I was trying to assist someone in installing a router for his system. He had a new DLink router and installing it is pretty intuitive for me. What should have taken a few minutes turned into several hours as the instructions were missing a few key elements. The diagrams were fine and connecting wires to the right ports was a snap, but it didn't work. Re reading the fine details in the setup pamphlet provided no details or insight. I ended up disconnecting the router so I could search the internet. I found a better set of instructions and got it working based on the new instructions. A few small, but critical elements were not offered in the instructions that came with the router. For example: it asks for a username and password, but it comes with a default username that isn't mentioned in the instructions - so you cant get beyond that point in setting it up. Seriously, when it comes to instructions for electronics, have they dumbed down the instructions to the point where they are just dumb? Do they have only their techies checking the instructions?
In order to understand why such an important detail was missed from the instructions, you have to understand how companies work these days. The router's chip manufacturer is for an example somewhere in the US or the UK. They mass produce the parts somewhere and then send them to China or Taiwan to assemble the routers. Then someone over there decides to add instructions. Usually when writing instructions, companies hire other companies to do this for them. This is because the companies that make hardware usually have expertise in the hardware and are not familiar with customer interaction. However, in China someone decides they can write their own instructions to save a few cents. Someone without any knowledge finds similar instructions online and starts putting things together. The important thing for that person is to get something that his boss will accept as a "complete product". He might miss important parts because he doesn't need to test every step - it is not his job. There should be another company hired to test the quality of the products, but this is usually skipped for models in the lower price range - it just saves cash. Unfortunately, DLink is one of the brands that aim to provide customer satisfaction by providing technology at an affordable price. So that's probably why this happens. You will never see a Cisco router that has anything missed in the instructions, but you pay almost double for the quality
