I spent about an hour helping a neighbor who recently got broadband from Eircom. Once my neighbors had signed up, Eircom sent them a router and a username/password and said, "There you go".
Of course, after a week they have all sorts of bad things on their computer. They had no firewall or virus / adware protection. Would it be too difficult for Eircom to give people a little help getting the protective applications they need to use broadband safely? I use free programs mostly (don't blame me if they fail, but I use AVG, ZoneAlarm and Lavasoft personal).
Oh yeah, Eircom is apparently also sending its customers a wireless router. My neighbor has a desktop PC, so the wireless feature is useless. They were stunned when I told them that their next door neighbors could easily use their broadband connection, thanks to the wireless router.
It never ceases to amaze me how much IT companies just wash their hands of their customers' problems. In the past I've had this experience with Microsoft & Dell and known others who've had similar experiences with other IT companies. We (IT companies' customers) are simply buffoons, in the eyes of those who products & services we buy.
