They just don't understand!(Familly Members)

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BallerX

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 17, 2003
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I know you guys run into this a lot. So I though I should ask. What can I say to certain family members who just keep installing limewire and other assorted bullshit on their computers?

Just pulled an allnighter emergency virus cleanup for one of my cousins who has a paper due later this week and found out she couldn't boot her computer.

She got some variant of sasser and lsass.exe was error on boot. I managed to setup a batch to copy a few things through the recovery console so the PC would boot. Now there are no account privileges machine wide. Cant access user control. Cant access system restore. Nothing. I have managed to get it to were she can recover her files and whatnot. So that's a major crisis averted.

The biggest problem is this was an OEM install and there is no windows folder. I cant log in as admin unless I'm in safe mode and it still wont let me access user controls there either. Of course I found all kinds of Limewire bullshit and about a million fucking toolbars. Couldn't even see the web pages for all the fucking toolbars.

Why wont they listen when I tell them not to install that shit? I already tried telling them that crap is the plague, yet they don't care! I have to do this shit. It's family.

Today, I try a new approach. When she gets the PC back today, I'm telling her that the next time she needs my help and I find Limewire on her shit, she is SOL. It could be her doctorate thesis for all I care. She needs to take it down the road to Geek Squad and pay out the ass for them not to be able to fix it anyway.

Is there even a way to recover account creds on an OEM install when you have to do something like this? Short of reinstalling Windows, I don't see how. I only have access to the windows folder from the recovery console.

Fucking windows XP. Never thought I would say that...but.. In this case if it were Vista or 7, I think UAC might have kept this sort of virus from jacking about. She probably would have allowed it to do whatever anyway. Who am I kidding right?:mad:
 
Lock down her system and give her a limited access user account? Keep the administrative rights for yourself. If she needs to install something she can bring it to you or you can log in remotely.
 
valve1138 said:
Stop fixing their computers!
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Thats exactly what i have done. I tell everyone that asks me to work on their computer that I don't do side work, or that i only work on servers (which is 90% true lol)
 
*First time..."Shame on them"...give them a lecture
*Second time....you get pissed..and lecture them more, tell them that the p2p/torrent crap is bad, tell them to keep things updated like java, flash, antivirus, etc.
*Third time..."Shame on you" for allowing yourself to get stuck, tell them the number of geek squad.
 
I have a small family, which is lucky, but I've given them an ultimatum simillar to the OP:

"If you can't be a responsible computer user and don't cut out downloading shit, I will NOT fix your computer."

If you get a virus running anything newer than XP, it's 100% PEBKAC. Yea yea, "infected ads" and that garbage. That's why you have a virus scanner and UAC.

I just finished fixing my sister and cousin's computers, and I told them that I will NOT fix them for free at all until the end of the school year. My current Windows 7 install has lasted me 14 months. They should be able to keep from fucking theirs up for another 6 months. I also taught them about DC++ (both are in Uni) and Torrenting, so they're not exposing themselves to the nightmare that is Gnutella.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
tell them the number of geek squad.
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i wouldnt wish geek squad on my worst enemy.

the first time a friend asks me to fix a computer, i do it and tell them why exactly it was broken, and tell them that if limewire/kazaa/morpheus or ANY toolbars or new antivirus programs are ever installed again, im not touching it.

I also taught them about DC++ (both are in Uni) and Torrenting, so they're not exposing themselves to the nightmare that is Gnutella.
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the issue of legality aside; using torrent sites especially, or torrent programs themselves can be just as bad as gnutella if the user has no idea how to use them.
 
Untangle, block that crap! Also, whether you do Untangle or not, set everyone up for OpenDNS. Change the DNS servers on their router (again, Untangle or otherwise) to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 (or you can use one of the OpenDNS ones and use Google's 8.8.4.4 or 8.8.8.8 as a secondary, in case OpenDNS goes down completely)

OpenDNS won't prevent viruses but it'll help some. You can have an account and block specific sites/IPs with it but I think that costs money.

You could install a firewall that the user can't configure and block Limewire and stuff with it.
 
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ghost6303 said:
the issue of legality aside; using torrent sites especially, or torrent programs themselves can be just as bad as gnutella if the user has no idea how to use them.
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I agree completely, that's why I made sure I taught them well.
 
I used to fix friends/family computers. But then i got sick of it and stopped doing it. The nextdoor neighbor, whom, thankfully didnt have Limewire, came uber close to losing all her masters degree papers. lol. it took me 8 hours to un-fuck that mess because saving the data was that important. I told her that this would be the last time, I showed her how to back up her stuff to a flash drive and informed her that if this ever breaks again all i'll even attempt to do is throw in the recovery disks and wipe it and that any lost data is not my concern.
 
Use opendns and block p2p, give them a limited user account.

