Only techie in a house full of surfers

Yeah.... kinda sucks. I just got my machine semi-back from a round of trojans and misc other crap that was brought in by my other half and a friend of ours who is staying with us. I keep telling them to be careful where they surf and not to download ANYTHING, but still..... *sigh* thankk goodness for rollback (aka system restore) and my constant use of AVG, Adaware and Spybot. Still have to reboot for spybot to nail the last piece, then I think I am good.

Any other geeks out there who are the house techie and have to deal with this stuff at home?? I can't be the only one

~Calltaker

 

Well I am not a pro but I am the onlyone who likes messing with PCs in the famiy. Something similar to Calltaker happened to our network but I could not handle it yet(I was 12 yo!). I remember, 4 years ago, my father (who knows only how to use MS office) was looking for a car and he was doing on-line research. I would call it malware gathering ("come on dear worms, I hope you'll not break out of the quarantine you were programmed to break"). He got our store's network of 4 PCs all s***d up. Then one day he found a CD of Commandos:Behind Enemy LInes in the drive... He shouted "These things are causing us problems! " and broke the CD... Boohohooo

 

Imagine that situation, but where you're outnumbered 350 to 1. That is my life.

 

Believe it or not, I am the house techie. Of course, if they ask a question I don't know guess where I go.

 

umm... The Microsoft Costumer Service? No... The local puter store? Neither? Maybe you google the question. Ok stop laughing... I am out of ideas...

 

You were right the first time. Their support system is excellent!!

 

Yup! Geeks are a rare breed, for sure!

In this spirit, I pose a geeky question:

Am I the only one who shudders at the thought of using system restore to correct malware problems?

I just couldn't count the times I've seen restore files infected.

 

im in a house full of surfers with NO techie. the're fairly good (now) though, and i dont often get problems. MG gets the bag if anything goes wrong. i do system restore FIRST though. i have more protection on my puter than i have programmes to protect, so anything that makes it past all that, and doesnt disappear on SR is a job for the geeks. last time i was mad for a week, so i think the boys got the message, and are more circumspect about what and how they download stuff.

 

Hell with my skill set, I cringe every time I get a phone call.

I am the only one of my friends or family with any kind of serious computer experience.
I am the only one of my friends with any experience in heavy machinery.
I am the only one of my friends with access to heavy machinery.
I am the only one of my friends or family with serious plumbing experience.
I am the only one of my friends with serious mechanical (vehicles) experience.
I am the only one of my friends or family with serious construction experience.

There is more, but that is just about most of the phone calls I get.

 

Sounds like my dad...jack of all trades, but a master of none!!

I am definitely the PC tech of my friends and family!! So far it hasn't bothered me though because I am still in that stage that most issues/questions are a new challenge for me, so I take it as a learning experience!! However...I hate it when I am really covered up at the moment and I try to tell someone that in a polite way but they just don't get it...then I just ignore the calls until I know I've got time to hear them out!!

Roger

Roger

 

What bugs me the most is their(my friends) lackadaisical attitude towards my suggestions on how to keep their rig safe. They hate ZA because it gives them popups for outbound crap and delete it, same with Spybot's Teatimer and they never update their definitions. I've cleaned their systems twice and told him I will charge money the next time or bring it to a shop and he left in a huff. I spent six hours total cleaning it. I'm fed up.

 

You should install Virtual PC 2004 and Run a "guest" instance of XP with the UNDO DISK option. When they come over.. crank that up instead. .if anything get's borked on that, you just undo and bam.. back to normal.

 

Well, this "techie" is not having a good last two days. Something is in my computer doing naughty things. At times I have caps locked but doesn't show they're locked. Other times, I have no mouse. My Outlook Express works once, but then I have to reboot if I want to send or receive any other messages.
I am trying to download scans to try to help me, thinking it is maybe a trojan? But, I keep getting disconnected. Finally got one downloaded, only to try to install it and it tells me files are corrupted.
I know this should be in malware forum, but I can't do any scans, etc to try to even give Chas or anyone else info on what is going on. Adaware and Spybot show nothing.
The only thing I have done that was new is to look at online sites for shopping.
Anyways, I will slowly but steadily get it working I hope.

Hope everyone else is having a better day than I am.

 

YEah, fortunately, I went far enough back that I managed to get most of the functionality back so I could get the rest of it to work (I work 12 hour days when I am on, so when I get home, I arely take the time to do much with the PC, which means it has some time to get really bad) WHen I was scanning, the last 2 weeks of restore files were corrupted (I went back 4 wks).

Then tonight, when I am on the way home from a round of x-mas shpping, i get a call from my ex-wife asking if she can drop their machine off tomorrow o I can look at it as it is shot and dead. Sheesh. The only reason i never charge her is because it is the only machine my son has to work on for school during the week... of course, it pisses her right off that he has his own computer with internet access when he is here.... lol

~c

 

he he, I thought you meant the MG. I have used the support line only of my ISP. Anything else, I can find here.

The prob with our friends, families or whoever is that they do not respect technology. They surf, download pointless things and don't give a damn about HOW ON EARTH this piece of junk works.

 

my better half was having problems with some software and I was finally able to resolve the issue, being the knowledgeable techmeister that Iam.

 

Now that must be the highlight of the year!! Register it and sell it to MS so that we can have it in Win Vista.

 

I have thought about doing kind of the same thing with a Zen machine (or what ever it is called) actually.

 

My experience with teen aged boys on computers has been not good. They really really can't help themselves. The only good thing to come out of it is to boost my skill level (grumbling all the while). And yes, I ground him (usually by removing the hard disk, dang kid is learning computers).

 

I did mean MG, I was just joking.

I know what you mean. I let my brother use my computer while I was out of town for work. I got back last night and have twice as many desk top icons than I had when I left. I haven't bothered checking the hd for new "software" as I don't have time. He tried to cover his tracks though by deleting the browser history and cookies. I needed those.

 

Yep, I'm the only Tech in this house, and just about every other house I know. Gotten so I'm apprehensive about visiting some people, as I know they'll a heap of computer problems to fix, or want me to print this, or make a backup of that. Just laziness on their part, most of the time.

 

Sounds like having a spare computer is a good idea, particularly one with a 'clean' installation of XP. That way if they mess it up, you can just wipe the drive.

'Clean' being relative to not having anything you want to keep on it, like games or such.

 

I love the stunned look of wtf...? whenever i ask this question of family or friends that are suffering digital lockdown.

'Can you boot in safe mode'?

It gets em everytime..... for me that look is worth it all!

 

LMAO...one time I asked a relative that and she looked at me and said...If this so called mode is soooo f@#$ing safe...then why doesn't it go into that "MODE" all the time!?!?

Needless to say, It was all I could do to laugh, and just thought to my self...If it were only that simple!! But then again...if it were...then there wouldn't be those out there making a good living fixing/maintaining computers!!

Roger

 

OMFG!!! I finbally got around to the ex'es PC....... Windows 200 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\system32\config\systemd

And it needs a new CD ROM.... this is gonna be fun... now to go down to the basement qnd drag out that tub of spare parts I keep around for just such situations... also need to see if I have a better mobo/proc as they are running a 400mhz p2 with 384mb of RAM... lol

Well... will let you all know where I get with it... back later..

~C

 

I am so jealous of you guys that do this for a living. I know it must be tiring to explain something to someone not wiling to understand it but it is still a nice job. The only way I can use my pc knowlege is to get a nice grade in the computer classes