More Help For Beginners
“Help!”
I’ll bet I’ve received over a hundred emails with just the word “help” in the
subject line. And that’s fine; it lets me know right away that someone is in
trouble. Many people new to computers don’t realize that there are many good
sources for help that can be found on the Internet.
If you’re having trouble with computer hardware
(drives, printers, scanners, etc.) your first source of action should be to
check with the dealer you bought your system from. If this was a discount store
(Wal-Mart for instance.) you’re probably going to be better off directing your
questions to the manufacturer. Dell, Compaq, and Gateway, all have answer desks
that should be familiar with your particular system. It can sometimes take a
while, but you’ll often be talking with someone who’s heard your problem before
and knows how to fix it.
I may have thirty years experience, but there are a
lot of times when simply calling “tech support” saves me a lot of time in
diagnosing a system problem, especially when it’s related to a specific brand
of computer. One thing you’ll notice if you talk to many “tech support” people
is that many of them are hard to understand. A lot of the tech support these
days is being “farmed” out to foreign countries. English for many of these
people is a second (and not all that familiar) language.
Another place to find help is to go to Google www.google.com and type in your question. I
probably use this tactic more than any other when I’m stumped about something.
I’ve found answers to some very frustrating problems using Google. I’ve also
found some really good “simple” help sites that are geared towards novices.
If you listen to much “talk” radio, you may have heard
of the Kim Komando show. Kim has a call-in show
that’s devoted to solving computer problems and she also reviews new software
and hardware. I try and catch her show whenever I can. You can find her on the
Internet at www.komando.com.
Here’s a website that might be of help to a lot of
people. It’s called Internet Tips and Secrets. It’s at www.internet-tips.net. Some of the
topics covered on this site are things such as: How to make a home page, Email,
Graphics, Newsgroups, Multimedia, FTP, Fun Stuff, and Your System.
Here’s a website that is aimed at helping people to
learn to use a search engine. It’s sponsored by
Sorry, that’s a long one. But there is a very helpful
discussion on search engines and search techniques on this website.
The idea I’m trying to get across here is that there
are a lot of places you can go to find help when you’re having trouble. The
more specific you can be, the easier it will be to find what you’re looking
for. I just typed “modem problems” into the Google search box and one of the
sites that came up is: www.iinet.net.au/support/modems/.
This website has an excellent tutorial on dial-up modems. A few of the topics
covered are: installation, protection, drop-outs, Hang-ups, and a whole bunch
of things related to connection problems.
Try using Google when you get an unexpected error on
your computer. Many times I just copy and paste the error into Google’s search
box and it finds the answer to my problem.
If you’re having problems with your computer, (and
believe me, we ALL have problems) learn to use the Net to solve them. If all
else fails, email me at randy@randybenjamin.com.