So my boss contracted an IT guy to fix our computers...

[guy incognito]

So tuesday I am at work, and I am the only one here. Shortly before I leave I start getting virus looking problems on the computer. I made a thread about it:

https://www.rollitup.org/toke-n-talk/507708-i-fucking-hate-microsoft.html

After thinking about it, I am pretty sure it came from the mp3 player I hooked up. I had absolutely no problems on any of the computers, I plugged the mp3 player in to load up some music, and almost instantly started having problems. It didn't even dawn on me until after the fact when I did some research and found some trojan worms that exhibit very similar problems, and how are these worms spread? According to several sources they are spread via usb devices with the worm embedded in the autorun file, so you plug it into the usb, the computer runs the autorun program to open the device and BAM you are infected. Made perfect sense after I read it and relived the events of the day. I didn't download anything, I didn't browse any suspicious websites. All I did was browse toke n talk, do my work, and try to load music on an mp3 player.

So I had to leave without resolving the problem, which means it fell to somone else. No one else has done any IT work for us for 6 years, and we have had no major problems.

Anyway, the guy come in today, and he wants to scan every computer the company owns. I explain that I don't think that's entirely necessary, especially at this point because i'm fairly certain I know the source, and the time it happened, and only a limited number of computers were hooked up to the network. The rest couldn't possibly be infected from several states away without being networked in anyway. He proceeds to tell me that's not possible, and that's not where the virus came from. He said it did originate from my computer, but not from an mp3 player. He said I had utorrent which is, in his words, "virus ghetto" and probably caused, or at least contributed to the problem.

So now do I sit back and just let him do whatever he thinks needs to be done, and not worry about the price or the consequences?

I think the guy probably does know what he is doing, but I feel like he was trying to bullshit us all. I know utorrent does not inherently contain viruses. I also don't quite believe that a virus infected my computer via utorrent (or any other method), and just laid in wait for an inconvenient time like me to hook an mp3 player up before it infects the entire network. It all just seems way to coincidental.

 

[medicalmaryjane]

i would direct him but if you're not the one paying him, let him do wahtever he desires to do.

if it were my money, i wouldn't even have him there, i can scan and fix a virus myslef thank u

 

[Urca]

Let him do his job, if you offend his ego, it could impact the quality of his work

 

[guy incognito]

Well on the one hand I am positive I can get all the computers up and functioning without data loss. It's really not that hard to keep them running. We run into occasional problems and setbacks, but we still get it done. He may be able to get them functioning better and smoother. Is it really worth the price though?

Is it better to pay a mechanic $5,000 to get your car running tip top shape if you know you can get working reasonably well for $20 and some elbow grease?

It also seems similar to taking your car in for a minor problem that came up and the mechanic saying he is surprised the car didn't kill you because it's so unsafe to drive. Of course his opinion is polar and on the end of the spectrum.

 

[medicalmaryjane]

Is it your 5000? If it was my $, I'd do the work. Otherwise, i don't care, the owner should be the one worried about the loss of capital & make a plan.

 

[Sk306]

Well on the one hand I am positive I can get all the computers up and functioning without data loss. It's really not that hard to keep them running. We run into occasional problems and setbacks, but we still get it done. He may be able to get them functioning better and smoother. Is it really worth the price though?

Is it better to pay a mechanic $5,000 to get your car running tip top shape if you know you can get working reasonably well for $20 and some elbow grease?

It also seems similar to taking your car in for a minor problem that came up and the mechanic saying he is surprised the car didn't kill you because it's so unsafe to drive. Of course his opinion is polar and on the end of the spectrum.

I've had my mechanic say that to me about my first car, broke all my sway bars + alot more and didn't know/care. was my first car when i was 16 haha. But anyways, i'm sure this guy will fix everything, and im sure you could aswell. I've fixed many computer problems i've had myself never paid anybody to come fix them but if its not your dime who cares?

 

[guy incognito]

No not my money, but I will feel some culpability in the overspending if I sit idly by. But also if attempt to save them money, and I do end up fucking up, it will really really bite me in the ass. So what's my incentive really?

 

[medicalmaryjane]

exactly. if the money was coming out of your pocket it would be another story but it's not and you would be accepting liability in something you don't need to. like i said, if the owner had some wits about him, he wouldnt have called the technical support people in the first place so f-him. it won't be 5000 anyway. how much can they possibly charge for that? 100 an hour at the MOST. i doubt they will be there more than a few hours.

 

[guy incognito]

I've had my mechanic say that to me about my first car, broke all my sway bars + alot more and didn't know/care. was my first car when i was 16 haha. But anyways, i'm sure this guy will fix everything, and im sure you could aswell. I've fixed many computer problems i've had myself never paid anybody to come fix them but if its not your dime who cares?

Yeah i've heard that from a lot of people. The mechanic says he is baffled you got it in because it needs $3,000 worth of repairs, and you probably can't even drive it away it's so bad. Then sure enough they drive away anyway because they don't have the money and the car drives fine because the mechanic was totally bullshitting. But i've also known people that had to be towed back to the mechanic because they didn't make it home.

