So I'm building my mother-in-law a computer.

Factual Questions
1

Her technical expertise does not include “folders” or “double-clicking.” She will be using AOL on dial-up. And it needs to be rock solid, because she’s in Philly and I’m in D.C., and remotely administering technical support over the phone is… not going to work.

I’m facing a lot of the same challenges the lunar lander faced here. I need to be able to go to Philly, set it up, and then she needs to be able to use it without calling me for help. I know I’m going to get calls anyway, but I want this thing to be as idiot-proofed as possible. Not that my future mother-in-law is an idiot! Heavens no, I would never suggest that. She’s a very sharp lady. She’s just not a computer person, and I am loathe to ponder what sorts of things could go wrong in my absence and what manner of problem descriptions I might get. I once troubleshot a “dead monitor” call from her by suggesting she tap the SHIFT key or wiggle the mouse around. The screen went black and she completely froze up with fear.

So my initial plan is to give myself admin privileges on her machine, set everything up rock-solid, and then give her a user account. I’d like to set up the following “automatic” functions:

  • Ad-Aware downloads new spyware protection, scans for bad stuff, and removes all offending items at each startup.
  • Spybot does the same, perhaps once a week.
  • WinXP automatically updates itself (eek!) with the latest patches, including SP2.
  • Documents from Word, Excel, and so on should all save to her “My Documents” folder in a messy hodgepodge, exactly the way she likes it.
  • System defrags and does chkdsk weekly.

Can you think of anything else I’d want to set up? Is WinXP’s “remote administration” feature worth looking into?

2

I’ve never used XP’s remote administration but I highly recommend setting up a VNC server so that you may logon remotely and control her PC complete with GUI. I use RealVNC all the time for this. It truely rocks!

3

Yes, and if you do this, you will want to install a secure shell server and connect to her PC through PuTTY and use port redirection for your VNC. Allow connections to only be made using a public key/private key combination.

If you don’t do this, then you are leaving your mother’s PC open to all manner of nastiness.

If stability and dependability are really important, consider giving her a Linux setup with OpenOffice.org for her office suite - and set to save automatically in MS formats. Once you get everything setup, you give her a user account that doesn’t let her touch the actual operating parts of the system. Poof - no problems with spyware, viruses, or accidentally deleting important OS pieces.

4

The ssh reccommendation goes double if you want ot use the built remote administration function from XP.

5

I’ve tried to set up Linux boxes before, and been thwarted trying to do the simplest things – to read a floppy you need to “mount” it first[sup]1[/sup]. Just digging up a simple, plain English set of instructions on how to get a file off a floppy took me over an hour. Until my next foray into Linux machines, she’s getting WinXP, because I know I can troubleshoot it. If I can’t set it up for her, it doesn’t matter how easy it is for her to use it.

However, I am intrigued by the idea of doing remote administration: is the secure shell server necessary if she’s only on dial-up, and only connects externally to bring in and send out e-mail packets? It seems to me her exposure time is seriously limited. Ideally, I’d like to place a big red “panic button” icon on her desktop that opens her machine up to my remote administration. The idea being that she calls me up with a problem and I say, “okay, click the panic button and I’ll take care of it.” All I would have to explain to her is that she needs to confirm that I’m ready before pressing the button, or some hacker will take control instead. How secure does she need to be if she’s using dial-up?

Lastly, I’m considering using OpenOffice on her machine simply because she’d probably pass out if I told her what the latest version of MS Office would cost her. Several hundred dollars for a software package is one thing when computers cost thousands, but it’s getting easier and easier to buy a machine for under $500.

Footnotes:

  1. Yes, someone is going to doubtless come along and say “LOL U N00b! U just type mount fd0 -f -m -monkeyass -9 :/: ##w00t##;; {nojargon} at the root prompt!” The fact that the user has to interact with a command prompt puts it out of her league by three or four orders of magnitude.
  2. Hi Opal!
6

Have you considered getting her a MSNTV box. It is much simpler to use than a computer. You can get some basic information here:

http://www.msntv.com/tv/default.aspx

The unit can be purchased at Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. Cost for the box now available is $99.00 and includes a wireless keyboard and small handheld remote. Access is $21.95 a month. You can use your existing TV as a monitor or also purchase another small TV and use it. Works on dial-up only.

