Think I got someone in trouble tonight

[tollbaby]

My parents have a nasty habit of blaming me for everything my brother does. ALways have, always will. I've accepted it.

But I would NOT accept a few weeks ago when I was computerless... I went to my mom's house for dinner and asked if I could check my mail on her computer. She said "No way, not after you left all those sick pictures on the desktop last time!" err.... WHAT??? A) I'm 31 years old and relatively computer-savvy. I can cover my own tracks. and b) I don't surf for porn! EVER!

Turns out my brother had used the computer not long after I had the last time I had visited, downloaded a bunch of porn, and then forgotten to delete it once he was... erm... done.

I just glared at my mother and said "WHAT on EARTH makes you think I would *EVER* want to look at pictures like THAT? Maybe you should talk to your SON."

She flubbed for a few minutes trying to say her precious angel wouldn't do that... oh, but I, a mother of two who can damn well go out and buy her own porn WOULD? I coldly told her I didn't appreciate the implication that I was into the sick crap the photos depicted, and went home. She's since gotten over that, and now my brother's not allowed to use their computer anymore LOL

[protege]

After I got my own computer at home, I rarely used the POS my father had. Why? Well, it's slow as hell, simply because he doesn't take care of it. Every little problem he has is because "someone messed with it." Never mind that he never updates the software, not even the virus or antispyware defs. With all that crap running, it's no wonder it's slow as hell! I once had a 486 faster than that thing

[AriRashkae]

My best friend and I are relatively tech savvy. Meaning, we can usually identify the problem well enough to kow if it's something we can fix, of if it needs a tech.

Her Mom had an older computer (well, it was new when she bought it). Win95, I believe. Maybe the next OS up. Anyway, the thing was slowly degrading. So my friend does the usual. Check for viruses. Defrag. Nothing. It just wasn't up to par.

Now, yes the computer had a bit of age, but it was shut down every night, and only turned on when needed. This thing was not going full tilt all the time. It should not have dropped so badly.

Ah, but I did say it was shut down every night, didn't I? Here's the kicker: Mom said she was hitting the power button. Without using the Shutdown command.

Now, once or twice, no big deal. Do that every other night or so for several years and see what your machine does.

Someday I will get into the Difference Between Blue and Green Triangles. If my friend doesn't get here and beat me to it.

[Andara Bledin]

I've been fighting for years to convince my co-irkers the importance of proper shutdown procedures on some of the software we use. I think they might be getting a clue just this year.

As for lightning, it's usually only deadly if it manages to go through your heart, and that means it has to have enough amperage or there has to be an opening so that it can get past the resistance offered by a person's skin. Or, it can set something on fire, and you burn. That would just suck.

I've never had any encounters with lightning, myself. And while I'm prone to static shocks, I seem to not get hit with anything more potent, even the one time I fried my computer's power supply while trying to replace the ps fan. I did have a friend in high school that had a fear of lightning, though, because his windowsill had been hit during a storm when he was a kid and his bed was up against that windowsill. I don't blame him.

^-.-^

[sms001]

If I saw some specific malware, I ran through the cookies. Then I'd find an excuse to pull the kid aside or contact him out of the parents earshot.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with that. The teenage boy was not your client, the parents was. It's not your place to teach their kids how to cover their tracks. In fact, since they were "teen". And depending on the local laws. You might get in trouble for providing porn to a minor. Be on the safe side and never teach a minor how to get or get rid of porn.

oops - shoulda checked back on this thread a little quicker. Sorry for the poorly worded sentence - what I meant to get across was "NO MORE PORN SITES." I'd explain that most of them would no longer be reachable anyway, (I have a pretty hefty HOSTS file at this point ) that it was illegal, that it wasn't their machine, that they'd probably be embarrassed, and that there was a reason those sites were "free" ... they're bait to establish a malware foothold. The preventive measure of which I spoke was - don't do it.
I will willingly teach how to get rid of instances and by-products of the kind of malware prevalent at such sites though. There's a lot of gray area between Disney and Girls Girls Girls. Or between iTunes and Kazza, or between Tucows and Elite Warez. Sometimes people stray too far unwittingly.

