There are charities that donate ex-corporate computers to pensioners - can't remember the name but there are a few about. As for ISPs it depends on where he lives. If he is in a cabled area then NTL do a 128k cable service for £17ish/month and it's supposed to be very good. ADSL is another option - I think the cheapest is £22/month.

These obviously provide a service that will help him to *like* using the net - most people who have never used it don't realise that you sometimes have to *wait* for the pages to load!

Lastly 56k is good but I can't suggest a good low-user ISP - perhaps others know of a good one. I use Freeserve Hometime at £12/monthish for off-peak, but he needs a 24hr account really. They don't publish any limits and I have been using it for ~6hrs a day for a couple of years now.

Our small village is actually getting ADSL in October though - that made my July when I found out! (getting arrested for firearms offences undid that, but what the hey!)

(edit: don't ask about the arrest, just make sure you don't ever buy a blank firing gun from France and try to get it into the UK!)

Gareth