play the dumb card. play the "im too busy card" dont let it happen the first time. thats what ive done, and all the calls have stopped.
i basically forced people to learn on their own, or call someone else. i then for the ones who didnt get it from there, told them that for $125 per hour i could do whatever they wanted. :) all calls have stopped. On 10/24/05, Jerry Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > <rant> > If you subscribe to this list, then you might be the guy or gal like me who > gets called upon frequently to look at the computers of relatives, friends, > neighbors, strangers, etc. whenever problems arise. Once people know that > you are a programmer, it is assumed that you know everything there is to > know about all computers. There is no distinction between being a programmer > and a systems person to most people (granted, you pick up a lot of stuff). > Mom's computer is on the fritz, no problem, I'll be there. The in-laws need > help with their wireless setup. Okay. My mom's neighbor's niece who lives > out of state. That's a stretch, but I have been asked about helping in > situations like this. > > This weekend, it was the neighbors. They moved in 1 month after we moved > into our house 4 years ago. They know I am a programmer and have known the > whole time we have know them. Keep this in mind as I describe my assistance > to them. They could have asked for help as soon as problems arose and saved > everyone some time. But no . . . > > First, they called a couple of weeks ago and asked if I could help them get > the pop ups off their laptop. Uh-oh. Sure I said. Bring it by. Well after > two or three weeks, the bring it. You know the routine. I put AVG, > Zonealarm, Spybot, Adaware, Process Explorer, Microsoft AntiSpyware tool, > and firefox on my jump drive and began. This machine had over 50 pieces of > spyware on it as well as trojans and viruses. I spent Friday night (while > watching Monster-in-law with my wife) trying to clean it. I spent Sat > afternoon (while watching college football) trying to clean it. I spent > Sunday afternoon (while watching the NFL) trying to clean it. Notice the > word "trying." This machine was so inundated with stuff that it could not be > done. To make matters worse, the control panel would not come up. Some piece > of software had apparently deleted access to this (even in safe mode). There > was one piece of spyware named SurfSideKick that was a real beast to remove. > It would not come off even though all scanners picked it up and said they > would remove it. It would randomly throw a pop up even if IE was closed > (obviously it was running but it did not show in the task manager-nice). > > To make matters even more worse, these neighbors are on roadrunner and have > not performed one windows xp update. None. Ever. This machine has been > setting wide open for a year and a half without a firewall or patches. I > removed as much as I could and peformed all the updates I could, hoping that > these updates would somehow kill the beasts that would not die > (surfsidekick, I am talking to your) and give me control of the control > panel. No dice. > > Finally, I say to myself "It's time to go nuclear." I give my neighbors a > call and say I need the disc that came with your computer. You'll love this. > They lost it. They don't have it anymore. Nice. Well, I just got a new > PCWorld that had a snippet on BartPE. An opportune time to try it out. I > install it, run it, and it creates the boot disc fine. Unfortunately, it > would not work. Winnt32.exe would not complete its operation (it was > probably modified by something as well). BartPE did allow me to delete > SurfSideKick though since I was not running windows. > > At this point, most of the spyware and virus are off. The machine is patched > as much as possible. Alas, some pop ups are still happeing. I put my XP disc > in to use it to modify the settings. I was hoping I could use it to get the > control panel back. No option to install the control panel but there was an > option to remove Internet Explorer. I did it. This killed the pop ups and > hopefully shut down an open pathway for more crap. > > That was it for me. The laptop runs better than it did. It has more defenses > than before. If more needs to be done, they will need to seek professional > help. > > I did learn a few things and come to some conclusion. > > 1. The people who built Surfsidekick should have it installed on > everymachine they use. They should enjoy its popups as much as everyone > else. > 2. Companies that advertise in these popups should be boycotted (these > weren't porn popus. There were adds for Dell no less). > 3. Congress needs to get busy on legislation to punish people responsible > for this kind software. > 4. I should check my caller ID more closely. > 5. IE should never be used unless absolutely necessary. It is an > abomination. That's right Bill Gates. I am talking to you . . . > 6. Some people should not be allowed to own computers that connect to the > internet. Web TV would be perfect for them. > > Well, back to your regularly scheduled work day . . . > > </rant> > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:177843 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
