Easing the Job of Family Tech Support? 932
DarkDevil writes "Ever since I was introduced to computers at a very young age, I've been the resident tech support for a household of 7 users. I've been in a cycle for the last ~8 years where something happens to my parents' computer, I spend a week or two trying to non-destructively fix the problem (and try to explain to the users what caused it and how to avoid it), and then if it's not easily fixed I'll reformat and start from scratch. Most often, the level of infection warrants a reformat, which usually ends up taking even more time to get the computer back to how my parents know how to use it. 4-8 months later, it happens again. Recently, I found ~380 instances of malware and 6 viruses. I only realized something was wrong with their computer after it slowed down the entire network whenever anyone used it. My question for Slashdot is: are there any resources out there that explain computer viruses, malware, adware, and general safe computer practices to non-technical people in an easy-to-digest format? The security flaws in my house are 9, 26, and ~50 years old, with no technical background aside from surfing the internet. Something in video format would be ideal as they are perfectly happy with our current arrangement and so it'll be hard to get them reading pages and pages of technical papers."
MS SteadyState (Score:5, Informative)
Try MS SteadyState
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
Buy them a Mac (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously. I had similar issues and now have both my parents converted over to being happy Apple users. My support time has dropped to a truly negligible amount, and they're happier as well. It may sound facetious, but prevention works far better than education when those concerned have no interest in learning.
An interesting resource (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Buy them a Mac (Score:5, Informative)
I completely agree. I did the exact same thing.
The most beautiful part? When I was convincing them to pick up a Mini to replace their dying PC, my dad's first question was (I kid you not): "But will it run Firefox and OpenOffice?"
I almost cried.
And if I do need to give them support? 99% of the time I can just have them fire up iChat and share their desktop with me. Quick and easy for them, and doesn't require messing with opening ports in any firewalls or NATs.
You have the control, so use it! (Score:5, Informative)
Oblig. XKCD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:You have the control, so use it! (Score:3, Informative)
It sounds like you have all the control here, so simply lock down those computers. Install a decent anti-virus, firewall, and script blockers. Install a decent web browser and delete the IE icon on the desktop. Ensure all these and the OS are able to update themselves automatically. Install the programs your family uses. Then create a non-admin account for them and do not give them the admin password. That's what I've been doing and the only problems I've had to deal with in the last few years were a hard drive crash and some minor issues. If they need to install a new program or need the admin password for any reason, they have to go through me to get it done.
Inevitably, something else bad will happen (an unrecognized virus will get through), and you'll have to re-install the system. So, once everything has been set up, including installing all of the tools mentioned above, then, checkpoint the system to an external drive that's physically compatible with the primary disk in the system. Next time things crap out, copy the disk image back.
Also, keep the system in one disk / partition, and user data on another. When you have to restore the system, it's easier to retain user data unharmed.
Re:The butterfly Parable (Score:4, Informative)
It has nothing to do with evolution. Plant tissues that experience pressures (say from bending in the wind) release hormones that make the tissue stronger, to better withstand that pressure.
Re:Give Up (Score:1, Informative)
As requested, here it is:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/05/07/
Re:just install linux the next time you reformat (Score:1, Informative)
That would break the first rule of tech support:
1. Do not do anything above or beyond what this person needs to see to "know" that the problem is fixed (their problem, not your problem).
You may see a hundred things wrong with the computer, but they don't. All they know is that since you fixed all those problems that didn't exist, something is different. And guess what? Now it's your problem to fix it again.
Do exactly what needs to be done to fix their problem, and no more. If they are interested in linux, they will come to you.
Re:MS SteadyState (Score:4, Informative)
Buy a Mac and Time Capsule (Score:4, Informative)
How much is your time worth, in any unit you care to name? If the answer is any amount greater than zero, then convincing friends and family to buy a Mac helps so, so much... I have several people I used to help all the time, and now I get a question maybe once a year. Not to mention that any frustration you are saving yourself, you are triply saving your friends and family who try to figure things out before they call you.
But I would add in addition to this advice, to buy a TimeCapsule for them as well. Yes it's a little more expensive than an access point and external disk combined. But refer back to my first point, the bit about time and so on? If they have a TimeCapsule set up they WILL USE IT, because it is on ALL THE TIME. If you try to make anyone connect an external drive they WILL NOT DO IT, and that means WHEN a drive failure occurs you will have to come help try and recover data. If the have a Time Capsule they can bring the system and TC into an Apple store and get the data back even if they can't figure out how themselves (which they probably will figure out).
Re:Correct User Access (Score:4, Informative)
I've found the best thing is to treat them like a corporation. Make sure their accounts are only user level, and either hold on to the Administrator password or make sure they know the real reason to use it. Done that with a few family friends I do work for and the amount of trouble i've had has dropped drastically.
Absolutely, I did this for my brother's machine, compared to my parents machine it's remained extremely tidy and worry free!
The only issue is Firefox updating. On Windows XP, Firefox cannot update itself when running in a non-admin account. (Bugzilla:407875 [mozilla.org]) Probably means my brother is running a months-old Firefox..
Makes me wonder if Internet Explorer would actually be safer for him, at least it would get updated automatically.
Simple solutions (Score:2, Informative)
My parent are ~ 70 years old, and their computers are probably healthier than mine.
How?
