So, I love the concept of AR and its' integration into SR4. The die pool bonuses are great, and there's very few technical situations where players shouldn't have a bonus. There's only two problems:

1) My players are often idiots, and don't use AR when doing things like, say, fixing an engine. Or setting explosives. Or disabling a maglock. Which are all prime examples of where they should get an AR bonus.

2) My players, when I have told them this, say, "Well, how on earth would AR help with this?" They seem perpetually stuck in the mode of "AR=FPS video game hud, plus Dead Space style path tracking."

If you've ever had this problem, show them this:
Augmented Reality Goggles Give Real-Life +50% Speed Boost to Marine Mechanics

How do you mean don't use it? Do they specifically say they're turning off their Image Links? Just give them the DP bonus. Tell them about tacnets from Unwired too.

I ask every couple of rolls, "Are you using AR?" And they're like, "Nah, that'll just slow me down." And then I go, "Do we live on the same planet?" And I'm sure most of them aren't adding the bonus most of the time, because I've made it clear the bonus varies situationally.

Tacnets, though... yeah, they use those. Perpetually. Which is good, cuz I wouldn't have let them get the software if I didn't want them to have it.

That's just... odd.

Tell them to turn off their video game HUD once in a while. Then have them do something complex in a game. If they don't want the bonus then fine, their loss. Just make it clear that they're the ones with a mistaken preconception.

I know what you mean Adarael. My players are similar if not even worse... They too don't know about AR assistance even after telling them a few times and then they have another problem. They fear hacking to the extent that they have everything slaved to the comm and NEVER go out of hidden mode, except to turn them off entirely.

Just about every mission there has been all sorts of clues just waiting for them in open AR just waiting for them. Things like "Delivery please use rear entrance." (letting them know there is a back door), maps of public buildings, "Notice: Now entering Aztech Extraterritorial Territory.", etc, etc...

I know it's a good idea to run hidden most of the time on a mission, but when you're not on a mission, or doing recon in a public or not terribly restricted area... man... go passive every once and a while.

Some public ares forbid hidden nodes altogether. Most of the time, you are asked to turn the hidden mode off or leave the area, sometimes you are shot at before being removed from the area. So, unless they take the pains to remain unseen all the time, a commlink should be turned on visible mode. They should do as anybody else I know, get a crap commlink with nothing useful inside (except your fake id and some few nuyens) enslaved to your real one on hidden mode.

I say screw it. You mentioned it, don't let it frustrate you, and don't listen to their whining when they say it's too hard and you're a bad GM. You've already gave them the "LERN 2 PLAY NEWBS" speech. Just make a game that accomodates the weaknesses of your games. Take that anger and push it deep down. Or you can keep killing them off because they won't read the freakin books. Your call.

Remember, the GM lives the game world more than the players. They're ready to be entertained - you're the one that MUST think about the finer details. Unfortunately as a Shadowrun GM you have to give them a lot of leeway. There's way too much technology to keep up on. You can keep bugging them about their commlinks being in hidden, passive of active mode, which IDs they are using, which pieces of cyberware are broadcasting wireless, and so on or you can just assume that they are professions that know how to take care of the standard runner affairs. Or you can expect the players to care as much about the badass story that you're writing as you do. But I wouldn't expect it.

I appear to have missed something completly in the book, where does it say AR gives you dice pool bonuses?

When Yousing a tactical network, it is an AR Interface afterall, you get bonuses based upon the Amount of Data Feeds that you possess (must have at least 2xRating Sensor Channels to be counted as a member of the network)... if you satisfy the requirements you can obtain a bonus of (Team Members - 2) and apply it to several different tests... Maximum rating of a Tactical Network is 4 (what can be purchased anyway, maybe other, higher levels, exist, but would definitely be Milspec or bleeding edge), which would require at least a team of 6 (with 8 Sensor channels each) to benefit from the maxiumum bonus provided by the network...

Tactical Networks are found in Unwired, Pages 125-126...

Prior to Tactical Networks, you could be awarded an AR bonus (generally from +1 up to +3) to tests that would benefit from an AR Data Feed... Page 208 (Sidebar, SR4 BBB) and was unable to locate the relevant Sidebar in SR4A...

Keep the Faith

Slaving the public commlink to your real one is counterproductive. Someone trying to hack the public commlink (depending upon rules reading, trying to access it at all), then needs to go through your real commlink to get to it. Which means that the public commlink then helps to draw attention to your hidden one. Instead, leave the public commlink open. Give it no connection to your real PAN, throw a half-assed security suite into it so that it doesn't look too suspicious, and fill it with information that you want people getting - because it will be getting hacked, and that's part of the point.