iHELP
Important - The message recording function is currently not working. To get iHelp assistance ring the Office on 9276 4000 between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm weekdays or email iHelp at any time. We apologise for the temporary inconvenience.
Our iHelp volunteers offer a free service to members that is one of the best reasons for anyone joining the club. There is no reasonable limit to how much support you can get. The iHelp team have access to a vast amount of knowledge so can help to fix most common problems with your computer, tablet or smartphone.
You can ask for help via Phone, or email. An iHelper will call or email you back. Most questions are resolved within the day. Alternatively, you can often get immediate answers to your technology questions by posting in our member-only Google Spaces. Go to https://chat.google.com/a/melbpc.org.au and login with your username@melbpc.org.au and password.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE A TEMPORARY PROBLEM WITH RECORDED MESSAGES NOT GETTING THROUGH. PLEASE PHONE THE OFFICE DURING OFFICE HOURS AND KEEP TRYING UNTIL YOU GET ANSWERED.
This is telephone support for your computing problems. Call 03 9276 4088 at any time and leave your name, membership number and a brief description of your problem as a message. This phone line is not answered, but will send a voicemail to iHelp. iHelpers are generally available between 10:00am-3:00pm Weekdays & may include office or public holidays. Outside these hours your message will be logged for later follow up by the next rostered iHelp volunteer.
For those who can send an email from a device, a request for help with membership details can be sent to ihelp@melbpc.org.au. It is then logged to our Support Database where an appropriate iHelper will later follow up the inquiry. This is particularly useful if you wish to include screenshots or more detailed information about your particular issue.
This volunteer and free service is only for members who are restricted in their activities or mobility. This generally means those with a Commonwealth Age, War Veteran, Disability Pension, or Health Card, who cannot be helped by other means.
It is important to understand that with commercial/professional home visits the technician has to wait around while each process completes and may have to make further visits, therefore the effort including travel can be expensive. Professional home visits are rarely an economic solution. Therefore, we encourage members to use iHelp, SIG workshops or a local Computer shop for any repairs to their phones, tablets or computers.
The iHelp Team is always open to member volunteers with patience and experience in Computer configuration. Vast knowledge is not necessary to help with most members' problems. However, the ability to do internet searches is a wonderful asset when trying to solve a technology issue.
All correspondence including comments on this iHelp website should be addressed to ihelp@melbpc.org.au.
Frequently Asked Questions
Open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc) and go to https://melbpc.org.au In the menu bar, go to Members > Member GWS Access > Click on Click or Tap here > click on Forgot email? And follow the instructions as they are presented.
If you do not have a phone number or recovery email lodged with Google for your Melb PC account, or the above instructions do not work for you, contact iHelp and ask for a password reset.
Assuming that you are a financial member, blocking can happen if you are already logged into a personal gmail.com account on your browser when you try to login to the website. In this case, the Google login process that we use on our website mistakenly picks up the gmail.com credentials and rejects your login attempt.
The simplest way to overcome this impasse is to ensure that you are logged into your username@melbpc.org.au account prior to attempting to login to the website. There are ways to accomplish this as described below:
1. Open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc) and go to https://www.melbpc.org.au In the menu bar, go to Members > Member GWS Access< > Click or Tap here > enter your username and password. This should log you into your Melb PC account (but not the website, yet). Open a new tab in your browser and go to https://www.melbpc.org.au In the menu bar, go to Members > Member Login and select (if offered a choice) the Melb PC Google Workspace account and the login from that point should be automatic, but note that it may take up to 20 seconds.
2. In the browser Tab containing your personal Gmail account, click on your icon in the far right top line of the Gmail account (normally a coloured circle containing your first name initial) and click Add account then sign in to your username@melbpc.org.au account. Open the browser tab for Melb PC website and in the menu bar go to Members > Member Login and select (if offered a choice) the Melb PC account and the login from that point should be automatic, but note that it may take up to 20 seconds.
Yes. Your Windows 10 operating system will continue to work, but Microsoft have said that free security and feature updates will not be provided for Windows 10 after 14 October 2025. To continue to use the update-free version of Windows 10 heightens the risk of criminals affecting you via viruses and malware due to un-patched vulnerabilities in the operating system. However, if you choose to enrol for the one year Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, critical and important security updates will be supplied to you. Enrolment is free of charge if you make use of One Drive or pay a sum (US$30) for the ESU service.
Read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-of-support
These options, in no particular order, include:
1. Keep using Win 10 and be aware of an increased risk of security vulnerabilities, which might be mitigated by third-party anti-virus programs, or
2. Keep using Win 10 and don’t connect it to the internet, or
3. Upgrade to Win 11 - using existing hardware if it meets MS requirements, or
4. Upgrade existing hardware from Win 10 to Win 11 (this requires some technical work-arounds - some members have already successfully done this) and accept potential risk of future interference by MS updates, or
5 Upgrade to Win 11 by buying new hardware, and sell, donate or e-waste your old computer, or
6. Adopt a new operating system for your existing hardware, e.g. Linux, Apple macOS, Chrome OS Flex, etc. This involves learning how to install and use a new system, and may mean that a much loved Windows application might not be available to you, or
7. Keep using Win 10 and take advantage of Microsoft (MS) Extended Security Updates (ESU) which will be provided up until 13 October 2026. There is a free option and a paid option to allow you to defer a final decision for a further twelve months. Note that the free ESU should be quite simple to achieve. Go to Windows Settings | Update & Security - An "Enrol now" link will appear after an appropriate Windows Update which will allow you to enrol for the ESU service free of charge.
More general information on Win 10 and Win 11 here:
All these options depend on various factors determined by your individual circumstances, including computer usage, aversion to risk, technical competence and financial situation. If you need more information on any of the seven options listed, please contact iHelp or ask on the club's Spaces forum.
Go to this Microsoft web page:
It explains what to do.
Edited 2026-05-14 by SJG Illustration courtesy of Deep AI Inc.