I work as a computer professional, and thus always get roped in to fixing all of my family and friends PC's.

I have noticed that as the use of broadband internet has increased so has the amount of machines that are getting infected with Spyware and Viruses. Many of these machines are in such a mess that the internet is no longer accessable and become impossible to operate.

I am considoring setting up a business, to service users PC's, reomove spyware and viruses and teach them good internet use to stop their machines from becoming re-infected.

Have many of you suffered at the hands of these malicious programs, and would you consider using such a service?



*Please note this is not advertising, as I have not even started this service.

Just getting people to use Firefox and install AVG would practically solve the problem, if only PC World (and others) woud ship PC's with these two things already installed.

But I guess that reduces their future revenue from fixing virus infested PC's and flogging them Norton.

Good luck with setting-up your bussiness, if I had £1 for every PC I have de-virused I would be a rich man.

By Firefox, do you mean the Mozilla/firefox? have been using it as browser since it was recommended on here, but forgive my ignorance, what is AVG?
I have Norton Anti Virus 2005, Adaware and Macafee and as yet I've not had any viruses.

Originally posted by nick2
Just getting people to use Firefox and install AVG would practically solve the problem, if only PC World (and others) woud ship PC's with these two things already installed.

But I guess that reduces their future revenue from fixing virus infested PC's and flogging them Norton.


I couldn't agree with you more Nick. I want to do something different and actually operate an ethical business that does want to help its clients, rather than fleece them for more money.

I had the same problem at work, but changing my users from IE to Firefox almost solved the problem completely.

Originally posted by Cutglass
By Firefox, do you mean the Mozilla/firefox? have been using it as browser since it was recommended on here, but forgive my ignorance, what is AVG?
I have Norton Anti Virus 2005, Adaware and Macafee and as yet I've not had any viruses.

AVG is a free anti-virus, it's one fo the best around.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1

Perhaps instead of making individuals pay extra charges to get rid of viruses etc from the internet, we should be considering making the providers responsible for the content that comes down the wires into our PC's.

I'm trying to think of a parrallel that I could compare with this and can only think of petrol going into your car -
If the fuel is full of dirt, we don't pay to have the tank cleaned out ourselves. We charge the garage for not providing a good enough quality of petrol and level of service!

(Or maybe I'm just talking crap...) ;)

Maybe a better analogy would be: When you got to a restaurant you expect the food you receive to be edible and not full of harmful bacteria!

I used to work for Freeserve tech support at the time the Blaster worm was about and to say it was hellish was an understatement.

The shear amount of people that were online without AV software or hadnt bothered to update windows was incredible they then tried to blame Freeserve for there mistake and ignorance and claim money back suffice to say Freeserve was having non of it.

I think a some of the problem can be attributed to the PC sales people telling the people its ok just take it home plug it in and your away.

Soupy - its still the same under wanadoo and with broadband too - its a recipe for disaster.

I personally think that people should have a common sense test before being allowed to own a pc - let alone connect it bareback to the internet...

Its just plain irresponsible...

and its always the same people who respond to these 'internet banking security checks' too - one born every minute.

Originally posted by Briano
Perhaps instead of making individuals pay extra charges to get rid of viruses etc from the internet, we should be considering making the providers responsible for the content that comes down the wires into our PC's.

I'm trying to think of a parrallel that I could compare with this and can only think of petrol going into your car -
If the fuel is full of dirt, we don't pay to have the tank cleaned out ourselves. We charge the garage for not providing a good enough quality of petrol and level of service!

(Or maybe I'm just talking crap...) ;)

But that is why there are such things on the market as AVG, Zone alarm, spybot S&D and lavasoft ad-aware...they are all free and it is really up to the user to install them, you can't reall spend a day on the net without seeing the above advertised somewhere so it just comes down to sheer laziness IMO....

For dirty fuel to get into your tank it would be the fault of the fuel supplier but viruses and spyware very varely come from your ISP.....unless you're on AOL...lol

If you was to cut through an electrical cable @ home do you think the electrical supplier EG: British gas, SYEB would come out and sort it free of charge...I think not

Originally posted by thechap
Have many of you suffered at the hands of these malicious programs


I/We have not had any kind of Spyware/Malware/Scumware, nor virii or trojan infections, and we have been hooked up to BY HSI since 2002!



Originally posted by thechap
....and would you consider using such a service?


Nope, but I'm currently setting up a free service for users to gain information & resources that will help them in thier quest for decent security under Windows™ SYPC-Aid (http://www.sypc-aid.co.uk) with the option of hiring my services (oooer) for a (nominal) fee (the site is not yet complete or "live" yet).

I get spyware and viruses all the time, but it's my own fault for using peer 2 peer apps like Limewire to download MP3 music files etc :(

Originally posted by Internetowl


and its always the same people who respond to these 'internet banking security checks' too - one born every minute.

When the blaster worm was in full rampage I got a call from an 68 yr old man he was having problems connecting I started looking for symptoms of the blaster worm, when he told me its not the blaster worm he had taken care of that with a windows update and it wouldnt get through his firewall anyway.

I thought he was so cool I arranged to call him back so he didnt have to pay 50p per minute and got him connected after a few mins on the phone top bloke.