If you really want to get them, install steady state and set it not to allow changes.
 
mattjw916 said:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers
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This. Fucking This. I showed my mom this the other day when one of her "friends" emailed her asking for my help to set up a new laptop in a matter of a couple of hours (the consequences of fixing one's computer for free); she couldn't stop laughing.


Also, last year I set up a computer for my granddad with Windows 7. Due to his history of his poor browsing habit of installing the first thing that pops up I decided to give him a limited user account and set a 10-character, radomized password for the Administrator's account that he doesn't know, yet I still get calls from him because somehow he still fucks it up with a virus or malware. It's like dividing by 0.
 
At this point, if someone asks for help, I just tell them I don't know anything about computers.

EDIT: I see that's exactly the advice of that comic strip, and yeah, I agree. Either that or charge hourly.
 
You can set it up so that each time the computer is restarted, the system is restored to a pristine image copy. Only files in a specific folder or drive is saved, and those files are set to read and write permission, not executable. Access is limited to guest, and no system changes may be made.

Obviously you don't go through this trouble for just anyone, but for the people you do want to help but help once in say a year, where you just upgrade the image copy.
 
YOu can't even down load lime wire any more :) Well, that doesn't stop them from using something else now.

I had this problem with my friend and his gf. He asked me about Ubuntu, he remembered it long time ago, so i put ubuntu 9.x on there last year. It's been a year the machine does it's updates and stuff. I have yet to get a phone call asking for help or for repairs :) He loves it, and his gf understands how to use it. Even his 7 year old uses ubuntu. :eek:

Gota love it!
 
I get pulled into the worse traps and usually put into a situation where I can't say no. Pisses me off.

Now what I do is just take my sweet ass time. When they call every day asking why it's not done I just say it's taking longer then I had hoped. Meanwhile I already formatted the computer, installed windows and it's ready to go.

I give them full admin rights since if I don't I know they'll call me every 5 minutes asking why they can't download a file or install a program, or do anything. Even without admin rights you can still get infected, so it's a losing battle. When I do work on someone's machine I take an image of it. Next time they call me, I don't even look at the problem unless it's something very simple. I just restore the image. The time consuming part though is backing up and restoring stuff like email, and specialty apps. I've had people bring me their business computer with simply accounting or other such app and they have zero backups. It's now suddenly my responsibility to make sure they don't lose 10+ years of financial data which they can legaly be held responsible for, which in the end, would fall on me. I usually image the machine BEFORE I even touch it, when I get something like that.

The problem is, my parents have a big mouth. Usually starts with "oh my son can fix that, just drop it off at [address] I'll call him". They treat it like it's my full time job or something. It's not "Can you fix this computer?" it's "Fix this computer by Friday".
 
Nightbird said:
You can set it up so that each time the computer is restarted, the system is restored to a pristine image copy. Only files in a specific folder or drive is saved, and those files are set to read and write permission, not executable. Access is limited to guest, and no system changes may be made.

Obviously you don't go through this trouble for just anyone, but for the people you do want to help but help once in say a year, where you just upgrade the image copy.
Click to expand...

That's actually not bad of an idea. I'm sure this could be automated somehow. Wonder if there are free alternatives to Deep Freeze.
 
Just say No. Just because it's family doesn't mean they can take advantage of you. I stopped doing family support years ago.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I get pulled into the worse traps and usually put into a situation where I can't say no. Pisses me off.

Now what I do is just take my sweet ass time. When they call every day asking why it's not done I just say it's taking longer then I had hoped. Meanwhile I already formatted the computer, installed windows and it's ready to go.

I give them full admin rights since if I don't I know they'll call me every 5 minutes asking why they can't download a file or install a program, or do anything. Even without admin rights you can still get infected, so it's a losing battle. When I do work on someone's machine I take an image of it. Next time they call me, I don't even look at the problem unless it's something very simple. I just restore the image. The time consuming part though is backing up and restoring stuff like email, and specialty apps. I've had people bring me their business computer with simply accounting or other such app and they have zero backups. It's now suddenly my responsibility to make sure they don't lose 10+ years of financial data which they can legaly be held responsible for, which in the end, would fall on me. I usually image the machine BEFORE I even touch it, when I get something like that.

The problem is, my parents have a big mouth. Usually starts with "oh my son can fix that, just drop it off at [address] I'll call him". They treat it like it's my full time job or something. It's not "Can you fix this computer?" it's "Fix this computer by Friday".
Click to expand...

Extra money is good but time is worth more! Business computers CHARGE WAY MORE! if they don't want to pay say sorry, i can't.

The image thing, i do the exact same thing that way if they bitch i can restore it right back to how they gave me.

I use a hard drive clone tool, clone the hard drive to another one then i start on the original.
 
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