Slashdot Mirror
Protecting Our Parents' PCs?
Frustrated Son asks: "I assume that many Slashdot readers must serve as the IT staff for their parents. My folks get my old machines and just enough software to be productive. I try to protect my parents from the forces of evil by installing automatic OS updates, virus checkers, spyware blockers, pop-up blockers... But still I find that my parents end up with unwanted applications and dangerous software. What software or strategies do you use to protect your parents' PCs? Is it possible for inexperienced users to surf the net in safety?"
Before they were controlling what I should and I shouldn't watch, now I'm controlling what they should and shouldn't download and install.
Ahh, the life cycle.
If my Mum ever wanted a computer, I'd set her up with NT4 (SP1), IIS running, no virus scanner or firewall, and her logged in as Administrator. :)
I've mentioned Linux, and how nice it is, and once she became frustrated with Windows, I'm sure she'd agree
Get your own free personal location tracker
How to deal with tech support requests from parents?
That's what my two younger brothers are for! I just had to teach them enough so that I could send my parents to them.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
No. Plain and simple, no. I once tried to fixed a computer for a friend. He "clicked" on the AOL icon, and claimed his computer was broken. And by clicked, I mean that he picked up the mouse and "clicked" it against the monitor. I was unable to help him due to the excessive laughter I was experiencing and still do when I think of that day.
Stop Lying!
I'm a gentoo zealot and I have to say, YOU SIR HAVE GONE TO FAR!
My father has never used the Internet before and has just started browsing EBay for antique glass. I've printed out, in 48-point lettering, "EBay will never ask you for your password by email" and pinned it to the wall next to the PC.
I'm thinking of replicating this for other tricks that some people try to pull.
Rule of thumb: I'll support you for free if you buy a Mac. If you buy a PC, you use the Yellow Pages. Problem solved.
--
$tar -xvf
Unless your parents have a habit of using "my computer" or "my documents" as IE by just typing the URL in the address bar.
Gah parents.
I am 31 years old, and I beleive I don't say it enough "I apprecieate my parents"
Dad's a Programmer, Mom's an Admin.
It's where I learned it all the first place, I guess it helps having technically savvy parents.
GIRLFRIENDS on the other hand... I just dont let her on the net except to check email, and then I have vigorous virus checks, She knows "under penalty of loosing the laptop" that she is not to open any attachments, She doesnt have any need to get any from the people that work for her(email is only to send information TO them). But I still get the Weekly, "how do I send this email again?" she is about as technically UNsavvy as I am on the other end of the scale.
moo.
Spammer's note to self: Make great big "No!" button in phony system-error popup.
"Tell them to buy an iMac. It's especially built for idi-" (long pause) "for mommies and daddies."
I installed WinXP with automatic-updates, enabled winXP Firewall, Norton Antivirus, and gave my mom a regular user account. I gave her the administrator password should she ever need it, but she would have to log in as Administrator (which is a lot of work) to do any damage. That system has been up and running stable for 2+ years.
Mom used to have an Administrator account, but after the 2nd virus (which 9 times out of 10 exploits user stupidity) I took away her access. Now she can't break the computer even if she wanted to. Go ahead, open all the attachments you like. "cool_song.mp3.exe" sounds awesome - open it up! Someone loves you? Better run that executable and find out what they have to say. Bring it on virii kiddies. My Mom is immune.
I threaten my parents with an "Internet License," telling them I'll revoke it if they ever get a virus from clicking on a dumb email attachment. It helps keep the aware of suspicious emails and they tend to ask me when they're confronted with something that doesn't seem right.
I recently had the opportunity to work on my cousin's PC.. her husband had been running win2k unprotected on DSL for over a month. Total whorebox. I mean they were asking me, "what is mIRC and why is it running? we didn't install it." It reminded me of the time I forgot about the chicken I left to defrost in my sink before going out on vacation -- FOR TWO WEEKS!
I formatted and reinstalled, disabled as many services as possible and filtered TCP and UDP as much as I could prior to connecting to the net. I dove in and went straight to zonelabs. I stood with my finger on the cable while the download completed and soon as the dialog showed 100%, yoink!
I installed Zone Alarm, locked it down, and went back online to start the patching party. Zone Alarm blocked the first connect (port 135, which virus was that again? there are so many..) in 43 seconds. I checked. I left the Zone Alarm control panel up to show my cousin's husband when he came home from work since it continuously updates the number of blocked access attempts. Within six hours, ZA had blocked 983 attempts. And now, three weeks later, their system is still running fine. Not that they would notice if it wasn't, but still..
Intelligent Life on Earth
I don't fix mistakes made by her friends, neighbors or relatives. She looked hurt, but I made it stick. She's stopped asking me for support.
Where is she? I'd happily take your place in the will in exchange for a little tech support.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
like DON'T use ie on pron sites
Not a conversation I've had to have with my parents. Thank $deity. I do not want to go there.
Yeah, I'd be ashamed if I thought my parents were closet IE users too.
Beep beep.
Just change the Windows decoration and theme. If you got for -- say -- a green theme, than a blue popup will look suspicious.
