It is always an adventure speaking to the general public about computers. In my opinion, the single biggest problem is the words people use to describe their computer hardware and their problems. Here are a few suggestions when talking to a computer tech.
    When we are talking about how one connects to the Internet, the pertinent info here is dial up or high speed. It usually doesn’t matter what type of high speed we are taking about.
    When talking about the computer itself, an excellent term to use is “the tower”. Some people call it the modem or the hard drive which will sometimes can cause real confusion when speaking to a technician.
    Another confusing jumble of terminology is describing a computer that won’t turn on. These are some of the states that make sense to a tech: 1) Computer is completely dead, no power. 2) Computer gets power, lights blink but nothing on the screen 3) Computer turns on, text appears on the screen then stops  4) Computer turns on, starts to boot Windows then hangs or displays error message. (Good idea to write down the error message; if the error message is longer than 50 characters, only write those first 50 characters. ) Hope these thoughts help.