Amusing andecdote - good for a laugh

From: Rod (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/20/04 

Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 20:51:21 -0700

What a lovely story heheh :-)

>-----Original Message-----
>As I read the innumerable posts regarding loss of
product ID's, product
>CD's, mysterious virus infections, forgotten passwords,
SP2 calamities and
>other tales of woe, I can't help but chuckle quietly as
I jump from one
>desperate post to the next. I've been working with
computers for a while
>and I'm not even close to being as knowledgeable as some
of the old-timers
>here like Carey Frisch, Bruce Chambers and Larry
Samuels. I help out my
>friends and some private clients with their computing
problems on a casual
>basis.
>
>A friend called and said he had an office worker who was
having problems
>with her home computer and asked if I could take a look
and see if I could
>help her out. I said sure, and she called me and we
arranged a time for me
>to come over to her place and check out the machine.
>
>It was a brand new Dell Dimension 8400, the box was
sitting in her hall.
>She had cable internet service, professionally
installed. She told me to
>sit down and see what I could do to fix it. I hit the
power button and
>nothing. I hit it again and still nothing. I asked her
if this was the
>problem and she laughed saying that it turns on just
fine, kneeled down on
>the floor by the desk and flipped the power switch on a
multi-plug surge
>protector. The computer, printer, scanner, monitor,
cable modem, web camera
>and speakers all fired up at once! I must have looked
amazed because she
>asked if there was anything wrong.
>
>Over the din of the machinery coming to life I explained
that a power strip
>was not the way to start up your system or its
peripherals. When I returned
>my attention to the monitor, I could see that I was in
for some real
>trouble. The poor thing was finding new hardware left
and right and trying
>to install everything in the book. It crashed, of
course. I asked her if
>this was the problem she was having and she said no, it
usually started a
>couple of times before she could get on the internet.
>
>After I disconnected everything but the monitor, modem,
mouse and keyboard,
>I started the system up. A few of the "hardware not
found" popups later, I
>got to the desktop. It appeared to be normal
(thankfully) with the usual
>Dell stuff littered about. I found the Internet
Explorer icon and hit it to
>connect to the internet and see what was going to
happen. At this point,
>she pointed to the screen and said to watch closely. As
IE came up, so did
>the first of what would turn out to be over a dozen
popups. Everything from
>the usual pornography to plain, blank windows. Then the
RPC shutdown, of
>course!
>
>She jabbed her finger at the countdown box and said that
this was the main
>problem, she could only stay connected for a minute at a
time. This seemed
>to annoy her to no end as it meant she could only surf
to sites that would
>load in under a minute and only get one email at a
time! What kind of
>internet was it that would only let you on for a minute
at a time? It was
>difficult to stifle my laughter at this point. I got
the countdown stopped
>and made a quick recon of her system.
>
>No anti-virus enabled, even though Dell had shipped the
unit with McAfee.
>No anti-spyware software. No firewall enabled. In
fact, no security
>measures of any kind. I asked her if she knew about the
built in Windows
>firewall and she said yes. She didn't know that it had
to be enabled to
>work. When I asked her if she had turned on the McAfee
anti-virus suite she
>said she didn't know that it had to be enabled to work,
either. I asked her
>if the technician who installed her cable modem had
mentioned any of this
>stuff during his visit. She said yes, he had said that
Windows XP can take
>care of all of that for her, not to worry.
>
>I grabbed my utilities CD, containing copies of Ad-
aware, Pest Patrol,
>Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware Blaster. I
installed all of them, ran
>the updates, then browsed over to get her a copy of AVG
Anti-Virus and Zone
>Alarm. With a cable modem connection, AVG and Zone
Alarm were downloaded in
>just a few minutes. While I waited for the serial
number to come down from
>AVG, I installed Zone Alarm, the free version, and
started scanning her
>system.
>
>At this point, it was just a matter of sitting through
the scans and
>allowing the applications to find and delete the
incredible number of files
>that had installed themselves. After about an hour and
a half, her system
>was clean. I had to do a Google search for the
Blaster.exe fix because I
>couldn't remember where I had found it myself. McAfee
had identified it,
>but couldn't delete it for some reason. She was
delighted. I explained
>what I had done and what she had to do to keep her
system from getting
>infected again. She wondered if some of those emails
she had been getting
>had something to do with her system problems.
>
>I remember thinking to myself that this had to be a bad
dream. She had only
>been able to see a part of her email so she had only
opened a few of them.
>When she explained that she did not know who these
people were, but wanted
>to see what they were emailing her about, I had to
laugh. I couldn't help
>it. I told her not to do that again, only to open mail
from people you know
>and are expecting to hear from. As I explained each of
these problems I
>encountered to her it was obvious that she wasn't
stupid, she was getting
>the point, it was just that no one had ever bothered to
help her. All the
>information was making sense to her, now that she was
getting exposed to it.
>
>Once I had made sure that her machine was truly clear
and clean I showed her
>how to use the Windows Update feature as I had to leave
for other business.
>Of course, it was a huge list, the machine being new and
the version of XP a
>few months behind the updates. She understood that some
updates would
>require a reboot and she felt she could handle it. She
was extremely happy
>that someone would take the time to help her.
>
>On my way out, I pointed to the pile of paperwork and
CD's on the coffee
>table and told her not to lose anything. She laughed
and said that she got
>the message, loud and clear. My work here was done.
>
>So, people, listen up! The point of this is you have to
get the knowledge
>you need to operate your computer properly. Save all
the paperwork that
>came with your system. Save all the CD's and any
packaging they were in.
>Install, update, and configure a firewall, anti-virus
software and
>anti-malware applications. Save your receipts! Save
and read the
>installation instructions for your computer and anything
else you connect to
>it. Register your system so you can take advantage of
the makers warranty,
>and do take advantage, you paid for it! But, most of
all, ask questions.
>This is what these newsgroups are all about. Thanks to
all the old-timers
>for all the help! Happy computing.
>
>
>
>
>
>.
>