Slashdot Mirror
Easing the Job of Family Tech Support?
DarkDevil writes "Ever since I was introduced to computers at a very young age, I've been the resident tech support for a household of 7 users. I've been in a cycle for the last ~8 years where something happens to my parents' computer, I spend a week or two trying to non-destructively fix the problem (and try to explain to the users what caused it and how to avoid it), and then if it's not easily fixed I'll reformat and start from scratch. Most often, the level of infection warrants a reformat, which usually ends up taking even more time to get the computer back to how my parents know how to use it. 4-8 months later, it happens again. Recently, I found ~380 instances of malware and 6 viruses. I only realized something was wrong with their computer after it slowed down the entire network whenever anyone used it. My question for Slashdot is: are there any resources out there that explain computer viruses, malware, adware, and general safe computer practices to non-technical people in an easy-to-digest format? The security flaws in my house are 9, 26, and ~50 years old, with no technical background aside from surfing the internet. Something in video format would be ideal as they are perfectly happy with our current arrangement and so it'll be hard to get them reading pages and pages of technical papers."
Try MS SteadyState
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm That should give them an idea. It also includes a video about trojan horses. :)
I completely agree. I did the exact same thing.
The most beautiful part? When I was convincing them to pick up a Mini to replace their dying PC, my dad's first question was (I kid you not): "But will it run Firefox and OpenOffice?"
I almost cried.
And if I do need to give them support? 99% of the time I can just have them fire up iChat and share their desktop with me. Quick and easy for them, and doesn't require messing with opening ports in any firewalls or NATs.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
It sounds like you have all the control here, so simply lock down those computers. Install a decent anti-virus, firewall, and script blockers. Install a decent web browser and delete the IE icon on the desktop. Ensure all these and the OS are able to update themselves automatically. Install the programs your family uses. Then create a non-admin account for them and do not give them the admin password. That's what I've been doing and the only problems I've had to deal with in the last few years were a hard drive crash and some minor issues. If they need to install a new program or need the admin password for any reason, they have to go through me to get it done.
Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
Give them all this
This space for rent, inquire within.
It has nothing to do with evolution. Plant tissues that experience pressures (say from bending in the wind) release hormones that make the tissue stronger, to better withstand that pressure.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
How much is your time worth, in any unit you care to name? If the answer is any amount greater than zero, then convincing friends and family to buy a Mac helps so, so much... I have several people I used to help all the time, and now I get a question maybe once a year. Not to mention that any frustration you are saving yourself, you are triply saving your friends and family who try to figure things out before they call you.
But I would add in addition to this advice, to buy a TimeCapsule for them as well. Yes it's a little more expensive than an access point and external disk combined. But refer back to my first point, the bit about time and so on? If they have a TimeCapsule set up they WILL USE IT, because it is on ALL THE TIME. If you try to make anyone connect an external drive they WILL NOT DO IT, and that means WHEN a drive failure occurs you will have to come help try and recover data. If the have a Time Capsule they can bring the system and TC into an Apple store and get the data back even if they can't figure out how themselves (which they probably will figure out).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've found the best thing is to treat them like a corporation. Make sure their accounts are only user level, and either hold on to the Administrator password or make sure they know the real reason to use it. Done that with a few family friends I do work for and the amount of trouble i've had has dropped drastically.
Absolutely, I did this for my brother's machine, compared to my parents machine it's remained extremely tidy and worry free!
The only issue is Firefox updating. On Windows XP, Firefox cannot update itself when running in a non-admin account. (Bugzilla:407875) Probably means my brother is running a months-old Firefox..
Makes me wonder if Internet Explorer would actually be safer for him, at least it would get updated automatically.
If you think your only option is to re-install the OS, odds are you don't know how to fix the problem and do it in a timely fashion.
So, how do YOU deal with a corrupted registry, chains upon chains of hooked and rehooked system calls, apps without proper uninstallers, bad-neighbor applications that overwrite other apps' dlls, and rootkits? Are you really spending the time to one-at-a-time manually uninstall and replace bad associations with known-good ones?
To me, OS reinstall and repatch is more of a time saving device. Sure, I can spend hours on hours chasing dragons all over the place for hours on end to fix things and keep their precious desktop wallpaper and they could just click that Awesome Cute Videos bookmark and reinstall the same damn malware the very next day. I personally rather set an xml file and leave an unattended install on while catching a movie or otherwise getting on with my life.
I know if family ever got snippety with me about why I reinstall all the time, I'd probably throw the computer back right at them and wish them good luck.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Changing their behavior could make their use of Windows safer, but speaking from practical experience every time I have switched a problem user to a Mac (which in some cases I did at my own expense) the support time fell to essentially zero after a short adjustment period. Importantly, this has always happened. Changing the OS fixed the problem without fixing the user.
Theoretically the Mac (and Linux) can have similar malware problems to Windows, and there is proof-of-concept malware out there. Practically, though, it just isn't the case. I suspect that the security model -- which is much better than even Vista/Win7 when you get into the details -- has a lot to do with that. The claims that it's all about market share are wishful thinking; it's about ease of entry. It's very, very easy to subvert Windows ... and very difficult for Microsoft to fix this because a large amount of software depends on the ability to do things that should really not be allowed (like, say, injecting threads into other programs and using VirtualProtect to make code pages writeable -- with those capabilities you will never make a secure system). As long as it's much easier to subvert Windows there's not much point in going after the Mac.
But it goes beyond malware. Certain Windows features, such as the Registry, are hideously overcomplex and unreliable. They should have been tossed years ago -- and since everyone manages registry settings via APIs this could be done with excellent backwards compatibility (consider how easy it was for Apple to switch the format for Prefs in Snow Leopard). When something messes up the registry, all too common in my experience, there is little choice but to burn it down and rebuild from scratch. (Thank God for Acronis or I'd go insane from the reinstalls.)
If you want a system that doesn't require a lot of admin time I have to say that you can pick pretty much anything other than Windows and do well. It will be easier to set up, easier to back up, easier to fix if something goes wrong, and the software will be considerably less expensive (everyone else packages useful software in-the-box).
Of course, there can be overriding concerns that force the use of Windows ... and you take your lumps if that's the case.
jim frost
jimf@frostbytes.com