Several months ago we gave Ron’s parents our old PC so they could learn how to use Windows, email and the internet. With their 56k modem timed telephone connection Ron’s parents were stepping out slowly and gingerley into the digital age. They eventually bought a printer, a digital camera, talked us out of an old laptop we had and we gladly fielded the usual phonecalls about DOS error messages because someone left a floppy in, forgotten hotmail addresses, desktop icons, solitaire, etc.
Which is why we were a little suprised last night when the phone call for help drifted into unknow territory. What message were they getting? Host names? IP addresses? Service Providers? Routers? What were they trying to do we asked?
Why of course, set up a router so that they could access their neighbours broadband connection (with the neighbour’s permmission!)Duh! Why didn’t we think of that?
postcards from the north 