Freshmen can be so cute!

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

So I'm working away at my bench and out of the corner of my eye I see an obviously freshman male and his mother approach my counter looking tentative.  So I turn around and ask them what I can do for them.  The following conversation takes place.

Boy: Hi, I need an adapter for my internet.
Me: What type of adapter are you looking for exactly?
Boy: The internet plug in my room is larger than the one in my computer so I need an adapter to plug my internet cord into to make it bigger.
(I sort this out to mean he has a modem in his computer taking RJ11 and he's up at the university where they have high speed internet requiring RJ45 connectors.)
Me: Ah, I see.  What you need is an ethernet card.
Boy: No.  I have internet in my computer.  I just need an adapter for the cable.
Me: What you have in your computer is a modem.  The university requires an ethernet card. 
Boy: No no.  I have internet already.
(So I haul out a modem cable and an ethernet cable and show him the difference and then walk him over to the ethernet cards.)
Me: This is what you are looking for.  This is our basic model for $18.
Boy: Uh.  I'll think about it.

At this point I just turned around and walked back to my bench.  I wasn't going to waste any more time on someone who didn't believe a word from my mouth.
Cute little freshman.  College is going to be quite the shock for him.

Comments

[blackrat.livejournal.com]

Doh!

Quite a shock? Yes.

You should help him get over it by repeatedly jabbing him with a cattle prod :)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

I can understand his confusion...he obviously doesn't realise that you're broadband enabled. Tbh, if you'd explained the reasons for the different cables / ethernet card instead of modem, he'd probably have understood better.

(Yeah, I could have worded that better, it's 7.30am :) And apologies if you did explain properly but just not post about it. I'm going away now!)

if you'd explained the reasons for the different cables he'd probably have understood better

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I doubt it.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Nah, actually, he wouldn't have.

"But I have internet!"

You can explain it with small words, diagrams, sign language, or interpretive dance, but most people will never get beyond the level of "My Internet is broken."

[zercool.livejournal.com]

The "big pipe-little pipe" discussion? Doesn't work. I've tried it. I've got a consulting client who can't figure out why her connection to Adelphia Broadband at her other house is so much faster than her Earthlink dialup here. I've pointed out the fact that she uses different cables, different modems, tried the above-mentioned explanation ... and just gave up and told her to consider RoadRunner here. I rapidly shot down DSL when she mentioned that... yeeeks.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I actually left out the relatively boring part of the conversation where I tried to explain the difference between a modem connection and an ethernet connection. Using small easy to understand words. It occurred when I was showing him the different cables. Still didn't make a difference. Ah well.
I see it as he had two choices. He could either listen to me and buy the ethernet card or go back to the dorm and complain about "this annoying tech" that didn't know what she was talking about. And get laughed at. A lot. For the rest of his college career.
I guess he chose Option B. ;)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Then, like I said, my apologies :)

And don't you love it when they choose option B? We've got a trainee teacher like that - he's got a problem with his laptop that'll require it being sent away for a warranty repair. We know this, because it's a problem we have with these particular laptops regularly - there's absolutely no point me traipsing up to his office to have a look. I know it's the VGA card. But will he believe me? Will he hell. He expects me to look at it and be able to fix it there and then. He's in for a hell of a shock :)

Ooh! Oooh!

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

More n00bs who have never heard of spyware or up-to-date anti-virus software! Your life is going to be Fun! And Exciting!

What joy!


(goes and sobs quietly in corner.....)

[achernow.livejournal.com]

I was working the IT desk at a large Jesuit university and we one student who asked if he could get on the network without an ethernet cord (this was a SOPHOMORE mind you, not some newbie Freshman) to which my co-worker replied: "Yes, but you have to go out into the hallway of (his dorm), put your hands on one wall, your feet on the other and pray to the ethernet gods."

The boss was actually there when he said this and she was amused as hell by it. This also ended up on our "Wall of Quotes" for the rest of the semester.

-A

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

well it's a stepup from the freshman who want my friend to "enable the emailjack in his room".

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Not that it matters, but it was bastard university techs that voided my warranty 2 hours after buying my HP off the shelf at walmart to put an ethernet card in.

Then again, nothing on the HP's broken. What peeves me is they never bothered to give me drivers for the damn thing.