I do feel offended that he claimed utorrent was a virus ghetto. Like he was insulting my intelligence. Like I don't understand what utorrent is or how it operates.

 

[guy incognito]

exactly. if the money was coming out of your pocket it would be another story but it's not and you would be accepting liability in something you don't need to. like i said, if the owner had some wits about him, he wouldnt have called the technical support people in the first place so f-him. it won't be 5000 anyway. how much can they possibly charge for that? 100 an hour at the MOST. i doubt they will be there more than a few hours.

He doesn't want to just extract 1 virus from the few computers hooked up at the time though, he wants to collect and disinfect every computer and usb drive the company owns, install software on every pc, and fundamentally change the way the network operates. He wants to use the same hardware, most of the same operating systems, and nothing else. He wants to redo the entire office network.

Kind of similar to taking your car in for 1 simply fix, and the mechanic saying you really need to fix the sway bars, and the ball joints, and the maya-hoff lifters, etc. and it's suddenly 50 times the labor of what you originally thought needed to be fixed. You have 1 apparent problem, and 99 terrible ones that you were never even aware of.

 

[lokie]

the dude is obviously trying to sell a full service an not just fix the flat.

not your dime? not your headache.

 

[guy incognito]

I just walked over to the other office and noticed he was copying our entire shared drive from an external onto one of the computers for temporary use, but he did a simple copy and paste of the entire thing and it's hung up. The reason he is moving it over today is because he attempted to yesterday and we only have half of the 40gb folder transfered. So i'm guessing he just did the same thing.

How would you guys copy a 40gb folder from one location to another? right click, copy, paste? I would personally spend 2 minutes to write up a script because windows sucks balls copying large folders. I would think anyone with any signifigant computer experience should know

 

[Logges]

i would say i know my way around computers, plus i do work as a IT tech guy as a part time job from studying.
one time i got a bad virus in a flashdrive but of course windows couldn't get rid of it because it blows chunks.

i plugged the flashdrive into my pc with linux, found the files and killed them right away. linux works great that way because it can read windows files but without the windows restrictions. so ANY file can be deleted once and for all. serious.

you should check a thread i started not long ago ----> THINK NOW, THINK FREE; GET LINUX

if i was you, i would get a lap top with linux and connect all the hard drives and find the bad tomatoes. maybe there are linux-to-windows virus applications.
convince your superiors to dump windows and use linux, much more reliable and cheaper.

 

[Unnk]

whats funny is this guy is charging 5000 for a job id do for dirt cheap

this reaks of a guy trying to make money off his degree

your network itself might be the weak leak not the computers

listen to logges

any self respecting company runs in linux

 

[guy incognito]

That's a good plan for my house, but I don't think it would work for a multi million dollar company. I mean it could, but what is my incentive? To save a couple grand that's not even mine while taking on a huge liability? Plus if anything fucked up it would be on me.

 

[RawBudzski]

Make sure to delete all your beastiality porn, though he will probably still find it..

 

[Logges]

That's a good plan for my house, but I don't think it would work for a multi million dollar company. I mean it could, but what is my incentive? To save a couple grand that's not even mine while taking on a huge liability? Plus if anything fucked up it would be on me.

you could run a parallel system with linux, to show them the reliability. if you succeed then they will see you innovate and are willing to take risks and that is stuff for promotions.

 

[Bonzi Lighthouse]

Shut the fuck up Donny, you're out of your league.

 

[guy incognito]

whats funny is this guy is charging 5000 for a job id do for dirt cheap

this reaks of a guy trying to make money off his degree

your network itself might be the weak leak not the computers

listen to logges

any self respecting company runs in linux

I don't know what he is charging. The $5,000 figure was just to make a point about mechanics. I mean he wants to do a lot of stuff that is going to require time, no way around it.

 

[rollandtoke]

OK, I do tech support and he is trying to find issues like a mechanic. If you called him in on one PC, thats all he needs to work on, he wants to check the other computers so he can tell you what is wrong with them. And virus removal is not hard, its just time consuming sometimes so people blow it out of proportion.

...here's how you solve (most) viruses...

1. Boot to Safe Mode with Networking (reboot your computer and start tapping F8 (usually) key as soon as it turns on.
1a. Choose Admin acct if available (password is usually left blank, or set to "admin"), if not log into normal acct
1b. Click "yes" when prompted if you want to stay in safe mode
2. Go to malwarebytes.com, download and run the tool multiple times, Full Scan (until it says no more infected files)...if it asks you to restart...do it....just remember Step 1 each time it reboots!!!






3. Go to CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard) ... download that and run both Cleaner (click "Analyze" first, then "Run Cleaner")





and Registry cleaner ("Scan for Issues" first, then "Fix selected issues"....yes to back up..."fix all selected issues".




4. Repeat both steps 2/3 again.
5. Restart computer normally (no F8 tapping) and test it out.


If that fails let me know. You can usually resolve most virus issues with patience and another working computer (to chat on RIU about it or Google anything you need)