Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated Winners

Dealing with technology can be challenging and down right frustrating. We asked people to tell us about their tech hassles for the chance to win a Flip Mino HD Video Camcorder. Take a look at the winning stories.

Winning Stories

(In no specific order)

Story #1

Story #2

Story #3

"Browsing newsgroups and websites only made things more confusing. Should I follow someone's advice about MAC addresses? What the heck is a MAC address, anyway? Should I assign IP addresses, and if so, what IP should I assign to what? Should I WEP or WAP? I'm a LAN accessing a WAN, right? So what's a WLAN? Throw in SSID, DNS, DHCP, QOS, etc. and it's enough to give even an experienced user a case of "acronymophobia."
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Story #4

"I got a knock on the door. My neighbor had come over to see if I was trying to hack his secure Linksys router. Laugh out loud. Turns out her laptop had grabbed the neighbor's wifi."
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Story #5

"It began one night as I was desperately trying to move crucial back up files from my wife's deceased 5 yr. old 300 pound Compaq laptop, now stored on my office computer, to her new laptop. What were these vial files of paramount importance that had to be restored immediately? Recipes. No problem, I thought."
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Story #6

"Finding creative ways to keep my small business running while all of my "smart" electronic devices tried to figure out how to talk/play with one another. I'd be running room to room, device to device, download to frustrating download, software "solution" to software "solution", and on and on.... trying to get my work done."
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Story #7

"Another 6 hours later, I finally went to the store to buy a new wireless router. After spending several hundred dollars, I came home and plugged the new router in. I followed all of the directions and finally had success. But WAIT, the story doesn't stop there! As soon as I went to add the rest of the computers in the house to the network, I crashed two of them!"
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Story #8

"WiFi is enabled, but I would describe the connection as more "iffy" than WiFi... We can't seem to maintain a useable WiFi connection in many parts of the house. As a result, a Cat-5 cable wraps around the outside of the house providing the connections to the second floor."
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Story #9

"No Internet... next, reconnect my modem. Still, no Internet. Multiple attempts and then we unplug everything and reset the modem. Unbeknownst to me, this reset all the settings I had originally."
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Story #10

Full Stories

(In no specific order)

Story #1

"A story you ask for,
A story I'll tell
Of our little home network
That wasn't working so well.

We had a PC then added another
One for the Dad and one for the Mother,
Another three for the kids to use
And a wish for a printer for all to abuse.

Problem was
that each computer you see
Was not the same age
Or the same for the three

We had windows galore
With Vista, XP
And the printer was nowhere
For anyone to see

That happy old HP 1012
That stayed with us long
While our family grew
Was not well adapted for
Our family crew

But just changing printers
Would not end this tale
We changed it and still
Watch our network fail.

But along came some MAGIC
Like nothing in windows,
That helped us to solve
Our network so simple

So you think it is still
Non-sense do you say ?
To run Network MAGIC when

Any old day,
You could just use Windows alone
To be happy and
Run a network that doesn't run sloppy?

No, it doesn't work - buy Network Magic and stop tinkering."
-Gerard K.
Albuquerque, NM
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Story #2

"Scenario, new home, same wireless network as old home, 1.25 miles away, close enough I could almost use it from the old location. Same computers, one MAC, one PC. My wife, the techy of the family, hooks up the ISP wireless and the network. Bang, she is on with "HER" computer. My computer finally boots up, and soon, I am on, everything is good. Day two, working from home, or not....My computer will not connect, I try everything my non tech savvy brain can think of to do and finally resort to using "HER" computer to access everything I need on the network and then transfer it to my computer to work on, revise, then transfer back to "HER" computer, all via memory stick, so I can send back to network for colleagues to access. Later that day, wife comes home, sees what I am doing and rolls her eyes, "did you try x?, did you try y? Here let me have it....." Not sure what she did but 5 minutes later with a smug look on her face she hands it back to me and says, "now you only need one computer and 2 less hours in your work day". Day 3, after dinner, decide to finish up some work at home, no, of course the network is not working on my computer, but will I tell her again and wait for that smug look? Nope, wait till she goes to bed, and then smuggle "HER" computer for my tried and true dual computer routine. Why is this so hard? I don't even know the right questions to ask, what will I do on my next business trip when I can't take "HER" computer? And, bigger question, I know I work for a small firm, but shouldn't someone know how to fix this? HELP, almost makes me miss the good old days, well, not really. Signing off from "HER" computer."
-Lisa T.
Raleigh, NC
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Story #3

"I am hardly what you would call a clueless computer user. I got my first home computer in 1983 and connected to the Internet over a 300 baud dial-up. Since then, I've spent countless hours upgrading and tweaking my systems. When I switched to DSL service a few years ago, I had no problems installing the modem and hooking it directly into my desktop PC. Life was good.

