They can get the internet on the family PC. It's too big a distraction when they do homework - I know that they're MSNing at the same time, and then homework's taking ages to do.

We have wireless broadband, if that makes a difference.

Can anyone help?

Most new notebooks have a wireless internet connection built in, but it doesn't have to work!

The best solution would be to use your broadband router's administration pages to block them from the network, but this can be tricky to set up.

Alternatively, do they know the wireless network key, or can you change it? You need to enter the key when setting up wireless on the notebook, so if they don't know it, they can't connect.

Simplest of all would be to unplug the router when they are on the notebook.

Thanks for this. When you say the "wireless netwok key" do you mean the long number?

I could unplug the router, but then I wouldn't be able to mumsnet all night work from home in the evening.

I have twice deleted a long spiel about how to do this, but in a nutshell. If its never been connected to the internet/router at your place it will need to be set up. I think that if its not set up then it will not connect as you will be required to set it up and put the 'network key' in, in the first place. If you were to buy it from a shop, then any techie there would be able to disable it, aswell, for you before you get home.

wot stubble said - most laptops now have a wireless switch to actually enable the wireless connection, but even if they figured out where that was the connection would still need to be set up and if they don't have the 'key' they won't be able to.

To triple protect, get the sales guy to switch wireless off in the BIOS.

Definitely get wireless switched off in the BIOS, because just because they can't get on your wireless won't mean they won't be able to get on someone else's, if there is an unsecured wireless network nearby.

Thank you all. I knew I'd get a sensible answer here!

Personally I wouldn't go for BIOS settings - far too easy to reverse ('Hit Del for BIOS entry' or whatever is a bit of a clue). Even removing the wireless/TCP/IP etc. drivers in Network Settings can easily be sorted with a USB flash drive.

Thinking about it some more, parental control software is the way to go. You could even use this to allow sensible surfing, but disable MSN/Bebo/Facebook etc. Look at the Parental Controls built in to Windows Vista, or use an Internet Security Suite (Kaspersky, AVG, McAfee etc.)

And yes, the big number on a sticker underneath your modem is probably the network key.