Posts by Lost in Cyberspace 173 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Apr 2012
As a Pi-Hole & Ublock Origin user, I've settled on these because I can just turn them off if they break something.
I can see people turning to DNS blockers, VPNs, antivirus with built-in adblockers... and some really dodgy alternatives in desperation.
At best, it will break connections. At worst, customers will fall for privacy-reducing products and outright scam products.
As a Pi-Hole & Ublock Origin user, I've settled on these because I can just turn them off if they break something.
I can see people turning to DNS blockers, VPNs, antivirus with built-in adblockers... and some really dodgy alternatives in desperation.
At best, it will break connections. At worst, customers will fall for privacy-reducing products and outright scam products.
My regular clients, home users, often get confused between the apps and their email provider.
I put this down to the names of the apps.
Windows Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail
Outlook/Outlook Express/Outlook.com
Rebranding the mail client with virtually every new Windows version, Outlook Express/Mail/Windows Live Mail/Mail/Outlook, and going from Hotmail/Live/Outlook online...
No wonder some people get confused with it all!
It seems like every antivirus app could now be regarded as a PUP for adding extra features without making it completely clear and/or to sell extra features (even though the program was initially touted as complete protection).
Even Malwarebytes does this (despite being one of my preferred cleanup tools). It tries to add browser add-ins and a VPN service.
The Avast/AVG/CCleaner group have a particularly harmful business model. What starts as a free AV ends up selling 5 or 6 services and a browser that pops up on startup. I've even seen clients with several copies of apps doing the same thing, just branded as CCleaner or AVG instead. £200+ a year! That is a PUP I would not install.
TotalAV - £149 a year and difficulty getting refunds.
Even Norton and McAfee hijack your search results and replace your preferred SE with 'Secure Search' - full of junk results, plus a whole page of sponsored spam and scams. Definitely not as safe as Google or DDG.
At this rate, Edge will start overlaying ads on other companies' websites. Just like malware has done for years.
Once had a client complain about all the inappropriate adverts all over my site. I don't have adverts - they had adware/malware/dodgy add-ons.
Still bad for the company reputation though.
If I feel like the computer would benefit from a software check, I'll ask if I can log in. Often the systems I see are riddled with malware or very out of date.
If I don't do this, many clients say 'it's still got problems' - unrelated to the original issue reported.
Happy to do this in front of the client though. Builds trust.
A couple of years ago, lots of my web features suddenly stopped working. I was unable to access FTP nor edit my website. Over Christmas, when I needed to edit our availability and certain other pages.
2 weeks like that. Apparently, it was because we were on a 'legacy' plan that I'd recently renewed 3 years upfront, no longer supported. I should've been told, but clearly wasn't.
I moved my whole site asap.
I deal with domestic, self employed and small business. Removing viruses, setting up the correct settings for 100s of different email providers, tuition, fixing laptop hinges/screens/touchpads/HDDs, dealing with the quirks of Windows/Mac/Chromebook/iOS/Android/Linux is more my thing. I get strange looks when I won't look at AD, SQL, and so on. Not all IT is the same.
Yet, a busted HDMI cable would still get replaced with a £10 braided cable from the van. Why anyone would prefer the effort and resources of a re-solder is beyond me.
Recently called out to a slow PC, in a old chap's home, with lots and lots of pop-ups. Some porn, some dating, some virus warnings. All Chrome push notifications.
The cause was obvious, loads of porn tabs and granny dating going on. A quick cleanup - removing notifications and clearing the history/cookies/cache - sorted that all out.
That wasn't the most notable part though.
The next time the guy saw me, he 'told me off' for looking at porn on his PC. I was very confused, I'd never use a customer's computer for that. I'm a professional.
His reasoning is that he's now getting pop-ups for teens in his home town wanting to meet up for sex.
Perhaps some of it is just in case prices go higher. Some of it is an excuse, some of it is jumping on the bandwagon.
I'd imagine everyone is affected differently at the moment.
Is inflation really 10%? Personally, I have very few works costs - but those that I do have include electricity, fuel, and phone bills. My work costs have gone up nearly 30% in a year. And lots more personal costs too, due to interest rates and food costs etc, so I've got to build that in too.
Petrol stations won't be the destination for recharging... car parks will. Supermarkets, public car parks, workplaces and so on will be all have chargers on nearly every space (or a lot of spaces, anyway).
Still concerned about battery lifetimes, about how we get the raw materials, how we get so much electricity on to the grid, into homes and so on.
And those that aren't rich enough to charge their cars in a driveway will end up paying a premium to recharge via a third party service...
My novice users don't like change.
I quite like the look of Windows 11 with the rounded corners - it looks nicer than 10.
But hiding File Explorer and right-click options to make things 'look better' is a bit of a disaster, as is removing text labels for things.
And why is that widget button now on the bottom left of the screen, where the start button lived for 27 years?
I install a reg file on every Windows 11 setup, to undo 15+ annoyances and make follow-up support just a little bit easier.
As someone who helps home users. I saw a trend towards phones and tablets before the pandemic, as the desktop PC (and slow HDD-powered laptops) became obsolete.
During lockdown, there was a sudden demand for more laptops. One household computer was no longer enough for everyone to work/learn from home.