The system is quite easy to learn and is fairly “idiot proof”. Great for sending and receiving email and surfing the net. It is also “immune” to viruses… can’t catch 'em. It can be hooked up to some printers although the resolution isn’t very good. The major limitation is that you CAN’T DOWNLOAD with it.

Tech help is available from MSNTV,but there is also a messageboard available that is dedicated to MSNTV users only that can give fast and reliable help for problems or “How do I…” questions.

A new box is supposed to be available in a couple of months for $199 that is supposed to be broadband capable and may have a few extra features, but you mentioned in your OP that dial-up connection was going to be used.

Anyway, it’s an alternative solution to look into. Good luck!

7

I’ll second the suggestion for msntv. I used to have one back when it was webtv.

If your mother-in-laws main reasons for getting a computer are to 1) Get on the interent, and 2) Send e-mails to her friends, then this is the way to go for $100.

Drawbacks of course are no downloads or attachments.

It is idiot-proof and linking to a printer is very easy.

Save yourself some time, money, and headaches.

8

This is all assuming you’re setting her up with Windows XP.

You need to add a virus-checker to that, and a proper firewall: I recommend ZoneAlarm. I use VNC at work for remote control, but a friend supports his parents with XP’s remote connection. You’d be well advised to find her an alternative email app to Outlook Express - and make sure you have a copy too.

Be sure to go through everything she will do as her so she won’t get any surprises. Make sure Flash, Java, Quicktime, Acrobat Reader, etc - all those little applets - are all installed and working

It may sound odd, but as she’s on a dial-up line and will have a firewall, you might want to turn off automatic updates and just update her whenever you visit - at least until she’s comfortable or moves to broadband. MS actually do a CD of patches and that might be better for her in the short term.

Lastly, take an image of her setup and copy that to a DVD or HDD so if all goes wrong, you can quickly set her up again.

9

A modern Linux distribution will automount CDs and floppies, and unmount them as well. Just like working in Windows: You click on the floppy icon or the floppy folder, and the system looks to see if theres a media ready to read. If yes, then you get the contents of the media. If not you just get an empty folder. When there are no programs actually accessing data on the media (you’ve closed the “explorer” or left the directory with the floppy folder) then the system unmounts the media for you.

The reason for using linux in the first place is that if you set it up right once, then you won’t have to remote administrate much at all. You may have to help her use the programms, but then you’d have to do that with Windows, too. You also get out of having to fiddle with AV software and spyware worries.

SSH is really a good idea even on dial up. Your “panic button” will have to start the VNC server and poke a hole in the firewall on the VNC ports. You could just leave the VNC ports open, of course. As long as the VNC server isn’t running, an attacker wouldn’t be able to do much with the ports. Can you be sure that your MIL won’t accidentally activate the panic button at some other time? I know I couldn’t be sure about my MIL - then again, I’m not sure she could do anything on a PC at all.

Using ssh, you don’t need a panic button. The port stays open all the time, and you (with you private key) are the only one who can connect to her machine. She just calls or emails you and tells you the problem, and you can connect whenever you are ready to.

Anyway, that’s my take on the subject - as a guy who remote administrates Linux servers and desktop PCs remotely just as described, and whose home office runs only Linux.

10

Personally, I think you’re a saint for doing this for your mom-in-law. You’re also nuttier than a pecan tree. You cannot make a computer bomb-proof. In fact, the more bomb-proof you make it, the more she’s gonna get into trouble. It’s a sorry fact of life.

I base these opinions on experience. I live in the Silicon Valley, my mom lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. My mom has a PhD in biochemistry, with a specialty in analytical biochemistry, which means her work involves using very sophisticated, computer-controlled instruments such as UV spectrophotometers, NMRs, and mass spectrographs. She has, in her day, ordered computers for her entire lab and even re-partitioned hard drives (with my assistance). Yet she still runs into problems with her home computer.

My problem is made worse by the fact that, since she thinks she knows something about computers, she argues with all the advice that I have to give her.

I conclude that the best “customer” for technical support is someone who doesn’t have any pre-conceived notions about how to fix the problem, but is also smart enough to follow your instructions. Unfortunately, this customer does not exist.

