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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?"
No thanks necessary, it's what I do. :)
(and yes, I know he said PC. I consider this a PC solution.)
What software or strategies do you use to protect your parents' PCs? Is it possible for inexperienced users to surf the net in safety?"
Well, the solution is pretty simple actually. Since OS X does not have the virus/worm issues that Windows has, is easy to use and set-up, does not have the malware issues that Windows has, I purchased iBooks for my mother and my sister to use. They are cheap, quite effective, durable as can be and since they live many hundreds of miles away from me, I am not always having to do tech support over the phone (or video iChat). Quite frankly, I really don't have the time these days to do computer support so this really is the best solution. Additionally, I would much rather spend the time I have to interact with my family on more fulfilling topics than computer support.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
I just create a ghost of the system with everything installed and every so often just wipe the computer and reinstall things. Takes a little doing to get the parents trained well enough to save files correctly, but it works well, and every 6 months i sit down for a couple hours and reinstall everything. Maybe over doing it but I dont have to do anything in between except change ink cartridges
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
I use VNC to do check ups on my fathers computer a few times a day. This is real usedull because you can check the computer as if you were sitting in front of it in a very short ammount of time; You dont have to stand up and phisicaly be at the computer.
I also installed Mozilla Firebi...fox on his computer so that he does not install anything he really neads.
I spend hours locking down the box, turning off their permissions, setting up virus and spyware scanners with automatic updates and run-times and admonished them to run Firefox. Took a long time.
They still got infected. I still got calls. LOTS of calls. "Slow!" "Hijacked homepage!" "radioactive monkeys!" etc.
Then I got them a used G4. Works a charm. They're happy, I'm happy, the web is safer for them and from them.
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
This includes updating virus protection(AYG, so they don't have to worry about keeping it paid), running windows update, a full defrag, and I make sure their OO.org and mozilla are up to date.
Hakkuna friggin' Matata. :)
You are not the customer.
My mother has actually started taking a few basic computer classes, which have yielded an improvement in her basic usage skills.
Install Mozilla or Firefox ...
Stick with Safari, it comes with Mac OS X, it gets updated automatically like the OS, and frankly will get better support when a company blows it and produces a page that doesn't render correctly. Apple is actually somewhat helpful on that last point when the offending site is somewhat important, say online banking, they may contact the offender. I believe Safari has a built in reporting mechanism for bad pages.
Setting them up with Firefox (or probably any other non-IE browser) is one of the best things you can do to protect them. Additionally, Thunderbird (or another non-Outlook mail client) would probably be a good idea.
Set them up with Spybot S&D to clean up stuff that does get through. If for some reason you haven't yet explained to them about not opening attachments, make sure you do.
I was reluctant to switch my mom away from IE because I was concerned about her having problems with non-IE websites. I installed Firebird on her computer (for my own use) this past X-mas when I was visiting. She asked me what the icon was and I told her it was a browser with pop-up blocking and immediately she was ready to switch. I explained about the possibility of incompatible websites and she didn't hesitate to say "I don't care about that. I'll use that IE for sites like that if I have to."
She's been really happy with Firebird. I feel kind of stupid for worrying that adding a new browser would unnecessarily complicate her life--it did exactly the opposite.
At the risk of people calling me an anti-MS zealot, let me just recommend having them use as little of Microsoft's software as possible. It's just bad news--too many exploits. You can go ahead make the argument that possibly Firefox has holes too that no one has bothered to exploit because of it's smaller marketshare. If that's true, then its smaller marketshare is just one more benefit.
It's relatively simple to keep your parents surfing in safety. As many people have already mentioned, Firefox is a good start. But that's not where you need to stop. While Thunderbird is stil in alpha, it makes a nice email client, and has fewer glaring security holes than some of the more popular clients.
But where everything comes together is with the last two important pieces of software. I used to be a strong supporter of The Proxomitron, but it's very difficult to find now, and is no longer supported, so I've switched over to Privoxy which runs on most platforms, incidentally.
Privoxy is a local proxy that does filtering on all web content that you view, removing things like some ads, and all unrequested pop-ups. It filters virtually all malicious content I have seen.
A personal firewall is important to have now, and there are some reasonable free ones around. The ones I like take a bit of configuration, but they sure beat Zone Alarm. The two I use are Kerio Personal Firewall and Sygate Personal Firewall.
Sadly, both these products used to be completely free, but the same is no longer completely true.
Essentially, it is important to use a good browser, mail client, local proxy and firewall. With those in place a virus scanner is often somewhat redundant, though one of those might be a good idea too.
On the spam prevention front, I find Popfile to be an invaluable tool. It is, however, a wee bit advanced. I suspect that most parents wouldn't quite grok it. I've heard good things about SpamAssassin, though, and it might be worth the effort of teaching parents.
The problem with Windows XP System Restore is that you are at the mercy of what files Microsoft think are important. Suppose you manage to download a trojan which destroys all your game directories. Those directories aren't under System Restore's control so it can't roll back those changes.
Solutions like TrialBlazer managed the entire disk as if everything were the same thing. Although you could easily make a D: which wasn't under its control, I guess. I can barely remember whether it did every hard disk or just the system one.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Getting a Mac, moving to Linux and switching to Firefox etc... are all excellent suggestions, but I've found that they aren't always practical. Many people learn by rote, and switching between all-MS products at work and other applications at home may generate even more confusion (and thus work for you) than the security problems they solve. And although Firefox is getting really good (it's my full-time browser), I do encounter bugs and incompatible pages more frequently than I did when I used IE, and have not had good luck with semi-skilled users I've switched to it.
This is all a long winded way of saying that *if* for some reason you're in a situation were you need to leave the machine in basically "pure Windows / MS" form, here are some ideas:
If you're cheap: Keep virus protection current (look to AVG or Panda if you need something free). The google toolbar for IE is a decent popup blocker and will take care of most of the spyware popups as well as make searching easier. Install both Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy... manually update and run them when you visit, and use the Spybot "innoculate" feature. If they've got XP, demote their user accounts so that they aren't administrators, and either install all software for them or teach them to change accounts to do it themselves. VNC is nice, but the built-in remote assistance also works, and the full-blown remote access built into XP Pro works well over low-bandwidth connections when configured properly.
If you / they are willing to spend a few bucks and don't have a complete allergy to commercial software: Norton Internet Security isn't a bad package (if you turn off the parental controls crap) and will do most of what you need. The Antivirus and firewall are reasonably solid and very easy to use, as is Norton Antispam, which takes care of popups and browser-based spyware installation as well as mail filtering that's well-integrated and easy to use with Outlook and OE.
-R
Unbelievable. I was sure this was a troll, but discovered that Wired Magazine ran a story in December 2001 called The Geek Syndrome addressing this phenomenon. Amazing.
:)
Lucky for me, my wife has a degree in Communications, and is about as non-technical as they come.
This is my sig.
Dood, I know this is /. and that we be abunchazealots, but still...
You can run Windows in a secure fashion. First thing: Disblable useless services (like Universal PnP, Remote *anything* and so on). Second: Setup separate user and admin accounts.
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.
The fourth and probably best move you can ever do, is setup a systempartition with only the system and applications (move documentfolders elsewhere), and take a Ghost-snapshot. Then if they somehow manage to screw up, you're recovered in 5 minutes with absolutely no hassle.
That's four simple goddamn things you need to do, and your Windows is bulletproof enough for any standard needs.
What's the problem? No really, what is the problem?
Yes, Linux may be better (for some things), but sometimes stuff like work ++ creates things called software issues, and VMware really is more of a hack than a solution unless you have the extra memory.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.