SON!! I broke the computer!!

[Eri]

Snip

Like I said earlier man, The sister will ALWAYS claim it was your fault and she did nothing wrong.

WEP key

WEP key..Really? It's WPA2 at this point or you might as well not even bother.

Does WEP suck or something? That's what i use. Not even sure my router has settings for anything else.

Yes, it does. It is very un-secure at this point due to loopholes and being outdated. WPA is much better. WPA2 even more so.

 

[Deadlock Radium]

"Hey can I borrow your computer for a second?"
Sure. *I open a new tab* (Several others are open)
*10 minutes pass*
"Okay, I'm done. I exited out for you"

God how I hate that. I HATE IT SO MUCH! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GIVE ME MY COMPUTER WHEN YOU ARE DONE?
/rage

Other than that, my dad is actually a little good with computers, and I've learned him Firefox, Thunderbird, Spotify and uTorrent 'til now. He's a fast learner.

 

[Ishamel]

OK. I have two versions of this problem. One is my dad, who is a 'media type' and hence insists that Macs are easier to use and can do no wrong, which leaves him completely at sea when it comes to Windows. I managed to teach him to use the Troubleshooting things for dummies when he had a problem, then caught him furiously swearing when clicking on a picture of the start button with an arrow pointing to it saying 'now click the 'Start' button' didn't work.

My boyfriend's mother on the other hand at least knows that she is shit with computers. I am now the only person who can talk her through anything, because her sons are fed up with having to explain that downloading a program involves exactly the same clicks and actions as downloading an email attachment, which she is perfectly happy doing. Like my own mother she is terrified of new software, even recommended by us, and extremely suspicious of her tech-savvy offspring.

 

[Quaxar]

One thing that annoys the shit out of me is when there is any problem at all with a computer they respond with "ZOMG! Virus!" It's really annoying.

Wireless internet not working; virus
Computer slighty slower than usual; virus
Can't find a file; virus stole it

Tehe, my mother does that all the time. Once she was completely sure a virus had infiltrated her PC through the PRINTER. I guess the hacker wrote the virus-code on paper and reverse-printed it or I don't know... it's even more funny because she knows how to use a PC, but whenever there is the slightest problem it's my duty to deal with it.
I always tell her "you have to learn how to do it yourself, I won't always be around" but my hopes are limited.

Plus, my dad once called Ubuntu a "fascist system", a "damn communist" and I don't recall all the other words he used. If I remember correctly it was caused by him not finding the taskbar which is located at the top, contrary to Windows where it's on the bottom. Yeah...

 

[Nukeforyou]

Managed to get rid of the viruses, but if I hadn't, I would have had to pay for a new computer. Even though I told them countless times it was my sisters fault. [/rage]

wouldn't it be easier to re-format and reinstall windows?

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

... You won't believe how difficult it is to tell somone to type something in the url-bar over the phone. Ugh

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

snip

No wep is perfectly fine, its better to have something then nothing, and really if someone has to expertise and ability to break into your network past wep...then you really should be worried bout having wireless at all.
I run a mac filter only, and limit the power of my atenna's so it only covers my house and not out in the street and such.

as for the topic at hand...I've pretty much given up on teaching or trusting my family around a computer, after having to bring my desktop downstairs back to life *i use a laptop* like 5 times in the past 2 years...I've limited their abilities extremely on the computer through windows family filters and live family filter...now they cannot visit quite a few sites unless I allow it in an email, and they cannot download any thing..

 

[Eri]

snip

No wep is perfectly fine, its better to have something then nothing, and really if someone has to expertise and ability to break into your network past wep...then you really should be worried bout having wireless at all.
I run a mac filter only, and limit the power of my atenna's so it only covers my house and not out in the street and such.

While this is true, if you have the option of using WPA2 or WPA, you should not choose WEP.

 

[Creepy Woodsman]

My dad basically does everything listed here; he only uses IE, doesn't know how to open new tabs, and he actually accused my brother of "breaking the internet" because it was running a bit slow one day. I couldn't help cracking up at that.

Also, every time IE gets updated, we inevitably get yelled at because he thinks we "broke" something.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

snip

No wep is perfectly fine, its better to have something then nothing, and really if someone has to expertise and ability to break into your network past wep...then you really should be worried bout having wireless at all.
I run a mac filter only, and limit the power of my atenna's so it only covers my house and not out in the street and such.

While this is true, if you have the option of using WPA2 or WPA, you should not choose WEP.

but as I said if someone in your area is actually capable of getting past wep then you should be worried about being on wireless at all.
even under wpa. WPA2 is far more secure to WPA...but wpa is just a next level up really from what I've seen over wep.
Its all about ease of use for people that do not understand what they are doing.

