I am starting to wonder if there should be some basic "safety first" course that people need to take before owning a computer lol.
About 6 months ago a friend of mine mentioned that her laptop was running very slow and doing strange things. I advised her to download malwarebytes and run a scan.
I was visiting this particular friend yesterday and after she spent an hour trying to show me a site on the net, I asked if she had been keeping her mbam updated and running scans each week. It turns out she hadnt even downloaded it in the first place and had just let the problem manifest in her lappy all this time. Her excuse…."I couldnt have any infections as I have an antivirus programme" So one download and 350 infections quarantined or removed later, and the laptop is running as good as new. I know that there are likely to be numerous other issues still lurking, and as she would have trouble following directions here, I offered to take it for a few days to get it properly cleared with the help of WTT, but as the title says, you just cant help some people lol.
But that is not the best part……
Later in the day I was chatting to some other friends and told them what I had been doing all day. One of them says to me "well we would never have that problem as we have antivrus installed and pop ups blocked!" OMG here we go again, so I tried to explain that all that is good, but its really not enough, but I could tell it was falling on deaf ears. Then his wife joins the conversation and says she hasnt got an antivirus on her pc, to which he replies, "yes I know but u dont need one because we are on the same internet connection!" OMG!
Ok, I just saw my friend again with the laptop. She had caught the train down to pick up her daughter who was staying with me. She tells me that she uploaded some pics straight from her phone to her facebook profile on teh train on the way here, but ever since, her phone's internet was running really slow. So I said it was probably just a bad reception or her battery might be going flat. She says "NO! I dont think its that at all, I think my computer has sent me one of those viruses when I uploaded those pics!"
So I had to compose myself for a minute and think how I was going to explain this one to her, but then I thought ok, I can use this to my advantage lol. So I said "SEE! Now do u realise how important it is to get that computer fixed properly!"
I've been helping similar mates for years, I am slowly bringing them out of the dark ages, and some have actually come on a long way and have been able to take some of the work the rest of them give me off my hands, but it's no easy journey lol.
I always use the following line to those who think they are protected, "NO single piece of protection can catch everything" and thats why you need more than 1 piece of protection, I've found this makes sense to them and they accept the further suggestions more readily after, then further explain to them that it does not matter what the system connects to, it is the SYSTEM that needs the protection, and apples to ALL systems, but at the same time they also have to remember they should only run 1 piece of protection of that type at the same time, so they may need to pause the anti virus while running mbam.
Now as to her phone, her suspicion is not as far stretched as it seems, mobile phones CAN get infections, another reason for running a clean system or it spreads to other set up's, also Facebook users are always targeted by infection makers, so they need to be aware how easy it can be to become infected, so they need to take care, especially with messages sent from people on they're friends list, infections are often spread disguised as messages with links to infection sources, so make sure they take note if the message seems fitting with that persons style.
But that said you can get anti viruses for mobile phones these days, but generally speaking they aren't that worrying or common at this stage, but a mobile phone can be infected via bluetooth as well (if they have a bluetooth phone), the obvious sign of a bluetooth infection is short battery life, and I mean down from days to hours, this happens as the bluetooth is permanently searching for other bluetooth connections to spread itself further.
LOL the curse of the spill chucker on this system, previously it's always highlighted the word on the page, allowing me to check the context the word was in, therefore allowing me to select the correct word, but in this Win 7 Ultimate 64bit it does not show the word on the page, so choosing the right word becomes harder lol.
You never really learn to swear… until you become a computer technician.
I had to become a preacher while being a computer technician to stop swearing
Just got done with a lady for the life of her just could not understand what 32 bit was , 64 bit was. She has a 64 bit os trying to run a 32 hardware and wants to keeps telling me well I don't see where that matters, it says it for Vista and don't see why it should not work.
So one download and 350 infections quarantined or removed later, and the laptop is running as good as new. I know that there are likely to be numerous other issues still lurking, and as she would have trouble following directions here, I offered to take it for a few days to get it properly cleared with the help of WTT, but as the title says, you just cant help some people lol.
But that is not the best part……
Later in the day I was chatting to some other friends and told them what I had been doing all day. One of them says to me "well we would never have that problem as we have antivrus installed and pop ups blocked!" OMG here we go again, so I tried to explain that all that is good, but its really not enough, but I could tell it was falling on deaf ears. Then his wife joins the conversation and says she hasnt got an antivirus on her pc, to which he replies, "yes I know but u dont need one because we are on the same internet connection!" OMG! 
