If the techies are doing it to earn an extra buck, then why didn’t the guy in LilShieste’s story clean out the browser history, leaving no evidence (at least not for someone who’s a regular computer user with no special skills)?
If you want to see the ultimate porn/popup site put sourceforge.com instead of sourceforge.net in your address window. I only did it once.
Plenty of people who have little clue how a computer works get internet service. Probably its more like a “why bother”. Plenty of people initially hit porn sites out of curiousity.
In fact unless you can show a serious pattern I bet “the tech/installer guy did it” is seen as high on the list of “yeah, whatever” explanations for porn/scumware related support calls. Considering the installer is often not even directly employed by the ISP this thread could easily be a public stumbling upon a serious problem among installer people.
Danalan usually you only get paid for unique hits so clicking a link 3-4 times is worthless unless they are releasing a dynamic IP and reaquiring a new one. Quarter clicks are out there but they are far from the norm. .05 and or .10 are more likely. This is also how many spammers make money. 5,000,000 emails, 500,000 actually open them, 10,000 click through * .05 = $500.
Porn? Spam? Popups? It just struck me how much damage an installer could with the server app for a remote administration program on a floppy in his pocket. (Sorry about the hijack but this could get serious on a cable connection)
Although I totally understand it, I think it’s sad that mhendo’s girlfriend’s friend’s decision to not report this weirdo is based in fear.
I can’t think of any reason a sane person working as a cable installer would do this. Mega creepy.
I just had to do the same thing, but I haven’t noticed any increase in pop-ups or anything else unusual about my computer operations. I did have to manually change the settings on Outlook since the “transition wizrd” only updated Outlook Express (which I don’t use). Is there any way to check my computer for unauthorized changes?
Well, hopefully, if they see enough porn they will come to the obvious conclusion that the proper place to ejaculate is all over a woman’s face, and they’ll be out of the reproductive running in no time :).
I don’t know. Maybe the guy didn’t know there was anything else you did with a computer?
I rather prefer to beleive the scam angle, cuz…ewwwww.
Hmm. Well, since their website SWEARS “The Wizard does not contain any personally identifiable information about you or your PC and will not transmit any information to the Comcast servers,” you might want to call them on this if it did put on spyware. At least you’ll find out how that phrase weasels the truth, if that’s indeed what’s going on.
Not that I’d be able to tell if that happened on my computer. I downloaded and ran the thing on my OSX machine, but too early; it didn’t do anything for a while but leave text files saying it couldn’t do anything 'cause it was too early, so I deleted it and did a manual adjustment. Who knows what happened. We’ll see, I guess.
I tried this to test my new popup-blocker, but it looks like sourceforge.net has acquired the dot-com address.
I spend most of my work day operating a computer and I still seem to make typos.
When you light up a browser for the first time the only mouse click addresses are the lame ones that the developers are paid to include, so I typed in a favorite known address and misspelled it. It actually happened to me and I’ve heard about the same thing from others. My comments were based not on compassion for the installer but for any other Bubbadoofus who accidently typos an address.
I never rule out stupidity. Even in comparison to very bad judgement.
Bubba
Over here the installer guy brings a laptop with him and tests the connection on that, so they never touch your computer. It’s part of the contract that he’s obligated to show you that he’s testing the connection and that it works properly. Oh and he just uses a government site with a virtual tour that would take a while to load on dialup.
And that’s your story, and you’re sticking to it! 
>> A friend of my girlfriend’s who lives in the DC area
What’s with the apostrophe?
The custom in the DC area dictates that when the cable guy starts surfing for porn the woman starts taking off her clothes and says “take me now or I’ll go crazy!” At least that’s the way it works in the movies. I wouldn’t know as I don’t have cable.
quote:
Originally posted by Satisfying Andy Licious
I tried this to test my new popup-blocker, but it looks like sourceforge.net has acquired the dot-com address.
Well, it’s better than sticking to my keyboard.
Yep,they must have. That was the best one I’ve seen. Most of those sights throw up two when you close one but this one threw up about 3 or 4. Guess I’ll have to go find another one. Damn the luck.
Well, i suppose i was just writing the way that people often speak–that is, idiomatically. We often use phrases like this in spoken English. To be accurate, i should have left off the “s” altogether, but given that i didn’t, putting the apostrophe there is a way of confirming that i don’t have more than one girlfriend. 
And just to clear up some apparent confusion: the customer in my OP (my girlfriend’s friend) is a man, not a woman. Some people seem to be under the impression that it was a woman. I’mnot sure if this would change people’s responses or not, but i just wanted to clarify.
Slightly similar thing thing happened to me to when the guy came over to install my cable modem.
After it was installed and the guy wanted to test it, he hit the down arrow thing next to the URL in IE that shows the previous sites I’d been to.
Well, the night before, I was wondering what porno site names had been taken, and was trying every perverted URL I could think of. I know, you’re all saying "Yeah, right… " but really. I look at porn, I admit it, but I need moving pictures. Pics on web sites just don’t do it for me.
I was very embarrassed. There’s was some really nasty URLs there…