I was such a douche do this poor guy

[Hitokiri Akins]

This happened a few hours ago.

Okay, so my ISP calls up, and tells me that there's a virus on my computer, and he's closing port 20 to make sure that it can't infect other computers on their network. I tell him that, no, there's not, I run thorough virus, spyware and adware scans on a weekly basis, to make sure this doesn't happen. I was upset, because his words felt like they were accusing me of not knowing what I was doing. And I do it again with him on the phone, coming close to yelling at him. And after 20 minutes on the phone, I realize that, oh, yeah, mine isn't the only computer in the house. So, I go into my roommate's bedroom, fire up his computer, and do a virus scan, and lo and behold, a dozen viruses, and over a hundred pieces of spyware. At that point, I power down his computer, unplug the LAN cable, and begin apologizing to this poor guy on the other side of the phone. He was just doing his job, and I chewed him out for it, and he didn't deserve the treatment I gave him, and I told him about these boards, and how I became something I complain about all the time. I could not express how sorry I was with how I acted on the phone.

All I can say that I'm going to have words with my roommate about this. He made me look like an asshole with a fellow IT person, and I don't like looking like a fool with others of my chosen profession.

[wraiths_crono]

What ISP do you use, because.. that sounds like privacy invasion to me... well so does the entire COX can look at your pc and tell what you are torrenting.. but that's a different argument.

[Broomjockey]

that sounds like privacy invasion to me...

Uh, no it's not. They've got every right to notice that an insane number of connections are being attempted through a port on their service, and then take steps to protect other customers from infection. It's not like they're saying "Hey, stop looking at that porn, dude."

[Aethian]

That being said, everyone has off moments. You apologized, the guy on the other end could think it's to little to late but thats not the point. I wouldn't ream out the roommate, just let him know that you guys are getting blocked from the net because of viruses and have him check his computer.

[Pedersen]

What ISP do you use, because.. that sounds like privacy invasion to me... well so does the entire COX can look at your pc and tell what you are torrenting.. but that's a different argument.

Hi, I'd like to welcome you to the internet. Here on the internet, we have a whole lot of resources, but all of those individual resources are limited.

For instance, you and I are chatting on a server using forum software right now. The server has a maximum capacity for the number of connections that can be made to it. It has a separate capacity for the amount of messages that can be stored on it, and the like.

In order for you and I to speak to this server, we use networks of computers. Some of these computers are special purpose computers called routers. These routers can only send so much data at a time. These routers are also connected to wires that they use to transmit data to other routers. These wires can only send so much data at a time.

Since these resources are limited, there are people called "network administrators" and "network engineers". These people have a job of watching over the routers that connect all of our computers together on the internet. This means that they need to know when the wires are sending as much data as they can, and when the routers are doing the same.

All of this means that these people have to know what is going on. Sometimes this means looking at the amount of data all at once. Sometimes it means looking at which computers connected to these routers are sending the most data. Sometimes it means looking to see which computers are receiving the most data. All of these things have an impact on how well you, and your neighbor, and everybody else, are able to use the servers out on the internet.

Now, if you think that them monitoring this is some sort of an invasion of privacy, then read on. I'll use my home as an example. Since I have a business account, and host my own servers, I can use my own numbers. My web server sends out (during a slow month) about 400M of data. Most people, especially if they deal with videos, will easily download that much in a month.

Now, multiply that by the number of people that an ISP has as subscribers, usually well past the 1000 mark (especially for broadband ISPs). This means that, on any given month, their network will transfer a minimum of 400,000M, or 400G. For point of reference, that's roughly equal to 75 full DVDs of random data every month.

And that's the barest minimum. The people doing these jobs have neither time nor care what you are downloading, uploading, or fantasizing about online. What they care about is how your machine(s) is affecting everybody else who uses the network they have to maintain.

To aid in this sort of analysis, the routers and firewalls that they maintain actually log the information about how much went where, and then provide summaries in various nicely formatted GUIs. I know, I've seen and used them. These same GUIs let them drill down to the point of being able to say "This computer is doing something that looks wrong."

Until you show up as being a problem, they do not have time to look at your machine. They don't care before then. But when you are a problem, they will do everything they have to in order to stop the problem.

