« how could we...part II | Main | guess what? »
IT support nightmare
I must admit I am the IT support team's nightmare. I have been playing around with a non-networked machine today. Is it a co-incidence that it is the best machine we have in the office? I don't think so. IT support people are so conservative (or at least the Windows lot are). Anyway, I found a bit of phone extension wire and connected the machine up to the internet through a free ISP, and it took less than FIVE MINUTES for me to become infected with a trojan. Forget all that stuff about 20 minutes or whatever...they can get in faster than that. What's worse is that I only have a dial-up connection and can't download all the patches etc I need to fill the hole that let the thing in. Oh, woe is the Windows user. I feel for you.
mr mcmuffin on 30 Nov 2004 @ 08:47 PM ✲ Permalink
Comments
I never have any problems at all. What on earth did you do?
Posted by: Steve | 1 Dec 2004 08:37:05
I had the nerve to switch the machine on!
Posted by: Mr McMuffin | 1 Dec 2004 08:58:02
BTW, how did you KNOW you got a Trojan? Did it announce itself with a welcome message?
As well as my own PC I "administer" Wife, aunty, sister, sister-in-law and mother, all of who have the PC knowledge of a cheesy bug, and yet none have caught a virus/worm/trojan in all their years of using the PC. I doubt if I could intentinally catch a virus/worm/trojan if I tried.
Posted by: Steve | 1 Dec 2004 09:38:25
It's easy to get infected if you don't use a firewall and all your ports are scannable. Also using Internet Exploder and Outhouse Express is asking for trouble, they are full of holes.
Posted by: Republic of Palau | 1 Dec 2004 12:08:04
All the people I mentioned use OE and IE without a firewall and in 5 years have caught nothing.
Posted by: Steve | 1 Dec 2004 13:56:53
Sorry, that's not quite true. They do have XP's own Internet Firewall running, but then so should everyone else who is using XP.
Posted by: Steve | 1 Dec 2004 14:03:15
I used a virus checker thing and it told me what I had. Anyway, it might have announced itself, it kept popping up windows, introducing Iris, who is a good-time girl, and telling me not to click a particular button. Or, the nerve of it, telling me that I had a message from MSOFT to tell me that I was infected with a virus! I would have agreed with you until recently. I ran my Windows machine for four years and I was never touched by anything, but my recent experience has taught me a valuable lesson. Get yourself a Mac!
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 1 Dec 2004 15:37:37
Sorry, but a raincoat won't help against stuff like that.
Posted by: Steve | 1 Dec 2004 17:26:01
But covering up your average PC with a big coat might make it more aesthetically pleasing, at least! ;-)
Posted by: David (TEFL Smiler) | 1 Dec 2004 18:23:51
Ha! That teach them PC lovers to mess with Mac owners.
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 1 Dec 2004 18:33:34
