Friend / Family support?

[LoudMusic]

Would you say that you help your friends and family with computer problems, or are you the one always looking for help?

Being a (the only?) system administrator for an advertising firm of 60 employees I'm on call 24/7 for work related issues and I field all the personal computer problems of all those people as well. In addition to that I have about 7 family owned computers to support and countless (maybe over 100) friends with computers who are always bringing the questions.

I have but two friends who I turn to for help. One is my best bud Lance who, for a time, was more interested in computers than women. The other is the Internet. I don't know that I could really call the Internet my friend but sometimes I'm real thankful it's there for me - and in my book that's pretty friendly (:

 

[Solid Fro]

Basically, I'm the Admin of the house. I get asked a lot of computer questions mostly at school. Why? Because I'm a nice guy.

My mom has no clue in the Windows environment, she doesn't even know where the Taskbar is. My sister sometimes needs help about more advanced operations in AOL, IE, Word, etc. I also always need to explain to my little brother why he hasn't won anything when he sees a banner ad.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I'm the only IT Professional that any of my friends or family know.

There was a time when people would come to me all the time with their queries, no matter how small, or how many times they'd asked the same damn question before. However, pretty quickly they learned that they'd get little satisfaction if they hadn't actually tried to solve the problem before, and so it's died down now, and people only ask when they're really in trouble, which is fine by me.

My dad asks me stuff all the time, but I don't mind that, because he does actually learn the things I tell him,and he's worked on grabbing the concepts behind what's going on. He's been a Windows user for 3 years now, and he's doing really well. He'll still tell you that he's rubbish and thick and that you can't teach an old dog new tricks etc.

He did go through a phase of volunteering my help to his friends, which all came to a head after one of his friends phoned me at 10pm to ask for help on how to get a computer working. Trouble was, he'd basically stolen the computer, and then broken it. It was going to take at least an hour to fix it, and I couldn't be bothered. And all the time, going through my mind was Dad's description of the man as "someone who takes the p*** out of friendships, a user". After I terminated the call, I called my Dad, and reminded him that it was actually "work" to me, and that I didn't appreciate him giving my number out to his friends. He was mortified, and it hasn't happened since.

So I've got it under control now.

 

[Shannon]

I am the only one the uses the computer really. My dad might jump on to play Solitaire or something and my mum won't even touch the thing, so I guess I'm neither.

 

[LoudMusic]

I get asked a lot of computer questions mostly at school. Why? Because I'm a nice guy.

Amen to that.

I'm the only IT Professional that any of my friends or family know.

There was a time when people would come to me all the time with their queries, no matter how small, or how many times they'd asked the same damn question before. However, pretty quickly they learned that they'd get little satisfaction if they hadn't actually tried to solve the problem before, and so it's died down now, and people only ask when they're really in trouble, which is fine by me.

My dad asks me stuff all the time, but I don't mind that, because he does actually learn the things I tell him,and he's worked on grabbing the concepts behind what's going on. He's been a Windows user for 3 years now, and he's doing really well. He'll still tell you that he's rubbish and thick and that you can't teach an old dog new tricks etc.

He did go through a phase of volunteering my help to his friends, which all came to a head after one of his friends phoned me at 10pm to ask for help on how to get a computer working. Trouble was, he'd basically stolen the computer, and then broken it. It was going to take at least an hour to fix it, and I couldn't be bothered. And all the time, going through my mind was Dad's description of the man as "someone who takes the p*** out of friendships, a user". After I terminated the call, I called my Dad, and reminded him that it was actually "work" to me, and that I didn't appreciate him giving my number out to his friends. He was mortified, and it hasn't happened since.

So I've got it under control now.

I'm fortunately not the only geek in my group. There are several of us but like Viper pointed out, I'm concidered the nice one. Everyone else has revolted and become mean so no one asks them questions anymore.

I think you're completely in the right. I've said things to my father that I never would have seen myself saying. Stuff like when he asks a question I respond with, "I can explain it to you but you just won't understand", or "If I explain it you'll only forget and ask again in a couple days". I can't believe I say those things to him, but I guess I present it in a friendly way because he just humbly agrees with me.

Everyone knows, now, that I only support them. Everyone else ... friends of friends or friends of family members who I don't associate with, aren't on my list. And no amount of brown nosing will get you there.

 

[Sage]

In my immediate family, I'm definitely "tech support"... you cannot even begin to comprehend how technologically inept my parents are. I had to show my mom how to close a window once. And my dad once said that he couldn't get connected to the Internet, and a quick check showed that the phone line wasn't even plugged into the computer.

*sigh*