Invasion of privacy? And how would you feel if the whole neighborhood ground to a halt because of some jerk using all of the bandwidth and they weren't watching the network? If you're like me, you'd be begging for some privacy invasion then, and furious it wasn't happening already.

[Hitokiri Akins]

Only the port in which email goes out on, port 20, was closed. But, since we don't use AOL or Outlook in my house, there's no problem. I actually said to the ISP tech support to keep that port blocked, because my room mate isn't as computer literate as I thought he was. Because, after disconnecting his computer and checking his internet logs, I found a LOT of porn. And any IT person knows that porn sites are breeding grounds for viruses.

It still bothers me, though, that I became something I despise today.

[dalesys]

It still bothers me, though, that I became something I despise today.

Go, my friend, and sin no more...

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This same thing happened to me awhile back. We had only two computers in the house, one I looked after and an older IBM laptop my brother looked after.

Our ISP cancelled our internet due to a virus which perplexed me because I, like OP, always run regular scans and I'm very vigilant and saavy about keeping my computer secure.

As you can probably guess, as soon as I ran a virus scan on my brothers laptop, I was able to locate and eliminate the problem.

Unlike the OP I didn't ream out the guy from my ISP (I actually had to call THEM to find out why I'd been disconnected).

[laundryhater]

Great explanation Pederson! I've never in my life read a better, easier to understand explanation of it like that before. You should be writing computer instruction manuals..those things are hard to understand sometimes, almost like they are trying to confuse us.

[crashhelmet]

I deal with customers like you every day, sometimes all day, with the ISP I work for. Almost all of them argue with us to the point where we give in and wait for them to eat crow when we detect it again later that day. Very rarely do we get the ones that actually apologize to us.

So on behalf of those that experience what you gave that tech, you're forgiven. Just don't let it happen again

CH

[Hitokiri Akins]

I deal with customers like you every day, sometimes all day, with the ISP I work for. Almost all of them argue with us to the point where we give in and wait for them to eat crow when we detect it again later that day. Very rarely do we get the ones that actually apologize to us.

So on behalf of those that experience what you gave that tech, you're forgiven. Just don't let it happen again

CH

Emphasis mine.

Not all who've experienced that behavior will forgive me. I've been on the phone tech's side for people who reacted like I did, and I will never forgive myself for acting like that. I have four years practical experience in tech support from the United States Air Force, an Associate's degree in Computer Networking, and I'm working on my Bachelor's in Computer Network Security; I am qualified to do the job that he's doing, sucky customers and all. And that's why I'm ashamed of my behavior; it shames not only the people who taught me IT, but also my parents, who taught me to better.

[Geek King]

Because, after disconnecting his computer and checking his internet logs, I found a LOT of porn. And any IT person knows that porn sites are breeding grounds for viruses.

Meh. You can still look at porn and be safe these days. I'm guessing your roomie is torrenting or not running good AV software. I also scan once a week just to be safe. Also, most of the sites I look at self-moderate content for virus content, or else the users will LOUDLY point out trouble files. Your roomie's just not being careful.

[Hitokiri Akins]

No, he wasn't. And he lost network privileges because of it.

"I'm paying for it, so what I say goes, dammit!"

Yeah, he wasn't happy about that.

[ArcticChicken]

I will never forgive myself for acting like that.

Look, if you want to flagellate yourself, have fun. But we're not gonna do it for you.

Yes, what you did was dickish, massively so. You acted like a prima-fucking-donna when you flipped out on that guy over a perceived slight to your techie-hood.

BUT you did something that almost no-one does. You realized you were wrong, and you apologized. Not only did you apologize, you continue to feel guilty about your behavior. Since you're not going to do it again, I have far better things to do than sit here and think of inventive new names to call you. Even if you cannot forgive yourself, we do.

[Hitokiri Akins]

BUT you did something that almost no-one does. You realized you were wrong, and you apologized. Not only did you apologize, you continue to feel guilty about your behavior. Since you're not going to do it again, I have far better things to do than sit here and think of inventive new names to call you. Even if you cannot forgive yourself, we do.

You've got a point there. Okay, no more "Treat me like shit because I became the bane of our existence" from me.