Just put them on The Hurd and be done with it. You know we'll all end up there eventually.
The first thing I noticed was that half the icons on his desktop were Internet Explorer shortcuts named "100% Hot Young Sluts," "Barely Legal Semen Sippers," etc. Whatever-- my job is to fix his computer, not to be judmental about his affinity for Shaved High School Muffins.
Mmmm... muffins.
Ahem. Anyway, I downloaded Ad Aware and installed Norton Antivirus (he got an OEM version with his system board but never installed it). After removing numerous Trojans and spyware that was slowing his system by "phoning home," VOILA, his Internet connection was perfectly fine.
We had a chat about how spyware slows your machine and Internet conncection, how he should be careful what he downloads, update Ad Aware and Norton Antivirus regularly, etc.
Today, the same guy brings in his machine. He tells me that after a day or two the same symptoms returned. After he left I tossed the machine on my bench and started laughing out loud. He had apparently thought our discussion about adware and spyware had taken place on Opposite Day and did the reverse of everything I said, opening every attachment in sight, running every free sex dialer program he could find. Not ten days after I cleaned his machine, Ad Aware found 640 new objects, many happily hijacking his Net connection. There were also several trojans, and something seems to have disabled Norton Autoprotect. We might be better off backing up his data, formatting the drive, and reinstalling Windows. Software problems are not covered by his warranty, and this might cost him fifty or eighty bucks.
On the bright side, he had cleared all the porn from his desktop-- a wise thing to do when you take the PC in for repairs.
--All your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson
I'm sorry Mama.
I never meant to hurt you.
I never meant to make you cry,
But tonight, I'm cleaning out my closet.
- eminem
unplug ethernet, tell them where the nearest internet-caffe is
The consensus was to get the inlaws an older computer or a cheap one from dell, load it with win2000 and all the software they would *need*, and then give it to them.
Oh, and not give them the admin password.
Want to install something? Too bad.
Yes, this seems harsh, but you don't know my inlaws. I've already fixed their win98 machine once. Symptom: so much malware that windows would freeze when trying to open IE -- I opened the taskmanager to see what was running and there were three pages of processes. Most of which were adware and spyware, and a few viruses. Many many hours later it was good as new.
Later we get another call. Laurie is in her room crying, mom wont talk to dad, dad is screaming and swearing: the computer is broken, it's our/her/their fault, it wont print, and on top of that the land phone line wont work. We tell them, after an hour of his ranting, to call the fucking phone company. He does, the tech shows up, pulls the USB printer cable out of the phone jack and leaves.
Well, they've called again. Opening IE freezes up the computer, and we've been informed that they have visited us enough and it is time to visit them, now (they live four hours away in the anus of Texas) and we should fix the computer while we're there.
I may bring a gift.
Do we "migrate" our parents.
I can just picture the whole scenario. A note hanging on the kitchen wall:
"Notice! On March 18, parents will migrate to the new service as discussed in internal family-meeting on February 06. Should parents still have any questions, please feel free to contact the sys-admin (your son).
And, oh yeah, can I have some more pocket-money?"
I will come and fix your computer when you have problems, if and only if....
You do not open any Email attatchments unless they are from me.
You do not download any free software unless it is cleared through me first via phone or email.
You do not click on anything suspicious! You computer already has all of the updates and software it needs, and it is not at the mercy of attackers (any more than the rest of the MS machines I guess. :P), and you don't need to know the weather all the time and have 50 million things in your task bar, etc. You will use default screensavers and wallpapers, and use only default windows color schemes, etc.
Should you think you need to upgrade you will do so with hardware approved by and installed by me.
Do not put any disks or programs in your computer that you got from "a buddy at work" or anything like that.
And last but not least.....pay attention to file names!!!!!!! Something called MS_Word_Document_doc.exe IS NOT A WORD DOCUMENT MOM!
And no you cannot install Kazaa.
"If you as a third move install third-party software for netuse (Opera, Mozilla. That kind of stuff), you'll need some pretty clueless people in order to screw the machine over."
Ah, you mean like parents and Windows users?
That was the problem.
Wow...
I'd call you a control freak, except I know that, essentially, that's the only way to be safe from viruses and spyware. It just seems like The Totalitarian's Guide to Home Computing or something.
(And then it makes me think of systems of government, and wonder whether giving people unlimited freedoms is a good thing or not. I'm all for it, in theory. But I see that, applied to computing, the consequences are things like viruses. There really are people that need to be protected from themselves... or at least protected from malicious behavior by others that can be activated by themselves.)
But back more-or-less to the topic, what is the proper way to protect? Set up some sort of terminal that can only execute approved programs, that doesn't install plug-ins, that only downloads updates from an official source...
Will this be the future of Windows someday?
Installing a kernel over ssh? Sounds like a short-story thriller waiting to happen. :)
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Yeah, and thats how he treats his parents. Imagine how he treats co-workers/clients.
> There really are people that need to be protected from themselves
No, they don't. Natural Selection. If they can manage to do permanent damage to themselves using a computer (except maybe eyestrain or Carpal Tunnel (what's that acronym... RSI?)), they probably should not be passing on their genes.