I'm now seeing more people invest in a home gaming PC and/or an All-in-one where a laptop doesn't quite cut it.
Meanwhile, I'm also seeing companies selling off desktops - still with the plenty of life left in them and replacing them with laptops (or going BYOD) to accommodate a shift to WFH.
I once found myself inadvertently helping someone steal a domain.
I visited a shop to help the owner/manager recover his domain from an ex-employee that set it up.
The website was definitely for the shop I was actually sat in, everything checked out... shop name, address, phone number was the same as above the door. The manager had access to the sales/admin emails so we were able to reset passwords and transfer domain ownership. The manager was a key holder, the shop was open and staff / customers were milling about.
Couldn't really get much more proof of ownership than that. Did the job, got paid, emailed a receipt.
Turns out that the 'manager' and some of the team were actually staff that were about to leave and set up on their own. He was sabotaging the website and social network accounts on the way out.
My email receipt reached the 'real' boss, who aggressively threatened all sorts of things. I tactfully reminded him that I'd done what the manager in the shop had asked me to do, and that I didn't know this person on the phone. If he could provide proof of business ownership (not a ltd company) I'd gladly switch it back and he could claim the cost from the rogue employees. I didn't hear anything else.
Who do you trust?
I gave a unique email address when I signed up for an account with Subway... the loyalty scheme is fairly generous. If I'm buying for the family, I may as well rack up enough points for 'free' subs, cookies and coffee.
The online account / app usually beats carrying a Subcard around just in case we stop at Subway on the services.
... most seem to get nothing.
The nearest places to me getting full fibre seem to be the ones that already have Virgin, got 4G early and are getting 5G this year.
Perhaps it's the infrastructure or population density, but the sceptic in me suggests that Openreach are going for market share.
Meanwhile, many places will be stuck on ADSL / VDSL and poorer mobile coverage for a lot longer.
I can imagine getting lots of support calls from my novice users.
Some will dislike change, some will be alarmed by the icon looking different.
My biggest concerns, though, are the way it will force a change to the default browser, search engine and one little click of the Sync button can 'upgrade' your local account to a Microsoft account without even prompting for a password (if it already has some details saved for you). Great way to get locked out, next time the computer starts up.
I've been bombarded with lots of calls about microphone issues.
Most are sorted by changing the mic source in the settings (which only seem accessible during a meeting).
The other few have been sorted by installing the latest audio drivers from the manufacturer's support page / searching for an update in Device Manager.
I lost a few novice-user customers over this... as someone who deals with consumer PC repairs, no amount of password / security resets could keep the Yahoo / BT accounts secure. BT kept saying it must be a virus on the computer, and 'the technician' (me) needed to take yet another look at the PC as it must be infected. (Nope, completely clear).
Guess who the consumer tends to believe.
And there's only so many times that you can charge a customer, or do it for 'free' before someone says enough is enough.
We've always called it Microsoft Questions rather than Microsoft Answers.
I just scroll to the final page, where the user says 'Don't worry guys... I sorted it myself. I put the DVD in and reloaded Windows'
[Marked as Solved]
You'll never find out the real reason something doesn't work, or a 'proper' way to fix it.
I deal exclusively with home users. It's been a tough week explaining where the restart button is. So far this week:
20 on BT. 5 on TalkTalk. 2 on Sky.
(EE have also put a notice on their help pages).
19 had McAfee installed. 2 had Avast installed.
Most of my customers were blaming their ISPs, some have had other technically-minded users waste hours tinkering with settings - until I explained it was more likely to be Windows 10... something is crashing and due to the 'fast boot' feature, a shut down won't clear it, whereas a restart will. It's been a long week.
I enjoy diverting my phone to HulloMail on my day off for individualised messages.
Out of hours, it tells my customers I will ring them back when I'm next working, and it tells my mum / wife / kids / school receptionist the best number to reach me on.
And I get a text equivalent of the voicemail right in the app, so I can continue enjoying my day off without listening to someone describe the error message on their screen - for four bloody minutes (until the VM cuts them off).
I would love this functionality in the Apple VM app though. If it supports out-of-hours voicemail greetings.
I've noticed that my van fob activates certain doorbells, useful if I'm visiting that particular customer but annoying if all the neighbours open their door as I walk away from the van.
My daughter thinks it would be funny to play 'remote knock-down-ginger' as we drive down the streets, but I'm not convinced that's good for my professional reputation!
Google don't force me to use them because of any underhand bully-boy anti-competition tactics, it's just that I'm yet to find a better alternative. One that doesn't involve scrolling all the way down the page and squinting to see where the organic results start, after the ads.
Symantec need to get their own security in order. Every unique address email address I ever gave Norton (for NIS, 360, Ghost, Utilities etc) suddenly started getting loads of spam a few months ago. These were quite unique, obscure email addresses - some from 2005-2006. But of course, they deny any breach or theft and don't even seem to understand the problem (because 'they didn't send it').
Let first gen buyers saturate the market, then wait for the improved / cheaper next gen models, with acceptable features and battery life.
I'm sure I can cope without a smart watch for another year or two. After all, my current watch battery has at least 2 more years life left in it before I have to consider a new battery or a new watch.
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