Riiight.. I helped someone fix their computer after it suffered a harddisk crash. I finally got it too work after three days (all sorts of complications).
But now.. a day after.. something's wrong. First of all, minutes after I was gone, the owner downloaded Kazaa Lite, Winamp and MSN Messenger... and managed to get infected with that horrible lop.com spyware shit. I removed it (although there is still *something* running in the background.. it generates random process names and shows a pop-up every now and then about some casino.. Ad-Aware doesn't seem to remove it).
Anyway.. the real problem is that suddenly, the computer won't connect to secure http. It gives the standard Windows "Page Not Found" dns-error page if you try to go to any https:// domain. This also means they can't check their webmail. Even worse for them, they can't even connect to MSN. It seems to be a problem beyond a simple IE setting, since MSN doesn't use IE's settings to connect. I don't know how they managed to fuck up a fresh install of Win 98 so bad in under 24 hours, I really don't know what to do about it.
It could be a problem with the ISP, but that's unlikely since everything worked fine before I left. It could also be a problem caused by lop.com or some other spyware. Perhaps I deleted one file too many. Or, it could be a really stupid Windows setting somewhere.
Has anyone ever experienced something similar?
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
Tell them they're STOOpid dumbfucks who shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere near a computer, then charge them a hundred bucks to kill the spyware* (lay it on thick and add that it is a meticulous job for which you demand hazard pay). 8)
And for the love of Bill, get rid of '98. Please?
* Easy way:
1) format 2) reinstall
* Hard way:
1) run AdAware 2) navigate to Control Panel ==>> System ==>> Computer Name ==>> Change ==>> More ==>> blank Primary DNS suffix 3) reboot 4) download SpyBot and let it rip apart whatever remnants are left 5) read this Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
NOO! I'm not going to format and reinstall again. It took me three times to get Windows working. That's what you get when they buy a second-hand pc without ANY documentation or software. Nice puzzle to find out what the hell is inside the thing.
Oh, and BTW, it's all charity. They're the neighbours, and they're nice.
[ June 13, 2003, 05:25 AM: Message edited by: Harry ]
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Oh.. I sent a really harsh mail to Lop.com. To my utter surprise, they actually replied
They claim you can uninstall lop.com by simply going to CP->Software. Yeah right.
They also came up with two alternatives.. clicking the "globe icon" in the systray (which isn't there) or by downloading "new_uninstall.exe". Yeah right.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
Well, if took three attempts to get that sorry excuse for an OS operational, then a fourth (which is guaranteed to save your ass, because trust me, lop is one damn persistent piece of coding genius) won't matter that much, will it? 8)
Look kid, I know you're trying to help. But charity won't help YOU out here.
[ June 13, 2003, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I tried to install W2K. The stupid thing asked for a password no-one ever entered. Didn't work. XP won't run on it. ME is a miserable piece of OS. So 98 is all that is left. Actually 98SE would be better, but I came to the realisation that I don't have a CD of that anymore.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
"The stupid thing asked for a password no-one ever entered."
Wha...?
Harry, if I didn't know better, I'd blame that on user error. 8)
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I don't know. It never asked for a password during install, yet when you try to start it up it asks for one, and won't accept a blank. I think it got confused when I changed the domain from WORKGROUP to something else.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Well.. it seems the hard way of removing spyware AND reinstalling Win98 did the trick. Bloody machines...
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I tried to install W2K. The stupid thing asked for a password no-one ever entered. Didn't work. XP won't run on it. ME is a miserable piece of OS. So 98 is all that is left.
*coughLINUXcough*
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Excellent. Don't think of it as a password. Think of it as a skill-testing question Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by Omega: I tried to install W2K. The stupid thing asked for a password no-one ever entered. Didn't work. XP won't run on it. ME is a miserable piece of OS. So 98 is all that is left.
*coughLINUXcough*
Oh brilliant idea. Take an owner who is non-expert enough to keep downloading spyware, and give him Linux! Yes! I'm sure he'll be able to handle that no problem.
Also, y'know, to go all Tim-speak, Linux != useful in everyday use.
Also, ME isn't that bad. A lot of it's problems occur when it's installed as an update to 98. If it's used as a clean install, then it's an okay OS.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Ah, but if you don't give him the root password, then he can't screw it up. And how much spyware is out there for Linux boxen? Besides, if you define every-day use as "doing anything online", then (assuming you can get your modem working) Linux is just fine. The only thing you absolutely can't do is play a good number of games, so the real question is how important that is.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Also, ME isn't that bad. A lot of it's problems occur when it's installed as an update to 98. If it's used as a clean install, then it's an okay OS."
All I can say is "no".
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
"Ah, but if you don't give him the root password, then he can't screw it up."
If you don't give him the administrator password, then he can't screw up Windows 2000 either. Plus, he won't have to associate himself w/ fat, smelly, pony-tailed, unemployed h4x0r types like Tim.
[ June 16, 2003, 04:34 AM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by TSN:
"Also, ME isn't that bad. A lot of it's problems occur when it's installed as an update to 98. If it's used as a clean install, then it's an okay OS."
All I can say is "no".
There are worse things in life. Windows 95. DOS. Herpes.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
True. But that doesn't make it "okay".
I should also point out that I am none of those things Cartmaniac mentioned, and my Linux machine hasn't even been turned on in months.
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