I sometimes volunteer at a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) serving the north shores of Lake Chapala.

I’m always amazed at some of the problems that some less technically-savvy clients have. My most famous story is about the dialup customer who phoned and angrily berated us because her connection had been down for 2 days. When we asked if she could turn on her computer and talk to us at the same time, she became angrier, and said, “Of course not, I’m at a payphone, not even the phones work in Mexico.” When we explained that her dialup wouldn’t work if she had no phone service, she became even angrier, blaming everyone but herself. We later discovered she had forgotten to pay her phone bill.

Today, most clients have high-speed internet and the problems are different. Your ISP delivers its high-speed connection to some point on your property, most often by cable, telephone lines or two-way radio. At your end is a small electronic box, often called a bridge, modem or a combination modem router. What you do with that signal once it reaches this point is up to you.

It’s the same way with other utilities. The gas company is responsible for delivering the gas to your gas storage tank. But it’s your responsibility to distribute that gas, for example to your hot water tank and stove. The same is true for water and electricity.

Three days ago, a very angry customer called. Yes, he had Internet at the point of entry, in this case from his bridge/modem. That is what he was paying for. He decided he wanted to distribute his connection to other parts of the house, purchased a router elsewhere, and it wasn’t working. In lay terms, the home router is like an extension cord with 4 outlets, each outlet providing access to the internet. Most newer routers also have antennas to distribute the internet wirelessly.

When the client called, complaining, we should have told him that we were only responsible for delivering the Internet to him, but how he chooses to further distribute his connection with his equipment is his responsibility. Then, we could have tried to help him. We made several suggestions, none of which worked. Soon, he was blaming us for his inability to make his equipment work. He actually suggested that unless we got “his” equipment working, he was going to quit our service and take a lot of his friends who are also our clients with him.

Who’s at fault here? I was, partially, because I didn’t first explain to him that what he wanted help with was his own personal responsibility. I could have then given him hints and if they didn’t help I could have recommended someone who could, for a fee, configure his system. Then, he might have been appreciative rather than angry.