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The price of Windows

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djohnston:
I spent the last day and a half cleaning an infested XP box. This guy had 19 trojans running, but only knew about one of them. He knew about it because he could no longer launch any programs. The trojan kept popping up a message demanding his credit card info. To top it all off, he was limping along on 256MB of RAM. It just wasn't enough. It wasn't even enough to boot from a Kaspersky or Avira antivirus CD.

Had to do it the old fashioned way, by hand from Safe Mode. (There's an oxymoron.) After finally getting rid of the one he knew about, as well as a couple of others, I downloaded and installed Avira for Windows. Because of the RAM issue, I had to let it run overnight. When I returned the next day, the scan revealed an additional 16 trojans. I knew there was at least one, because clicking on a Google search link took me to the same three web pages. Didn't matter what link I clicked on. I had to reach Avira's site by manually keying the address in.

The second day, I brought with me a couple of AGP video cards and a couple of DDR memory sticks. They were all what would be considered "junk" by most. In any event, I gained some RAM by using a dedicated video card instead of the shared memory used by the motherboard video. I gained more RAM by adding the two DDR sticks. Went from 256MB, (including shared video memory), to 640MB of dedicated RAM. Huge difference! I also removed some application from his wife's Vista machine that he could not uninstall.

My last task was to set up security on his router. He was using a password his son had assigned. But, he didn't know the password. I had to set the router back to factory specs in order to gain access to the Linksys setup menus. He was also operating an unsecured wireless network (no password). After explaining to him the importance of using strong passwords, (mix of upper and lower case, as well as numbers, as well as a long password or pass phrase), his first attempt at entering the router's password failed. He had entered less than eight characters! I then had him create a second one to be used for access to the wireless network. Finally, I set up his wife's Vista laptop and his Windows7 laptop to automatically connect to the now secured WPA2 network.

I had incessantly stressed the advantages of Linux. Each time I came to a new obstacle, I commented on how much easier it was to accomplish the task using Linux. I told him about how Google could not have become the "world power" it is without using Linux as its foundation. Being a stock market watcher, he was told how the NYSE and London exchanges are powered by Linux. I explained to him that the Kaspersky live CD that did run overnight on his wife's computer was actually running Linux. You may have guessed by now that he decided he did not want to try it. Not even from a live CD.

I charged him $175 for the work I did. He and his wife, who are financially very well off and live in an upscale 3,000 square foot house, thought that I did not charge them enough!

melodie:
Hi,
They are right, you didn't : so what did you answer ? I hope you said "you are right, therefore pay me  a bit more, whatever you think is fair for the work I did" ?

About Linux boxes : the people are not interested about who uses it. They are probably most interested if they know they can have fun and pleasure with it.


Scotty C:
Oh man, that doesn't sound like fun. And they're right, you didn't charge enough, although that was nice of you. It seems people are determined to stay with Windows, despite the fact that Linux is far more secure. I guess that's because they don't want to take the time to learn to use something new. Maybe next time if you happen to bring a laptop with Linux on it, you can casually show it off.  ;)

djohnston:

--- Citation de: Scotty C le 06 février 2013 à 02:37:12 ---It seems people are determined to stay with Windows, despite the fact that Linux is far more secure. I guess that's because they don't want to take the time to learn to use something new. Maybe next time if you happen to bring a laptop with Linux on it, you can casually show it off.  ;)

--- Fin de citation ---

Welcome, Scotty C! I believe you are right about not wanting to learn something new. People do not want to leave their comfort zone unless it benefits them in some way. With many people, the added security does not seem to be enough of a benefit to overcome the learning curve. Before I left, I informed the guy that he'd probably be in the same situation within a year. It took three MBR infections before my own brother allowed me to replace Windows on his computer.

Ah, if only I had a laptop.  :(

Taco.22:

--- Citation de: djohnston le 06 février 2013 à 11:54:31 ---Ah, if only I had a laptop.  :(

--- Fin de citation ---
Aha, this is where you carry a full Linux install on a usb device, stick it into their Windows computer and REALLY give them a fright  :D :D


By the way, hello to Scotty C!  Why don't you pop over to the Welcome section and tell us about yourself.

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