[Shabo]

(I have a pretty hefty HOSTS file at this point )

Is it possible to get a copy of said hosts file? I have a brother that likes to get himself into trouble...

[sms001]

Hosts Files

Is it possible to get a copy of said hosts file? I have a brother that likes to get himself into trouble...

I've been outta the game for a bit so I'll point you to mvps.org. They keep a pretty good one and it would be more up to date than mine. I believe Spybot Search and Destroy maintains a good one that it will automatically integrate with a current file.

My add-ons became more effective because I would manually sort through the "troublesome" cookies list and extract bad sites and tack 'em on. Because I went to new clients by word of mouth so often, their kids often knew each other. So when I'd get to Mr. and Mrs. Smith's house because of the Jones' recommendation, I already had (anonymously of course) a list of places in the host file that little Jimmy Jones had probably passed on to little Timmy Smith

Don't know how savvy your brother is, but even fairly experienced techs tend to forget about the hosts file - just suddenly pages don't show up.

[Captain Trips]

On lightning and computers, here's how I once heard it: "Man invented computers, God invented lightning. Who do YOU think will win?"

[Brightglaive]

On lightning and computers, here's how I once heard it: "Man invented computers, God invented lightning. Who do YOU think will win?"

ROFLMAO captain! That was hilarious!!

I can't say I've been struck by lightning but I just had a thought. When you look at your local telephone pole, usually it's made of wood which is a pretty good insulator. And usually there is some kind of ground wire runnning up and down the pole which is about 12-16 AWG. And I'm just thinking that a gazillion volts at about a gazillion amps running down this tiny little wire would burn it out rather quickly (something on the order of about 15 MILLION times faster than a lightbulb filament in open air which is about the closest analogue.) Then you have the wood pole or the phone/cable wire. Which do you think is the better conductor for the remaining charge?

Now assuming that the entire phone/cable network is fairly well grounded that still means that you have about a gazillion volts at a gazillion amps being spread out among several hundred to several hundreds of thousands of homes (town on up to city). So in the end you only have maybe 250 -50,000 volts at a low amount of milliamps hitting your modem. Not enough to kill you or me but enough to kill that phone modem or cable/DSL modem and possibly your computer.

At this point a surge protector that protects modem and/or network cables seems an obvious requirement.

[Imogene]

People *DIE* every year talking on the phone in electrical storms.

I had a classmate who actually lived through a lightning strike. Hit near his car, while he was getting out of it. Next thing he knew, he was getting up off the porch, a little out of it, but alright. Now, he has an interesting patch of white chin hair in his beard. And in his eyebrow on one side.

[Gurndigarn]

I had a classmate who actually lived through a lightning strike. Hit near his car, while he was getting out of it. Next thing he knew, he was getting up off the porch, a little out of it, but alright. Now, he has an interesting patch of white chin hair in his beard. And in his eyebrow on one side.

I have a patch of white in my beard, too. Unfortunately, it's sprinkled through the black hairs, and is the result of age, not lightning.

Hmmm... maybe if I play with a monitor's 2nd annode a bit...

[Imogene]

At least, I think the white patches were due to living through a lightning strike... I just kinda linked the two when he told me he'd done so...

[Hicksey]

Modems get fried more than anything else. People plug their entire system into nice surge protectors EXCEPT the phone line. I don't know why, most (real) surge protectors have phone line protection.

Hell, each PC in my network that has RJ-45 has a surge protector for that!

I am amazed that more peopel don't lose whole computers more often. Most people assume that power bar = surge protector. I haven't met a power bar that cost less than $25 that was worth the materials it was made of.

[JustADude]

I haven't met a power bar that cost less than $25 that was worth the materials it was made of.

And that's why MY computer is plugged into a $75 power bar that has slots in it for both Coax and Ethernet cables. The thing has a $10,000 lifetime warranty against surge damage to system isolated through it, which includes lightning.

[Brightglaive]

A battery-driven UPS is sufficient for me. Even though the AC-DC-AC conversion is not very efficient it solves the issues of spikes and surges and does something the surge protector doesn't. It protects against sags (brownouts) and blackouts (As long as I don't kick the plug out of the surge protector)