Paul,
If you like you can email me and I will send you the manuals for
spywaredoctor, ad-aware, spybot s&d, superantispyware, and the do's and
do nots of spyware and viruses. and avg antivirus if the has that one
These manuals are in word doc form.
They give step by step with pictures (mostly for beginners) on how to
run the programs and what to delete or not.
just take off the "nospam" when you reply to my email
robin
I am assuming he is in his 50's+?
Most of my clients are in that bracket.
and you know what? I ask them the same thing- that is why they wind up
coming to me because they do not listen and the worst of it, understand
they did not grow up with this type of technology. They grew up
(inculding myself) with a large mainfrain where you just punched in
numbers on a amber or green screen. There were no viruses, there were
no malware/spyware, heck there was no internet.
I learned to type on a manual typewriter.
That is why i understand how he feels. Of course i have learned alot
over the past 15yrs and only because I got involved or was forced to
learn "windows" because of my work envirorement. In fact I learned most
of my stuff from being on a large chat network with "kids" in the age
group of 14+. and then went from there.
So mabe this shows you how much little he really knows, even though he
has someone like you who is very knowledgeable. when it comes to
computers, only he came from the "stone age" of computers where life
was way very different.
So have a bit compasion for him because I am betting he really doesn't
understand a word you tell him.
robin
"Paul Baker [MVP, Windows - Networking]"
Hi Robin,
Using logmein.com or something is a good idea, except that I am just
unwilling to help him at all. Which is easier, him reading the d*mn
security warnings and using some common sense, or me looking at his
computer once every couple of months instead of looking after my three
kids (my little guys, two of which are girls
. I lectured him this
time about what he did wrong, the many many reasons he should have
known, etc. He acted like understood, which perhaps he did, but he
just doesn't "get it". He does not have reusable knowledge about
common security sense.
This time, they were going to find someone to fix it, probably at a
cost of a couple of hundred dollars. For my mothers sake only, I
agreed to take a look at it in a spare moment and do what I could. I
didn't promise anything and I said I was not devoting any significant
time to it.
I used Hijack This! to examine how it was running at startup. I tried
terminating the processes using Task Manager and deleteing the
registry entries, but both came back. Then I terminated the processes
using Process Explorer from sysinternals.com instead, and by killing
the whole tree at once, they did not get a chance to restart and were
gone. So then I was able to delete the registry entries without them
coming back, reboot and delete all the other files. It took about 10
minutes of actually doing stuff and an hour of waiting for his
underpowered and over-cr*pified computer to respond. Then I spent a
little time trying to figure out why his Internet connection was still
flaky, only to come to the realisation that his out of date AV
software (he ignores the waring) and old firewall software were just
taking too long to start up and in the mean time sporadically denying
stuff. Even when they do start up, there are sporadic "host not
reachable" errors to just about anywhere.
I don't intend to do even that next time.
Paul
Paul
why don't you set him up on logmein.com?
the service is totally FREE (just make sure you pick the Free one)
If it pops up with the free/pro trial all you need to do a day later
is go into it yourself and fix his settings to FREE.
It is with 256encription too
He has to install it but you can walk him through this on the
telephone.
I have it on 32 clients and when they have a problem i just go
through the website and fix them.
If he is not password protected when he logs in- the program will ask
you for an access code which you make up (of course write it down
because you will need it to get in)
YOu need to know the Login User name and password on his computer)
Once he is set up it will send him an email and he clicks it to
confirm which will take him to one of logmein's website.
It works with firefox and ie6 and 7
Once he is confirmed (and if there is a problem you can actually call
the company and they will fix you for free), then you go to
logmein.com put in his username and the password you created- then it
will log in. YOu will then have to put in his login name and password
and access code if that is the way he goes.
You can set the screen for Full and it will look as if his computer
is in front of you.
This way you can go in and fix him.
Also
it will put an icon in the right side of the taskbar (which is the
remote access) and when he reboots he will see it.You can even reboot
him and it will throw you off but you can log back into the site and
wait till his computer jens up again.
try it out.
robin
"Paul Baker [MVP, Windows - Networking]"
Hi Robin,
Yes, too bad! It wouldn't hurt for him to wipe his hard drive with
all the c**p he has on there.
One local store came to mind, but they are apparently closing
business and don't offer a spyware removal service any more. I know
they're out there, and so are guys like you. Then there's me. I can
do it, but I won't
I might possibly have him run Hijack This! and
use the log to delete some registry entries and at least stop it
reinfecting him - if I feel generous.
Paul
too bad he doesn't live in NJ- I charge $60 to come to your home
and if i find there is a problem and I need more time then I take
the computer back to my lab and charge $50 an hr and if I Have to
research using alot of time to figure out how to find a patch for
the spyware, I call the customer and tell them it will take this
amount of time and how much it will cost.
What I have found in my experiences and I do this all the time the
most it will cost is $200 and if it going to cost more i call the
customer first and explain what needs to be do- ie reinstalling xp
etc and how much it will cost. or if it is not worth it- then i
recommend if the computer is more than 4yrs old to purchase a new
one.
I just sold a new one to a customer for $510 (running xp media
center) and that included a 2 yr in house service contract from
dell.
robin
"Paul Baker [MVP, Windows - Networking]"
My father-in-law was infected with self-replicating spyware via an
ActiveX control... again! Since we basically refused to help him
out this time, he plans to have the Geek Squad come to his house
for $349! I am trying to find somewhere where he can take that
would charge more like $50. In any case...
My mother-in-law is smarter about these things. She knows to read
the Information Bar and security warning, but she misunderstands
the warning. She says "but he already has ActiveX installed, so
why is it asking him to install it again?".
My thought is that this warning would be clearer and more likely
to be heeded if it read "This web site wants to install
software..." instead of "This web site wants to install an ActiveX
control...". The people who need to be paying attention to that
are the same people who have no clue what an ActiveX control is.
Paul