 

[RadiusXd]

My sister one time called me over and said "is it ok if i download this". I glanced at the screen and saw, surprise surprise, Free smileys!! (omg free smileys <3 ^^ )
I quickly said "no smileys...Ever".
I'm not sure what she shaid then but it was to the effect of "why not"
i said "why would someone want to give you free smileys? would you expect a free car?"
She said "but it's on the msn/windows live website!"
I glanced once again, this time towards the address bar and saw that sure enough, there was some sort of legit looking website there.
Except for the three letters beetween www and msn/whatever.
I pointed this out and left, a little dissapointed as to how naive my sister is.

 

[mb16]

i have the exact same as this

My dad bought a Mac.

Alright, maybe a little qualification is needed here.

He bought it because they were "popular". Even though I told him not to.
So now when he needs something fixing, he can't explain it, and I have to work out a whole new operating system. Usually something caused by it being a mac in the first place (trying to run the windows versions of programs and the like).

when he had a PC i could find rename and bring back most of the files he lost (that was the main thing he did as he tried to move a file by dropping into a folder not realising it would enter that folder).
Now he has a mac and i have no idea how time machine works or why the mac doesn't like the internet. but as im the "IT guy" i must know and just be hiding the information from him so i can watch him suffer.

luckily for me my sister is quite handy with computers even though she still got a virus claiming to be IE (i just gave here firefox instead). but she is now the first port of call for my mom. as its mostly finding a button or menu she has missed. unfortunately my dad still calls me.

 

[jpakaferrari]

I think the best story like this I've ever heard was on 4chan. The guy deleted IE for Firefox, then his mother came to use the computer and couldn't find the IE symbol. After shouting at him for a while she claimed he had "deleted the internet". He carried on trying to explain the Firefox was the same and she could still use the internet, but she wouldn't listen, then phoned the ISP to explain her son had deleted the internet and needed help.

Since it's 4chan, I don't take it entirely at face value, but it's not unbelievable. And it's incredibly funny. "Deleted the internet" is my new favourite phrase.

IF he was smart he would have done what my friend did. Which was to just to replace the firefox icon with the IE one so that his mom could find the internet. She never complained.

 

[brunothepig]

Since it's 4chan, I don't take it entirely at face value, but it's not unbelievable. And it's incredibly funny. "Deleted the internet" is my new favourite phrase.

Reminds me of the IT Crowd.


OP: Thankfully, my parents are just as tech savvy as I am. My dad started working with computers back in the late 70's, so he's a long termer.

I've only just noticed that they have an xkcd Map of the Internet poster

Really, what time? I love this show lol.

I have way too many horror stories. I think one of the funniest was when either mum or my brother managed to fill the PC with viruses. Then mum downloaded a "anti-virus" which just didn't seem to help. A little while later I came home, and mum said "have you been looking at porn? Cause there's little pop-ups telling me there's thousands of inappropriate images on the computer." I just looked at her and said, "please tell me you didn't download anything to 'find' or 'erase' them did you?" Luckily she didn't. I ended up just totally wiping that hard drive anyway. Now I have a laptop, that only I touch lol.

 

[Mechsoap]

i feel with you being in such a technophopic place

 

[MercurySteam]

Reminds me of the IT Crowd.


OP: Thankfully, my parents are just as tech savvy as I am. My dad started working with computers back in the late 70's, so he's a long termer.

Sorry Fuburt, embedding is disabled.

For me, I knew a guy who thought his router needed more RAM.
Logic failure

 

[Hlain]

I've finally convinced my whole family to use Firefox, but back in the IE days, both my parents insisted on pressing Ctrl+O before typing the address, which just adds time...

 

[Artina89]

My dads OK with computers and has very little problems with them. My grandfather used computers a hell of a lot in his work before he retired and still uses his computer quite a lot for ancestry websites. My mum, while she has some kind of computer qualification, tends to stay away from computers as much as she can (as do my Grandmother and my Nana), my brother also uses computers quite a lot at school and uses it for Photoshop and for walking routes (he's part of some kind of rambling society thing.) So by and large my family usually don't have too many problems with computers. As far as I know, no-one in my family that uses a computer double clicks on anything.

 

[Mechsoap]

My sister installed "Smiley Central" or something like that, where you get free "smiley's".
Needless to say, we got tonnes of viruses on our computer, and I got the blame because I use it the most.

Who does that?

Managed to get rid of the viruses, but if I hadn't, I would have had to pay for a new computer. Even though I told them countless times it was my sisters fault. [/rage]

feel sorry for you being around such ignorant folks

 

[CakeDragon]

... You won't believe how difficult it is to tell somone to type something in the url-bar over the phone. Ugh

Tell me about it. Even if I say, "it's where the website name goes" my mum will often type it into the Google search bar and get confused as to what to do next, or just put her email address in the URL. Dear me.