Your best bet is to set her up with Windows XP and and VNC server, so you can get onto her machine when you need to. If she’s using AOL dial-up, this will probably run slower than dirt, but what option do you have? I loathe AOL, but I don’t think you have much of a choice.

I applaud the gentleman who had the courage to suggest Linux as an alternative to Mama Gates’ little boy’s Monopoly game for computers. Linux is great. Open source is great. Firefox rocks!

This gentleman is also, in the words of Michael Palin, a “loonie”. Suggesting Linux for your mother-in-law is like suggesting she re-do her house in Danish modern by building her own furniture from scratch. With you as her technical adviser.

Have fun.

:rolleyes:

11

I don’t think you’ve tried a modern Linux setup recently. I’ve got a couple of my customers running Linux for their strictly office type work. I’ve not had a peep out of them since I finished setting them up. Other people who work for the same company have had to call me in numerous times to fix things broke under Windows - not to mention the fellow at the same place who had over 260 copies of various worms and viruses despite Norton AV being installed and active and up to date.

Linux has much to recommend it, especially for those times when you have an inexperienced user and a system setup by someone who knows what he’s doing. You simply set the sytem up, and lock everything down so that the user can’t bugger up the system settings. They can’t break the system, and your problems are tremendously reduced because you only have to deal with application problems like “How do I get my word processor to default to (weird font here)?”
My KIDS use Linux fer christ’s sake, and have no trouble with it because Daddy set it up and locked them out of the system settings. The absolute worst they can do is delete a desktop icon.

Linux is simply the right tool when you need a controlled and remotely administrated system.

Another point in favor of Linux in a home environment is the availability of journalling file systems. These were invented with the thought of security for the data on servers, but they are much more valuable in a home setting. Servers have UPSs and people who know not to just pull the plug when the system is running. Homes don’t have all that. You’ve got little kids who pull plugs just to see what happens. With a journalling FS, you’ll be back up and running almost without noticing that you had a problem. With a non-journalling FS, you are in for a long run of scandisk - and hope it gets all of your stuff back.

Heavens. I setup a Linux workstation in my Father’s office one time just because he had an extra machine laying around. After a while, they noticed that it was the only one that didn’t get all buggered up andlose the internet connection. The two XP machines had to have the DSL connection reinstalled every so often - and they were all running through the same router and the same DSL modem.

12

I love it. It doesn’t try to guess what I want and get it wrong, it just does what I tell it to. It probably would be the easiest thing for your MIL to use, but may be less easy for you to set up if you’re not familiar with the way things are done in Unix-like systems. Sometimes it seems like the sheer number of different distributions and applications available can make choosing the best configuration difficult. Also I don’t know how much help you’ll get from AOL in getting her internet connection set up with Linux.

I would say if you know how to do everything you need to do with XP and you don’t with Linux it makes sense to stick with XP, but DON’T use IE or Outlook. Get her Firefox and Thunderbird, and keep them updated also, as no software is completely bug-free.

13

NTFS is a journaling file system.

14

Yes, and despite this, if you pull the plug during operation, XP will run a long tedious scan disk pocedure at the next reboot. Sounds like MS really knows how to take advantage of journalling.

15

Probably none. Which doesn’t matter. These days, you can setup a plain dialup connection to AOL, and use any IMAP client for email. There’s plenty of info from numerous sources on getting it setup.

16

I’ve had a good few dozen ‘plug pulls’ (actually mains supply glitches), and never seen scandisk on XP at all.

17

Are you sure? I haven’t seen that happen with NTFS partitions. These guys suggest XP will only scan the disk after a crash if a disk write was interrupted, or if the system is using FAT32 partitions.

18

XP will only scan the disk after a crash if a disk write was interrupted which is pretty much guaranteed if you lose power at some random point while using the system.

I’ve seen plenty of disk scans after power problems - a good many of which still left unresolved problems, which I then get called in to resolve.

19

I just dropped in to point out that this thread title would be far more intriguing with the addition of a well-placed comma (a la “eats, shoots and leaves”):

20

If you decide to try Linux, I’d recommend Xandros. It’s got a very user-friendly installation process, and is designed to be familiar to Windows users. I’m a newbie to Linux without a technical background, and I had no problem installing it whatsoever.

Note that there are a number of verions of the product; some of them cost money, but there’s also an “open circulation” edition that is free.