I knew they wouldn't understand all the trade-offs involved in Internet security, so I set them up with a basic secure setup (auto-updates from MS, anti-virus, anti-spyware), and gave them 3 simple rules:
1) When you aren't using the computer - turn it off. Bad guys can't get in, or do anything to the computer, if it's not on.
2) Stay in the "well-lit" areas of the Internet. By that I mean corporate and reputable public sites - as a general rule of thumb, if they've heard about it on the news, its "well-lit".
3) Only download something when *YOU* want it, not when a site says you need it. And anytime a site says you need their special application to view video, listen to audio, or read something, they LIE.
I've also worked over the years to transition them off IE and Outlook, but that was just really icing - the basic setup and the security rules did *ALL* the heavy lifting.
Now, every so often, I'll have to do basic maintenace - renew their AV, make sure they've got all the updates, defrag their drives, etc. - but it's all relatively painless stuff. And I've never had to rebuild their computer.
Re:Reinstall is NEVER required... (Score:4, Informative)
If you think your only option is to re-install the OS, odds are you don't know how to fix the problem and do it in a timely fashion.
So, how do YOU deal with a corrupted registry, chains upon chains of hooked and rehooked system calls, apps without proper uninstallers, bad-neighbor applications that overwrite other apps' dlls, and rootkits? Are you really spending the time to one-at-a-time manually uninstall and replace bad associations with known-good ones?
To me, OS reinstall and repatch is more of a time saving device. Sure, I can spend hours on hours chasing dragons all over the place for hours on end to fix things and keep their precious desktop wallpaper and they could just click that Awesome Cute Videos bookmark and reinstall the same damn malware the very next day. I personally rather set an xml file and leave an unattended install on while catching a movie or otherwise getting on with my life.
I know if family ever got snippety with me about why I reinstall all the time, I'd probably throw the computer back right at them and wish them good luck.
Re:just install linux the next time you reformat (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Install Ubuntu (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MS SteadyState (Score:2, Informative)
Try MS SteadyState
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
and better yet: in addition to just using SteadyState on the whole disk, make regedits to keep 'Documents and Settings' on a separate partition where SteaedyState is off so the users can actually save something to their hard drive that won't be lost on a reboot, which IMHO is much more useful.
Re:Oblig. XKCD (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MS SteadyState (Score:3, Informative)
My solution to reinstalls: Do it once, then use Partimage Is Not Ghost [windowsdream.com] to create an image. Then re-image in 10 minutes when needed.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Give Up (Score:4, Informative)
Changing their behavior could make their use of Windows safer, but speaking from practical experience every time I have switched a problem user to a Mac (which in some cases I did at my own expense) the support time fell to essentially zero after a short adjustment period. Importantly, this has always happened. Changing the OS fixed the problem without fixing the user.
Theoretically the Mac (and Linux) can have similar malware problems to Windows, and there is proof-of-concept malware out there. Practically, though, it just isn't the case. I suspect that the security model -- which is much better than even Vista/Win7 when you get into the details -- has a lot to do with that. The claims that it's all about market share are wishful thinking; it's about ease of entry. It's very, very easy to subvert Windows ... and very difficult for Microsoft to fix this because a large amount of software depends on the ability to do things that should really not be allowed (like, say, injecting threads into other programs and using VirtualProtect to make code pages writeable -- with those capabilities you will never make a secure system). As long as it's much easier to subvert Windows there's not much point in going after the Mac.
But it goes beyond malware. Certain Windows features, such as the Registry, are hideously overcomplex and unreliable. They should have been tossed years ago -- and since everyone manages registry settings via APIs this could be done with excellent backwards compatibility (consider how easy it was for Apple to switch the format for Prefs in Snow Leopard). When something messes up the registry, all too common in my experience, there is little choice but to burn it down and rebuild from scratch. (Thank God for Acronis or I'd go insane from the reinstalls.)
If you want a system that doesn't require a lot of admin time I have to say that you can pick pretty much anything other than Windows and do well. It will be easier to set up, easier to back up, easier to fix if something goes wrong, and the software will be considerably less expensive (everyone else packages useful software in-the-box).
Of course, there can be overriding concerns that force the use of Windows ... and you take your lumps if that's the case.
The way to get around this (Score:3, Informative)
is to make them pay a professional. after a few hundred dollars they will get better.
My family is smart enough not to need this sort of infantile hand holding, but I am to understand some people come from inferior stock.
Hmm, maybe I shouldn't reply to /. posts after role playing a dandy.
Tell them in the virtual world things are turned around. Instead of assuming trust, assume everyone has an angle to get you.
DISA Has online IA training (Score:2, Informative)
easy solution (Score:2, Informative)
Linux + VMware (Score:3, Informative)
My solution is crude and simple:
1. Install Linux at all machines
2. Install VMware
3. Install whichever OS in a virtual machine.
4. Make a backup copy of it in a safe place
5. Let people use the virtual machine, but don't let them use the base OS
6. Make sure that all essential data - documents, whatever - are always on a networked disk
- when they screw up, simply copy from backup. Not perfect, but it is amazing how much hassle it has saved me.
Always use Protection (Score:3, Informative)
Always Use Protection: A Teen's Guide to Safe Computing by Dan Appleman - This book is geared to teenagers, and it is a bit old, but it explains things very easily and hammers home the simple lessons, like Don't open attachments etc. It isn't too preachy, but it gets the message across.