As some of you may or may not know (not that it matters) I work support for a major OEM that ships systems with... you guessed it, Windows. It looks like one of these updates just might have a problem. We've seen a few XP users call tonight with an issue stemming from "Update 1 of 3." This is the last update that installs before the system reboots and starts coming back up to a screen that says the system needs to reboot. Anybody else having issues with this? I managed to fix one with Last Known Good Config but I'd still like to know which one caused it.
Close, but no... try again. It's alright though, in about 6 more weeks I can tell anybody that wants to know b/c our company has lost the outsource contract with the computer company I support. BTW, if there's anybody out there looking for a good technician...
ThisIDalreadyInUse
Funny thing about that administrator password. As I pointed out in my post later in the comments: I work for one of the BIG OEM companies and I can say with all certianty... we don't put Administrator passwords on the comptuers when they ship. Furthermore, we WILL NOT assist in adding/removing/modifying any settings of the sort for less than $2.95 per minute. It's not covered in our scope of support. I guess our bosses figure if you're going to use the technology you should at least know something about it. Oh, don't forget the fact that the suits that run the place don't even know how the stuff works. When our tech call center came down with blaster I was recruited to assist with the removal. With the current admin being clueless, guess who had to plan the whole thing out. The first thing I did was scan for systems that had the symptoms (this was before we knew what it was) and I was amused to find out just how insecure our network is. Do you know what kind of information we collect and warehouse everyday. Scary. BTW, after helping disinfect about 500 systems and saving the company millions of bucks, they were nice enough to label me a security risk and put me on a watch list. Just goes to show, the companies that make the stuff don't know anything about it.
Why is everybody acting suprised about this now. This only compounds what most of us already know about XP... it is NOT secure. This is not really a new issue, file and printer sharing always extends to the NIC's interface and if a host is connected directly to a cable/dsl modem without a firewall of some sort and they are dumb enough to turn on sharing or they're infected with something like nimda it's going to drop their info right out there for the world to see. I've seen everything from corporate bank account info to some really nice pictures of people's girlfriends that have been grabbed using this method. It's not that hard to fix though. For one make sure you're using passworded shares (or at least passwords on the user accounts,) then get a router with a firewall or just install a firewall on your box. For god's sake, people use protection for everything from sex to driving. Those that don't, well it isn't pretty. If more ppl (yeah I know it's cliche) "practice safe hex" they wouldn't have to worry. The ones that don't... that's their mistake, MS can't babysit everybody. Caveat Emptor.
As a side note about the account passwords:
I work tech for one of the big 3 manufacturers and I'd like to let everyone know that ALL of our systems go out without an admin pw, most OEM systems do. It's not because it's too hard to implement, it's just b/c our bosses don't understand or care. Remember, this is not the technology revolution it once was, now the whole thing is run by a bunch of marketing droids that aren't techno-savy. I think it's high time people stopped complaining and started learning to use this wonderful technology a little better. After all, it's OUR internet... it's gonna be what we make of it.
Slashdot Mirror
As some of you may or may not know (not that it matters) I work support for a major OEM that ships systems with... you guessed it, Windows. It looks like one of these updates just might have a problem. We've seen a few XP users call tonight with an issue stemming from "Update 1 of 3." This is the last update that installs before the system reboots and starts coming back up to a screen that says the system needs to reboot. Anybody else having issues with this? I managed to fix one with Last Known Good Config but I'd still like to know which one caused it.
Close, but no... try again. It's alright though, in about 6 more weeks I can tell anybody that wants to know b/c our company has lost the outsource contract with the computer company I support. BTW, if there's anybody out there looking for a good technician... ThisIDalreadyInUse
Funny thing about that administrator password. As I pointed out in my post later in the comments: I work for one of the BIG OEM companies and I can say with all certianty... we don't put Administrator passwords on the comptuers when they ship. Furthermore, we WILL NOT assist in adding/removing/modifying any settings of the sort for less than $2.95 per minute. It's not covered in our scope of support. I guess our bosses figure if you're going to use the technology you should at least know something about it. Oh, don't forget the fact that the suits that run the place don't even know how the stuff works. When our tech call center came down with blaster I was recruited to assist with the removal. With the current admin being clueless, guess who had to plan the whole thing out. The first thing I did was scan for systems that had the symptoms (this was before we knew what it was) and I was amused to find out just how insecure our network is. Do you know what kind of information we collect and warehouse everyday. Scary. BTW, after helping disinfect about 500 systems and saving the company millions of bucks, they were nice enough to label me a security risk and put me on a watch list. Just goes to show, the companies that make the stuff don't know anything about it.
ThisIDalreadyInUse
Why is everybody acting suprised about this now. This only compounds what most of us already know about XP... it is NOT secure. This is not really a new issue, file and printer sharing always extends to the NIC's interface and if a host is connected directly to a cable/dsl modem without a firewall of some sort and they are dumb enough to turn on sharing or they're infected with something like nimda it's going to drop their info right out there for the world to see. I've seen everything from corporate bank account info to some really nice pictures of people's girlfriends that have been grabbed using this method. It's not that hard to fix though. For one make sure you're using passworded shares (or at least passwords on the user accounts,) then get a router with a firewall or just install a firewall on your box. For god's sake, people use protection for everything from sex to driving. Those that don't, well it isn't pretty. If more ppl (yeah I know it's cliche) "practice safe hex" they wouldn't have to worry. The ones that don't... that's their mistake, MS can't babysit everybody. Caveat Emptor.
As a side note about the account passwords:
I work tech for one of the big 3 manufacturers and I'd like to let everyone know that ALL of our systems go out without an admin pw, most OEM systems do. It's not because it's too hard to implement, it's just b/c our bosses don't understand or care. Remember, this is not the technology revolution it once was, now the whole thing is run by a bunch of marketing droids that aren't techno-savy. I think it's high time people stopped complaining and started learning to use this wonderful technology a little better. After all, it's OUR internet... it's gonna be what we make of it.
ThisIDalreadyInUse