http://www.netralized.com/my-friends-dont-help-me-with-my-computer-problems/ Making Networks Work. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:07:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://www.netralized.com/my-friends-dont-help-me-with-my-computer-problems/#comment-38 No, i Won’t Fix Your Computer! - Networks Analyzed @ Netralized Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:34:10 +0000 http://www.netralized.com/my-friends-dont-help-me-with-my-computer-problems/#comment-38 [...] again, after getting some feedback from the Computer Problems article, i thought i should write an article about the next big decision you will have to [...] […] again, after getting some feedback from the Computer Problems article, i thought i should write an article about the next big decision you will have to […]

]]> http://www.netralized.com/my-friends-dont-help-me-with-my-computer-problems/#comment-34 Joel Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:55:49 +0000 http://www.netralized.com/my-friends-dont-help-me-with-my-computer-problems/#comment-34 As the resident computer geek at work. I get a lot of requests from co-workers to fix personal computer problems. I find that most of the time the user just ignores the messages they recieve until something has completely broken the computer. For instance, I recently got a computer from a friend who said that they were seeing fake "Buy me to get rid of the spyware on your computer" messages. He didn't pay attention to the messages and by the time he started getting really annoyed, it was over 2 weeks later. By that time the malware had installed about 10 other malware programs and viruses. If the friend had said something or at least Googled something earlier, then they would have been able to do something about the problem far before they got infested. I must say that getting rid of 1 malware program is far easier than 10. I find that most users simply expect the computer to take care of its own problems, and when they see something they don't expect, they ignore it in the hopes that the little gnomes inside their computer will just fix it for them, or that the issue will simply dissapear on it's own. If I was approached or questioned at the first sign of a problem, it would make a diagnosis just that much easier. The other problem is that users don't pay attention to their virus subscriptions. If you have a paid subscription that has lapsed, then the anti-virus it useless. In the above case I merely installed a free anti-virus program and was able to head off any damage, but in other cases, the machine is almost beyond saving due to inability to install anything. I know that this is all a bit off topic, but I think it ties into the whole "Computer user problems". As the resident computer geek at work. I get a lot of requests from co-workers to fix personal computer problems.
I find that most of the time the user just ignores the messages they recieve until something has completely broken the computer. For instance, I recently got a computer from a friend who said that they were seeing fake “Buy me to get rid of the spyware on your computer” messages. He didn’t pay attention to the messages and by the time he started getting really annoyed, it was over 2 weeks later. By that time the malware had installed about 10 other malware programs and viruses.
If the friend had said something or at least Googled something earlier, then they would have been able to do something about the problem far before they got infested. I must say that getting rid of 1 malware program is far easier than 10.
I find that most users simply expect the computer to take care of its own problems, and when they see something they don’t expect, they ignore it in the hopes that the little gnomes inside their computer will just fix it for them, or that the issue will simply dissapear on it’s own.
If I was approached or questioned at the first sign of a problem, it would make a diagnosis just that much easier.
The other problem is that users don’t pay attention to their virus subscriptions. If you have a paid subscription that has lapsed, then the anti-virus it useless. In the above case I merely installed a free anti-virus program and was able to head off any damage, but in other cases, the machine is almost beyond saving due to inability to install anything.
I know that this is all a bit off topic, but I think it ties into the whole “Computer user problems”.

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