newuserhelp.com — So I know a bit about computers, and for some reason that makes everyone including their grandma ask me how to fix their computer, or how to do "such and such" on their computer. Well FINALLY I've got a solution.. tell them to go to this site. It's called New User Help and it's perfect. If only everyone I know would follow the basics they have..
Nov 19, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountNov 20, 2006
I have a problem of not being able to say "No" to people asking for computer related support. Most of them do ask if I charge though to which I reply just make me dinner (I don't drink alcohol so beer is out for me) - usually the problems are pretty simple and may include some spy/adware removal. I chalk it up to experience and since I have been helping out people at their homes, it gives me the opportunity to learn more about a specific problem that I may run into at work. If I learn how to fix the issue at someone's house where I am not on a time constraint then I can take the time to figure out everything about the issue which then leads to no need for a re-image and I can fix the issue quick which makes my users very happy since they are usually under some sort of time constraint (even if they aren't they can seem to be and other times are but act like they have all time in the world). Side note: I once spent several hours on the phone with my brother, who had just started getting in to wanting to own a PC after a few years of going to his public library for internet/email access. He is a carpenter/bicyclist and bicycle mechanic, and auto mechanic among several other trades (computers not being one of them). A company in his neighborhood got rid of some older P3 PCs. He snagged a few of them and called me to find out how to choose which PC would be the fastest and then if there were useful parts from the others. Very long story shortened: Over the phone, I walked him through testing RAM, installing 2 hard drives, spy/adware scanning, installing the chipset drivers for his motherboard, configuring the BIOS, locating and installing drivers for his printer, and heaven only knows what else. The phone calls lasted for a week, up to 6 hours at a time a few of those calls but in the end he had built his own PC from the ground up. He was so eager to learn. He even called me a few weeks later with some pride in his voice and notified me that he had gotten some more RAM and installed it himself. I know it's pretty easy to do but he really impressed me. Oh and a few weeks later he sent me a nice mountain bike that he built for me and then a few weeks later he sent my wife one as well that he built for her. Really impressive and well worth it, even if he didn't send the mountain bikes :-) Oh and he is building a controller box for my arcade machine joysticks and buttons for the mame machine I am working on. Ahhh, if only everyone that we help could show so much appreciation for things as my brother has. Sorry for this being so long and bravo to you if you read it all!
benlongNov 20, 2006
I work for the peanut butter company, and a few days ago I had a cab driver asking me if I could get him his password for his merchant account. I didn't even try to explain - I just said nope.
Closed AccountNov 20, 2006
I'm a complete bastard. I set up an Administrator account and leave them with an unprivileged user account. I remove Internet Explorer, Outlook Distress and MSN from their Start Menu, along with anything else that may get them confused or into trouble. I install Firefox and Thunderbird and give them the "deal with it, it's good for you, believe me!" speech, whilst giving them a crash course in safe browsing and defensive email strategy. I put the fear of God into them over attachments, trying to instill in them a general sense of mistrust, especially in mail that appears to come from people they know and people they don't (LOL!). Most of my non-IT friends / family just need a PC for surfing, so having their desktops locked-down to a reasonable extent doesn't seem to bother them too much.I generally leave them knowing that I gave up using Windows after 12 years of supporting it because it is inherently insecure and potentially dangerous, that is unless one knows what one is doing. I also say that when they're ready to upgrade, we can talk about getting them a Mac since I'm more likely to help them if they do.Works for me!
theluredNov 20, 2006
I have to reply to thisMrTea:"There are so many other things you can charge by the hour besides money. Meals, blow jobs, sex, snacks, flashes, etc."dude you are wrong. So wrong. Charging your family blow jobs and sex for fixing a computer.So dam wrong.
liquidpenguinNov 20, 2006
Marked as lame. I barely made it past, "Oh, and by the way..." and I stopped reading at, "There are a ton of viruses in the world..."The first phrase breaks conciseness, these people are going to want answers and not read through a bunch of junk to figure it out. The second is just lame. How does a virus have weight? It's just a collection of 1's and 0's which, in and of itself, an abstraction of the difference between two voltage values. Don't use slang when writing these things. Not everyone uses "ton" to indicate a lot of something. And don't use slang with people who are likely having a hard enough time trying to wrap their heads around some of the technical terms.
chapiumNov 20, 2006
"What if their internets are not working"Thats when you connect by vnc and wiggle the mouse a bit.
porcelainduckNov 21, 2006
did anyone actually go to the website and realize it's just a spam site with like 5 pages of stuff that's not even that helpful to anyone? i find it hard to believe no one realized this....
terrixNov 22, 2006
It also mentioned ZoneAlarm instead of Kerio which is a much better free product.