Dear Loungers:
My Godmother is ready to join the 21st century and start using e-mail. She lives in Berlin, but wants me to purchase her computer and customize it here in America, then she will pick it up on her next trip (I am the family techie). I’d like a recommendation on a German ISP. She complained for years about the telephone company, but I understand that Deutsche Telecom (T-Online) has made a big push to modernize.
Questions: Is it very difficult/expensive to get broadband speed? With DSL service, are the terms “DHCP” & “PPPoE” understood or easily translatable? Or is a very different terminology in use? I don’t want to make too many assumptions beyond the terms TCP/IP and IP address. Oh, because she travels a great deal, occasional web-based access to her email would be a very big plus or failing that, ability to forward her email.
Her house has been practically gutted and modernized, and I know that a new wiring closet was included, so I suspect she may have Ethernet capability, or at the least, she doesn’t have 40-year old hard-wired telephone jacks.
Her new computer will be a Mac (by her request), so ISPs that use proprietary dialing programs (such as AOL) are NOT preferred, but if that is the custom, the ISP should be Mac-friendly or at least platform-neutral. The Mac will have an ethernet port, but also wireless capability.
I am comfortable supporting both Windows and Mac, but am not bi-lingual German/English (my godmother is, but as a computer newcomer she prefers that the OS be in English). Google translated some of T-Online’s page, so I know DSL can be ordered, but I can’t quite get the FAQs and I remember all too well Verizon advertising DSL service and wating more than 9 months for it to become a reality in my home.