But a few months ago I acquired a laptop. This brought me into the wonderful world of wireless networking. I thought "Okay, you can do this. How hard can it be?"

The router's installation guide and some operating system utilities got me up and running... sort of. I could connect the laptop to the Internet for browsing and e-mail. But as they say, mistakes were made. Error messages and warnings popped up with cryptic references. I couldn't get the desktop and laptop to share files and printers. Performance wasn't exactly stellar.

Browsing newsgroups and websites only made things more confusing. Should I follow someone's advice about MAC addresses? What the heck is a MAC address, anyway? Should I assign IP addresses, and if so, what IP should I assign to what? Should I WEP or WAP? I'm a LAN accessing a WAN, right? So what's a WLAN? Throw in SSID, DNS, DHCP, QOS, etc. and it's enough to give even an experienced user a case of "acronymophobia".

Then I stumbled across a review of Network Magic. Now in my experience, any software with the word "magic" in the title is more likely to be a disappointment than the "magic" conjured up by the marketing department. But as I read the review and ticked off the features, I figured "Try the free download, what have you got to lose?"

Well, what I lost - gladly! - was the need to worry about the technical details of networking. Even with the trial version I could see that the "magic" was real. Like any good magician, Network Magic did its work so seamlessly that I didn't even wonder how it performed its tricks. The only thing that mattered was that it worked as advertised.

Naturally, I ended up buying the full product along with SpeedMeter Pro for my system. A few mouse clicks were all it took to get my desktop and laptop sharing files and printers. Checking the alerts helps to pinpoint problems. SpeedMeter Pro's charts of my DSL speeds alerted me to an unauthorized reduction in service from my ISP. That alone was worth the price of admission to the magic show!

Bottom Line: Unless you do this for a living, do-it-yourself networking requires a steep learning curve. Network Magic flattens that curve to an easy walk in the park. As an experienced home user, I like to think that I could have worked it all out myself. Maybe so. But the time and aggravation I saved was easily worth the purchase price. No home network should be without it."
-John M.
Ashburn, VA
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Story #4

"The funny and ironic part about my trouble is that I am a network administrator and my real life job is to solve network problems. I bought my wife a new laptop for Mother's Day and when I tried to add it to our network it simply would not connect. I run N+ MIMO and we were located less than 30 feet from the router. I pulled up the wireless networks, found my Linksys router, and tried to connect. Nothing. I entered the SSID and security code and I kept getting refused. I took the laptop to the office and put it on a cable. It worked. I pulled the cat 5, and the wireless network indicated Linksys, requested the encryption, and it still would not connect. I got a knock on the door. My neighbor had come over to see if I was trying to hack his secure Linksys router. Laugh out loud. Turns out her laptop had grabbed the neighbor's wifi. I had lazily not changed the factory settings. I have now changed the settings and my wife is happily playing solitaire on her Dell XPS gaming laptop."
-Russell G.
Macon, GA
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Story #5

