Watch for sales on laptops - probably find her one for around $400. Then you just need a cheap $49 wifi router for dad's present.

You might look into a MSNTV2 player that connects to any tv in the home for your Mothers use. It can be networked to your Dad's computer downstairs and share his internet connection. Your Mother can have her own email account, they can download photos via a card reader, surf the internet and a whole lot more without going downstairs or booting up a computer. I have had both for years and I always check my emails and do all my surfing with the MSNTV. Your Dad may find it very convenient also.

You can look into it at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: MSNTV2

I see it requires an MSN tv subscription per the ad link. I wonder how that would work with sharing an internet connection with the downstairs computer.

Sue

Thanks for the ideas!! I saw the subscription caveat for msntv, and unfortunately the link to see how much it costs wasn't working at the time... grrr. The laptop/router sounds simple enough...

Cheers!
Jen

TV subscription is $9.99 month or $99.99 for an annual deal.
The dohickey is $200 & sounds like you need a router too and some wires .... or just wires and add a nic to the other computer if doing internet connection sharing which means then its gotta be on for the tv thing to work.

Thats round numbers $300 for the first year. Plus they're not supplying the isp. You still need one of those.

Yes you do need an isp to connect to the internet with MSNTV. You can use theirs or your own. The cost is $9.99 per month if you use yours like I do. My husband is on at the same time I am on my computer and there is no problem being or staying connected for either of us. Ofcourse we do have 2 separate phone lines. He is on the home phone line which has call waiting and I have the box set to hang up if there is an incoming call. You answer the phone and when your done you just hit "reconnect" and your back where you were when the phone rang. The unit will connect to all the different high speed connections, but we do not have the service in our area. If we did I could get rid of the extra line.

I understand there are some specials going on right now and the unit is selling for $149.00. Even with the extras needed to connect to a home network thats not bad. Especially if you don't want the hassles of another computer or for someone like my husband who is not a computer person.