You may have used a computer at work or at friends or are upgrading an old computer to one with Internet access. Whatever computer you buy and are intending to connect to the Internet you will need the following information before you can switch it on and start up.

Hopefully some of you are reading this before you go through the drama I went through when I purchased my new Internet computer. I read through the handbook before connecting up to the telephone. The small piece of information missing was that I needed an e-mail address to register my computer and software. I didn't know how or where to get one from! Decide what name (your name or nickname) and a password you will remember. Most new computers come with a selection of internet connections preinstalled such as BTInternet, Netscape, Freeserve (which are free, you pay for the local telephone calls) or AOL which requires a subscription. Choose one and register. There will be prompts to help you through the process. If the name you have chosen is already taken by someone else the computer will give you some variations of the name for you to select. You can then register the pre-installed software as you try to use each new software package. You can change your internet service provider BTInternet, Netscape etc once you can access to the internet. You can register with more than one. I found this useful for my e-banking. My main internet service provider does not seem able to print my bank statement but I can access the statement from the alternative provider. On some occasions my main internet service provider is very slow and I can use the other one if I am in a hurry.