Slashdot

It is sad that the internet has become so hostile. At work I connected one of our servers to a connection on the outside of our firewall for some remote support (didn't have the VPN papers signed yet). The moment that I enabled the nic, the server informed me that the RPC Service has failed and the computer will shut down.

I was foolish for not checking the patch levels. I assumed that someone else was on top of that. A mistake I will not make again. But home users have problems of their own. They don't know they have to keep it up patched. If I had my grandma running Linux, I would be the one patching it. What about converting all my friends and family to Linux. I would be so overwhelmed keeping each one current.

As it stands, I format, install XP /w SP2, change their user accounts to limited access, install spyware detection, antivirus, leave the firewall and automatic updates on, and finally put firefox on the desktop.

At the same time, I have to explain why XP is better than the 98 or ME that came with the computer, what SP2 is and why it takes so long, what a firewall is, what firefox is, why I created a special admin account for them to install stuff with and why the should never surf the web while logged into admin with the red background.

And if you are a slashdot regular, I am not telling you anything new. I should release this as a news story, but as we all know, this is not news. Its just the way it is.

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Kevin Marquette
antispyware