I saw a rare PC the other day… It was running Windows 98.

The customer was using dial-up internet, and was using the PC mainly to write a book, and to send/receive emails.

Now, I was called out because she could not get  the specific emails she was expecting or any others.

As I suspected, the emails were timing out because there was an inbound message with a large attachment.

Given the limited knowledge of this customer, explaining how to use a web browser, and then logging into her webmail account in order to delete the large emails, was just not possible.

I could see that even explaining the relevance and relationship between Kb and Mb was going to be near impossible.

So now the customer could get another friend  inadvertently send her large attachments, and the process will repeat itself.

The solution is to get broadband… but to get Broadband, you need a new PC that can make the most of broadband speeds.

So now the customer is in a strange situation, where, if she wants to receive large attachments, she needs to upgrade her internet connection, and buy a new PC.