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stbenge wrote:
> Do any of you out there know people who always seem to have infested
> computers? Can you spot a pattern of (mis)use which may be valuable to
> help these people keep their computers healthy?
>
> Sam
I help one cousin keep a computer. The pattern was her kids and husband.
She used it for ebay and banking, nothing else. They had to play every
game they saw an advertisement for. "Free Demo" meant the game had to be
downloaded, the EULA ignored, and everything clicked through.
The kids also wanted free music. Some P2P programs exist to just share
stuff, others want to make some money and install all sorts of ad-ware
pop-ups and other junk. Pointed the kids to the Wikipedia page that
lists which ones are malware free, and threatened to make an mp3
deleting script that would run on startup. Didn't work, but they are in
college now, so someone else's computer problem.
Another one was the 'must click' syndrome. You know the type, who use
MySpace or Facebook and have to install every application or icon pack
they see. "New emoticons, I have to have those" or "It's free, why
shouldn't I install it?" The basic economic speech of "Free just means
you are paying for it in ways you aren't looking for." is sometimes
enough, other times it's not.
Last one I can think of was running the computer without a firewall.
This was during the middle of Blaster's outbreak. They had turned off
the router because it had blocked some installed game, and the computer
wouldn't quit restarting. I put the router back on, ran the network
through it, and waited an hour drinking tea. To prove a point, I put it
back on the modem without a firewall, and only had to wait 2 to 5
minutes before it restarted. I think they still keep the router in the
loop. Public wifi is also on this list, though I hope Windows has gotten
better default firewall settings since Blaster.
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