"So, I have a simple home network setup between four computers and a printer. I use 2 computers for work, one to run my home theater and one to play classic pc adventure games. Piece of cake right? Well, not quite. The first hurdle I had to overcome was introducing the home theater PC with Vista into an all XP network. It was quite the struggle as Vista apparently either thought of itself as too good for my "outdated" XP machines or it decided that I, as a user, was far too much of a hazard to my own network to be making any decisions about configuration. After coaxing Vista into submission with some crafty registry settings and a multitude of expletives, I thought that I was finally in the clear. All the right files and folders were shared and all the computers were easily accessible on the LAN. But of course, that was merely a ploy by the insidious software gods to lull me into a sense of false security so the hardware could launch a full-out attack. And attack it did along with reinforcements from my ISP. It began one night as I was desperately trying to move crucial back up files from my wife's deceased 5 yr. old 300 pound Compaq laptop, now stored on my office computer, to her new laptop. What were these vial files of paramount importance that had to be restored immediately? Recipes. No problem, I thought. I am going to wow her with my technological expertise, show her what command I have over digital information, and perhaps get a tasty meal out of the whole deal. The hardware, however, sensed this opportunity. This is when it, along with close coordination with my ISP, decided to strike, not only making me look utterly foolish in front of the now scowling love of my life but also depriving me of the meal I was now picturing in my head. It remembers it had something to do with curry and chicken. Anyway, my ISP immediately dropped my internet connection for a mere nanosecond, but that was all that was needed for my wireless router to somehow instantly scramble my ISP once the connection was reestablished. I now had internet again, but the other computers were nowhere to be found on my network. I could no longer connect to any of the computers on my LAN, I couldn't share any files, and . . . I couldn't transfer the recipes!!! It was at that moment that I swore I could here some twisted and digitally distorted laughter echoing softly throughout the apartment. As my wife picked up the phone and began dialing the number for the nearest Chinese take-out restaurant I had a brilliant idea. I would try resetting the router! Unfortunately, the router was all the way across the apartment in an inconveniently located closet. I think this was also part of the router's plan to see if it could make me do its bidding. Well after resetting it finally worked again! Hoorah!!! That is until about thirty seconds later when the connection dropped again for only a second, but just enough to scramble the LAN again. I felt defeated and resigned myself for the night to a sad and pitiful meal of defeat. Actually it was shrimp fried rice, and it was pretty good. Never the less, it still happens now and again to this very day. We have since moved from our apartment into a new house. My wife maintains that we moved because we did not want to live in an apartment anymore. I think, however, it was due to all of the bad memories of constant network downtime. I still get a chill down my spine every time I have to transfer a recipe across my network . . ."
-Derrick M.
Houston, TX
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Story #6

"You said the story needs to be creative. Creative is what described my life before Network Magic. Creative chaos! Finding creative ways to keep my small business running while all of my "smart" electronic devices tried to figure out how to talk/play with one another. I'd be running room to room, device to device, download to frustrating download, software "solution" to software "solution", and on and on.... trying to get my work done. My days began and ended in IT and network administrator hell. My clients were always well served but it was usually the result of me hard wiring my "wireless" devices together in some creative way to get this document printed or that e-mail sent or this or that task done. Finally a friend told me about Network Magic. In one day -- actually ONE HOUR -- all of my wired and wireless devices were working together. Seamlessly. The way they were "supposed" to. My tangle of workaround solutions became untangled. My productivity went up and my frustration went down - dramatically! Finally I could use my creative energy to grow my business and let Network Magic manage my device network.

Creativity... that's what Network Magic enables for the small business owner. Thank you Network Magic."
-Jim M.
Sausalito, CA
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Story #7

"Let me tell you about the absolutely most expensive and frustrating weekend of my life! I had just started an online degree program and needed to complete the pre-course requirements prior to the start of my class on Monday. I sat down at my laptop computer and had no network available on my wireless system. I checked the other two computers in the house and they were not connected either! I called the cable company and of course, after being on hold for an hour, they told me the problem was on my end. I reset the router and the modem and tried repeatedly to log on. I even tried to plug into the modem directly and still had no luck. In fact, in the process, I managed to crash my laptop and lost all of my data and programs. Twelve hours later, (after all I had homework to do) I finally gave up and went to bed. The next morning I attempted to restore the laptop (with no luck) and worked on getting the system up and running. Another 6 hours later, I finally went to the store to buy a new wireless router. After spending several hundred dollars, I came home and plugged the new router in. I followed all of the directions and finally had success. But WAIT, the story doesn't stop there! As soon as I went to add the rest of the computers in the house to the network, I crashed two of them! I was one-step shy of having a nervous breakdown! I was running out of time to complete my homework AND I now had two computers that did not work! I searched the Internet, found Network Magic, and purchased it. I thought, I hope this program works before these computers end up in my pool! I spent a few hours restoring the computers and then literally sat with my fingers crossed as I installed the Network Magic program. I could not believe my glazed over eyes when the program connected all of the computers in the house in a matter of minutes. I was giddy (or slap happy ;)! The program created a monster and I networked everything in my house I could think of... .printers, iPods, and PSPs. I was so relieved and thankful! What a wonderful program. Since then, my cable company managed to disconnect my service. I was able to use Network Magic to connect all of my computers again in a matter of minutes! I cannot say enough wonderful things about this product."
-Andrea T.
Melbourne, FL
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Story #8

"This summer my wife and I find all three of our kids (ages 21, 24, and 24) living back at home for the summer. As a result, our home network currently includes four desk tops, two (soon to be three) laptops, and a networked printer. All our systems are running Windows, but they are a mixture: XP, Vista and one Windows 7 system.

