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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