Viruses, Technology, and the Elderly

I spent most of yesterday on the phone with one or both of my parents trying to help them fix their computer. I ordered a new computer for them about a month ago and I convinced them that should get broadband. So finally the cable guy showed up yesterday to hook up their cable modem. I should have known their was going to be trouble when my father called and handed the phone to the cable guy.

Anyhow, he hooked up the modem and got them connected but the computer would shut down every few minutes. He told them to call Gateway and left. So my dad called Gateway and after an hour he got to talk to someone who told him to call Microsoft. Well, he finally found out what the problem was--he had some virus and needed to download a patch from Microsoft. So he called me and read what they told him and I had to try to explain to him how to download and install the patch. The problem was that he had to read every single word in every box before he clicked on something AND his computer kept shutting down every few minutes. We gave up after about an hour and a half.

So my mother called around 10:45 pm and asked me to help her try to fix it. I found the patch that she needed and IMed the link to her, she downloaded it, installed it, rebooted and it only took about fifteen minutes.

Then she asked me if she should minimize the internet at night or close it. :-| Huh? Then I had to explain broadband to her.

I don't want to get old.