I was helping my father to get online just a few days ago – I helped him buy a wireless USB adaptor, so that he could share his neighbour’s wireless wi-fi signal (with her full permission, I should say).

However, I’d forgotten just how much of a pain it was to install a new device. Following the instructions, and using the manufacturers software, this new device just did not work – no connection could be made at all. Just not happening. Using my own hard-won knowledge, I disabled some software, had to restart a few times, and then finally got it all working in about half an hour.

I had planned to install some free anti-virus software, make sure the firewall was configured and working, and change the browser to one I can set up to open with the key pages he needs, and with the defaults for legibility that help him to see what’s going on. I also was going to set up his email account for him, setting up a new mailbox on one of the domains I own.

Pause for 200+ downloads

But I couldn’t do any of that, as there were about 270 different software updates trying to download and install themselves, as the machine had not been online since it was bought. I realised it would take about 2 hours for all of this to download and install, and only then could I make the computer secure against viruses and attack, and get the preferred browser installed. So I said I’d come back to do this when I had more time – and guess what, I still have not had that time.

My father, who is an intelligent and intellectually curious man, watched some of this process in silent perplexion, and then asked me whether he should just take the new hardware back to where he got it, and perhaps consider getting a better, more modern computer. (It’s a year old, roughly). He knew it was fairly inexpensive, but if it was a TV or a Car, he said, he wouldn’t put up with this sort of pointless time-wasting and unreliability, especially when the instructions were so clearly wrong.

And indeed, why should he put up with these sorts of problems? If the web is going to engage and excite people, getting online and getting things done needs to be simple, safe, and reliable. And it’s not.

I remember setting up my new cable broadband at home a few years ago – it was pretty easy, and it works really well, but the email account I was given (which I never intended to use, as I know how to set up my own domain and email) managed amazingly to get over 80 really nasty spam emails within a day of it being activated – and without my giving the address to anyone. Had I not had better knowledge (having been online since 1987), I’d probably still be resigned to deleting dozens of offensive messages every day, and I’d be paying money every month or year just to keep malicious viruses from trashing the data on my computer, or allowing someone to go on a spending spree with my card or bank details.

How can we expect people to trust, use, contribute to, and enjoy using the internet if it is still so damn difficult to get started with it, and keeping going with it involves endless downloads, updates, and restarts – never mind getting a whole inbox full of worrying hoaxes with offensive and potentially dangerous payloads?

Is this too much to ask?

It’s a question that hardware and software makers, as well as internet service providers, really need to address, because there is a huge potential audience out there that will use more, buy more, share more and get more fun and enjoyment from the online world – if only they could simply understand how to get ‘the net’ into their lives simply, reliably, and safely.

At the moment, that seems near to impossible, and I think there must be huge numbers of people simply giving up on using the internet, because no matter who they turn to for help, it’s confusing, unreliable, costly, frustrating, and therefore, just a waste of their time.

And so, smart, educated people like my Dad will stick with the cost and relative inefficiency of 35mm film, ordering by telephone, printed mail order catalogues, and walking to the bank to pay in and withdraw money for all the right reasons – because it’s clear, and it works, and they can trust it.

I think we have a long way to go before the phrase “it’s clear, it works, and you can trust it” can be used to describe getting online and checking your inbox – and that’s not fair, nor is it good for business. The absence of those many millions of people, in the age of social media, is a huge loss to everyone who is online – not least because Ron Petherick would be an absolute must-follow on Twitter!