Our's is a pretty tech savvy family: I have 30+ years as a system administrator on IBM mainframes; my wife has a computer science degree and has taught computer classes for years in a k-12 school; one son does computer graphics work in the computer games industry. In spite of all this expertise, our home network remains a challenge.

We have Wifi connectivity via a Linksys router, but our basic network is Ethernet via the router and a couple of Linksys hubs. WiFi is enabled, but I would describe the connection as more "iffy" than WiFi... We can't seem to maintain a useable WiFi connection in many parts of the house. As a result, a Cat-5 cable wraps around the outside of the house providing the connections to the second floor.

My wife's Vista laptop connects wirelessly and effortlessly but only on the ground floor, while my daughter's Vista laptop has nothing but problems. She connects ok wirelessly at school, but not at home. It's been particularly frustrating for her, because she is used to connecting just about anywhere on campus via WiFi. One son can see our wireless network from his room on the second floor but can connect only intermittently and for short periods of time. He gets stronger signals and a more reliable connection on the neighbor's unsecured network across the street. He must use the ethernet cable to connect reliably to our network. My other son, down the hall, is in a similar situation. He can't maintain a wireless connection for long, and must rely on the ethernet cable running across the floor and down the hall from the hub in his brother's room!

Placement of the WiFi-enabled router and interference from plumbing/wiring and appliances in the house may be contributing to our WiFi problems. But a mix of systems and lack of good diagnostic tools doesn't make the job any easier.

It's hard to know if newer network gear would solve our WiFi problems. I suspect we'll only see the problem resolved when the kids finish school and leave home for good, taking their PC's with them."
-Mike P.
Lake Forest Park, WA
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Story #9

"Let me first start off by saying the Network Magic with my Cisco router has alleviated this massive headache. My dilemma started about 2 1/2 years ago. I purchased a D-Link router at Target and connected it to my SBC Global DSL modem. That's when the problems began. I first called D-link tech support for their help with installation as the instructions enclosed got everything powered on, but I had ZERO Internet. It was working before the install, but now nothing. After 30 minutes on the phone with D-link and multiple resets, they figured out my modem needed to be in bridge mode which required a phone call to SBC Global tech support. After going through their automated phone system, I finally got to a person and we were able to get bridge mode activated with little trouble. Back to D-link and I was up and running. My first experience with wireless internet and I was stoked. Everything was hunky-dory for a while. One day I get home from work and no Internet. My first call-SBC Global at 6PM. After making it through the phone tree, I finally got to speak to someone. The first thing they wanted to do was update the firmware. No Internet... next, reconnect my modem. Still, no Internet. Multiple attempts and then we unplug everything and reset the modem. Unbeknownst to me, this reset all the settings I had originally. Now I call back to D-link to set up the wireless router. We do multiple resets and nothing and then they figure out that bridge mode needs to be enabled. Back to SBC global to activate bridge mode, then back to D-link. Finally, wireless Internet is working after FOUR HOURS on the phone. A few months later I have another problem. SBC global---first troubleshooting is reset modem and bye-bye bridge mode. I go through all the above another time and finally get it working again. This time I wrote everything down (I thought) so I wouldn't have to jack with these people and save myself 4 hours. Present (3 months ago) No Internet--SBC Global-everything is working-network outage. Reset modem and get Internet. This goes on daily for a week. Each time I talk to SBC Global, it's a network outage somewhere different. They all affect me?!? Finally I resort to modem reset and call (missing steps in my notes - DOH!); the representative is able to activate bridge mode and help me set up the D-link. I was pumped, until it quit working the next day. This time I was told it was a router problem. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased the Cisco router with Network Magic. It was truly plug and play. I plugged the router in to the modem and my computer and just sat back and waited. Everything set up fine with the hard wired computer and the two laptops. I was even able to get the printer connected to the desktop shared with the other two laptops. Thank you Network Magic."
-Justin B.
Edna, TX
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Story #10

"I always unplug my computer, printer, etc when I go away for a few days. This time I had left my 4 cats at home to be cared for by a neighbor. When I returned and started up my computer, after plugging everything back in, it would not connect--I have a dial-up connection. I tried everything but nothing would work and I kept getting a message that there was no dial tone. Well, I'd been using the phone and receiving calls and could hear a dial tone and couldn't figure what the problem was. I had just changed my service and thought that maybe that was the problem. I was about to phone the company when it occurred to me to check the connection from the computer into the phone jack. I'd already checked all the connections and traced the line to the phone jack in the wall, however, Voila! One of the cats had been playing with the loose cord and just slightly loosened it."
-Ilma R.
Jarrettsville, MD
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