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286
 
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Last Login: 12/12/2008 13:22:51
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| Most people today expect things to work as soon as they plug them in. Lets say a modern 2.2 family has bought a modern pc to use alongside their aging one. Wireless sounds like the way to go to get both on the internet so a wireless router etc is required as well. Printer needs to be shared between both computers as well as some files so a small network would be nice as well. Salesmen reccomends the appropriate equipment and they go home happy. How easy is it for casual pc users to actually get all this stuff setup and working? I've been asked numerous times to help people set up a network etc, as have others on the forums. Is it a lack of instruction from manufacturers or are people just too accustomed to having things 'plug and play'? Many people also experience problems when they decide to play a game online only to find they can't connect and have to forward some ports on the router. For many this is a daunting task, the router is supposed to protect them isnt it, what if they muck something up? Ok, MM is a magazine that most buy because it caters for more adanced users, but there are also novice users who have gained from its articles. Surely a look at how much work is required to properly get thigns running as stated above will help many of those users, as well as perhaps highlight which equipment delivers on its promise.
i dont really know what I'm doing but it looks good!
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386
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Last Login: 18/12/2008 22:07:01
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Unfortunately once you take even the vaguest interest in how pc's work or how to use them then you elevate yourselves away from the majority of the people who use computers, and its easy to forget about that. It still takes me by surprise sometimes when I get asked really basic things from my users at work, I sometimes wonder how they manage to do their jobs.
Computer users generally want to switch it on and press a button that says internet or word or pictures and thats all they are interested in, quite often they are opposed to leaning anything new, which is why even setting up the most basic of networks is out of reech for most people, they just want to plug it in and switch it on after that they are stumped.
It might sound like im knocking them abit but im not, I am part of that collective when it comes to cars, I know nothing of the tubes and lumps of stuff under the bonnet, as long as the car starts and my cd's play im happy, anything other than that im stuffed!
Regards
Dale (MBCS,MCDST,(MCP 271,272,270,290)A+,ITIL v3 F,DSE Assessor)
www.dales-diary.blogspot.com
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486
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Last Login: 25/06/2008 12:42:39
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KILLFC (08/02/2008)
Computer users generally want to switch it on and press a button that says internet or word or pictures and thats all they are interested in, quite often they are opposed to leaning anything new
I'll second that, which is why they think that they have to run Windows (as opposed to Linux) and MS Office when Openoffice is just a free download away. I honestly think it is preferable for them to spend money than spend time learning something new.
Acer Travelmate/Linux Mint 4
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286
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Pentium
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I agree with the some users have differing levels of interest.
As an example when I periodically upgrade one of my PCs, I usually end up with a spare older PC, which I dispose of cheaply.
It has not been unknown for the person interested in buying such a machine to appear to want so much support, that I've declared the machine to have developed a fault in order not to live with the hassle of supporting such a person in future.
So apart from the PC users who have little interest in how it works and just want to use it, rather akin to a car driver without any mechanical knowledge buying a car, you also have the non-PC user, who is akin to a pedestrian who wants to buy a car, and who expects you, the car salesman, to teach them how to drive as well.
It is very difficult to deal with someone who wishes to buy a PC and has never used a keyboard.
I'm reminded of the Computer help line story:
Customer; Can you help me, my computer's not working?
Technician: What causes you to say that, what exactly is happening?
Customer: Nothing.
Technician: When you say nothing, what happened.
Customer: It just stopped working and the screen went blank.
Technician: Have you tried switching it off and on again?
Customer: Will do, no nothing happens.
Technician: Okay, when you switch it on, does anything light up, near the on button?
Customer: No nothing.
Technician: We might be getting somewhere, it could be a lose wire, or the plug socket switched off?
Customer: The plug socket is switched on.
Technician: Can you see if there are any loose wires at the back?
Customer: No..
Technician: So there's no loose wires at the back, it could be the fuse?
Customer: No I didn't say there were no loose wires at the back, I can't see the wires.
Technician: Okay, can you try moving the PC to take a look at the wires at the back?
Customer: Okay I've moved the PC but I still can't see the wires at the back.
Technician: Okay, what's stopping you seeing the wires at the back?
Customer: Its dark.
Technician: Can you switch a light on or get a light on to the back of the machine?
Customer: No.
Technician: Have you got a lamp you could move to light the back up?
Customer: I have but it wouldn't do any good.
Technician: Why is that?
Customer: Its not working.
Technician: What's stopping the lamp working?
Customer: There's a power cut.
Technician: This is more serious than I thought, tell me do you still have the box the PC came in?
Customer: Yes I do?
Technician: Could you pack the PC back in the box it came in and return to the store you bought it from?
Customer: Is it really that bad.
Technician: Couldn't be worse, when you get it back to the Store, ask for your money back.
Customer: What do I tell them is wrong with it?
Technician: Just tell them you're too thick to own a computer.
This myth of a story even says the technician was sacked for the call.
Mad Malc
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Pentium
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186
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For my sins, I worked (very briefly) in Tech Support for AOL, one of who's big selling points was "free tech support". (If they'd been just a little more honest, they'd perhaps have admitted that the number of people employed in tech support was significantly fewer than the number employed to talk people out of cancelling their contracts) There are a lot of "Mythical" Tech Support stories about, but this one is true: I know, because I was that tech support rep.
The customer (young, female, ethnic, inner London) had got a CD for a free AOL trial. She'd rung the day before, and a colleague had explained that as a pre-requisite of using AOL, she'd need a modem. So, she'd gone out and bought one, her uncle had fitted it for her.
She: It still doesn't work
Me: Have you plugged the computer into the phone socket?
She: He didn't tell me nothing about that. How do I do that?
Me: Well, there should be a wire that came with the modem. There's a small square plug at one end and a larger white one at the other. The larger white one goes into the wall socket.
She: It's in the other room, I'll just go and find it [long delay] Oh yeah! I've found it now! It was in the box. Where do I plug it in on the computer? I can't see nothin' to plug it into.
Me: it's round at the back. Depending on the make of the modem, there may be one or two sockets - if theres's two, one will be labelled "Phone" and the other one "Line".
She: "I'm lookin' at the back, and I still can't see nothin' like that. There's just a wire for the electric and another one.
Me: Hold it a sec'. does the thing you're looking at look quite a lot like a TV set?
She: Yeah - it's the computer.
Me: No, that bit's called the monitor. The bit you need to find is on the other end of the wire that's NOT the one plugged into the mains socket: it's called the "system box". It's got the CD drive on the front. The socket we're looking for is around at the back.
She: Oh, Yes, OK, I've found it. You're right! It's got a square socket and the little plug fits into it.
Me: Fine, now the plug on theother end goes into the phone socket. Are you calling me on the landline, or using a mobile?
She: I'm using my mobile; you can't make outside calls on the landline.
By now (it was a slow period!) half the other techies were sitting on desks around me, chewing handkerchiefs to avoid laughing out loud. We subsequently discovered that the cable supplied with the modem wasn't long enough to reach the phone socket anyway. The last question I needed to ask before "setting her up" was the details of her debit or credit card: I'm no fan of AOL, but one feature that's almost unbeatable for parents is that they know exactly who their customers are, even those just trying them out. Oh, she said, I don't HAVE a debit card, but my Mum has: I thought that if we gave you her details, I could pay her back for any charges. "No You Bloody Well Can't" said her mum (loud enough for me to hear!) at which point, she rang off.
Fifteen years back... but etched on my memory forever. I'm a techie: AOL were looking for people to read scripts from a monitor and to allow a (slower than paint drying) mainframe to solve any problems. I quit after a couple of weeks of sheer frustration.
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