RE: House approves spyware legislation

["Randal, Phil" <prandal () herefordshire gov uk>]

Simon says:

> Of course, if they are able to browse the internet for a bit, I (the
> tech guy) can help them so they can download an anti-malwarez such as
> ad-aware. But sometimes, they have browser hi-jackers and can't browse
> at all, all they get is "some Super-ultra-search could not be
> found." all the time.  And if that is the case, all I can do
> is refer them to computer specialists that can reinstall
> windows and backup their files, charging them 70$ for it and
> taking a whole day or more for it!

As a tech support guy you could have talked them through using the
command-line ftp client.

1: you ping ftp.mozilla.org and note the IP address (in case their DNS
is hosed)
2: tell them how to open a "DOS" box
3: from that DOS box ftp to ftp.mozilla.org
4: navigate them to the Firefox 1.0PR release and tell them how to
download it
5: install aforementioned browser
6: use that to get McAfee's Stinger, anti-spyware tools etc (if DNS is
broken, that may require your help to determine appropriate IP addresses
instead of host names)
7: tell them that if they keep using the browser they've just downloaded
their spyware problems will be minimised :-)
....

and so on.

I've actually done this procedure for someone whose IE refused to
co-operate.

Cheers,

Phil
----
Phil Randal
Network Engineer
Herefordshire Council
Hereford, UK

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