Any other geeks in this thread ever realize that you’ve spent the last half hour of dinner with your family talking about some aspect of computers in exteme technical detail they neither understand nor care about and that they are currently looking at you as if you have sprouted not only a second, but a third head?
I was hoping it wasn’t just me.
It’s gotten so bad that my mom said if I ever say something like ‘But if you use Frequency Division Multiplexing…’ again she’s going to stuff a raw potato in my mouth to shut me up.
I just don’t know why she thinks it’s rude for my best friend and I to start arguing over whether it’s better to use a high level language or assembly for coding a low-level network application over serial connection. She keeps telling me that ‘normal people’ don’t care about the inablity to transfer asm code cross platform.
She’s probably right, considering that Dad’s eyes glaze over and Grandma starts to drool every time IRQs come up. :dubious:
(I’m so much a geek that I have a Y2K Approved sticker on my Beetle.)
(I’m so much a geek that I can explain at length and with detail the difference between … no, wait… )
(I’m so much a geek that I know how not to start Holy Wars.)
Eve: For the purposes of keeping instructions coming from one and only one person, in reference to catsix’s post starting “Next week, Jeff, we’ll play ‘Fun with ipconfig /all’”, it’s all correct, but not especially useful, at this moment, though it does show you what to expect. Furthermore, you have been introduced to a fun lesson in fixing things. When fixing something… don’t wander off and mess with other things till the first thing’s fixed. In this case, we were trying to clean the virus. The next stage after that is preventing future viruses. The next stage after that is improving system security… which is when we’d deal with the firewall.
Catsix, any other thoughts on what she could have done with that firewall? I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing I am, thrashed DNS or gateway, it’s probably pointing to Zone Alarm’s proxy or some darn thing like that.
(I’m so much a geek that I know how to get in contact with E. Gary Gygax… and sometimes have him answer)
(I’m such a geek that my Batman Number is 2. I know a person who has appeared in a book with Batman.)
A half hour? You can get to extreme technical detail in only a half-hour? It takes me a couple hours to get to the extreme technical detail level. I guess I could jump straight in to talking about Collision Detection/Collision Avoidance schemes and their various merits, or the beauty of phase division multiplexing, or computers based on trinary arithmetic(or my personal favorite, analog computers), but what would be the fun in that? You lose your audience immediately. Start at a level they can understand so they feel they have some investment in the conversation and they stay in it well beyond the point where the comprehension fails. THAT is how you mess with the heads of non-techies. Where’s the :evil: smilie when you need it?
See, it’s just like listening to Russian people talk to each other on the subway. I don’t understand a single word, but they are such entertaining sounds!
E-Sabbath, I do figure that her either the DNS or the default gateway are now pointing to incorrect locations, possibly because of the addition of the Zone Alarm firewall.
I haven’t worked with Zone Alarm in a while, but from what I remember the general mode of operation for it is to disallow everything and then give the user a bunch of pop up messages that say things like “Microsoft Internet Explorer is trying to communicate with the outside world. Do you wish to allow this?”
It could well be that ZA is denying traffic for services that are necessary but not things that a relatively non-techy computer user would know the names of, and thus say ‘I have no idea what that is, so don’t allow.’
At this point, having not installed ZA to try to duplicate the problem, I’d venture that it is more likely an issue with the DNS or default gateway, and if destinations are reachable by IP but not hostname, more likely that DNS is the culprit.
I’ll be installing ZA and trying to duplicate the problem.
Catsix: Which means that the dialup solution should work, as it’s going over a different connection… I suspect only the existing NIC connection would be borked. It also means that a simple reconfigure of the NIC in question should fix things, unless the cable modem is USB based, in which case weird things could happen. Or it could just be that the modem is confused to heck from the multiple refusals, and the powercycle’ll wake it up. What I’m most concerned about is a situation I once ran into with NetNanny, which actually replaced part of the TCP/IP stack. I don’t think Zone Alarm does that, though.
Eve: Looks like we’re seeing eye to eye here, follow the above suggestions and report back to us. We’ll have the old girl all ticky-boo in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
That I know of, ZA does not replace any part of the TCP/IP stack. There is apparently a setting in ZA where on High Security you have to allow DHCP/DNS traffic, and that’s on the Firewall tab under Advanced.
I’m not entirely sure how Eve’s cable modem is set up, but it could also be a situation similar to my DSL router in which the DSL router itself is the DNS server, and in that case when I get DNS problems it means the router’s got to be rebooted.
I have had freaking nightmare problems with a USB cable modem on one of my client’s computers, where no matter what fixes were tried, DNS was totally hosed. I finally abandoned the USB connection and went with good ol’ UTP. Problem instantly solved.
If this is a DNS issue, and it is with the cable modem box itself and not a DNS server over at the ISP, then dialing up should fix it, as that would use a different host adapter and a different DNS server. In that case, you know that the problem exists between the NIC and the cable modem box. Sounds like something very reasonable to try.
Okay, I clicked the link, saw what it was and closed the page. However, when I did my nightly SpyBot run, it found an “ET call home” kind of thing with the name “Eliza”, which I promptly deleted. Then, I did my daily update the virus software thing and when I ran it, it came up with four infected files which were all a part of the IRC//flood.cs virus—in other words, my computer was set up to be used for whatever nefarious purpose by some remote degenerate. I might have been spamming my heart out last night without knowing it. Maybe it was all a big coincidence.
And, I am not blaming Finagle so please don’t think I am. I would be curious to know if anyone else had anything similar.
Eve, I will give you one word of advice: Take a beginners computer class- even if you’ve been using computers for a while now. The knowledge you’ll take away will be really valuable to you, and will likely help increase your confidence with the computer and the lingo associated. If you’re unclear on the concept of “click” and “right click”, there were some fundamental basics missed in your learning the first time around. That’s OK, but the sooner it’s fixed, the easier it will be for you to work with them in the future.
If you don’t want to take a class, there are some excellent beginners books out there that would help a lot.
And for what it’s worth, a basic class should also teach you what you need to know for basic security of your computer, how to run updates and keep things running, etc.
If you ever have questions about that stuff, let me know and I’d be happy to help you out, in terms that make sense suzette100@yahoo.com
I’ve been resisting the temptation to post this, but it may at least prove that matters could be worse:
The Jargon Dictionary is a lexicon of the Hackish dialect, complete with explanations of the hacker styles of speech and writing. The stuff nongeeks hear from IT folks is only the tip of the iceberg.
Just for Eve, it also includes the occasional historical snippet about famous (for hackers) people. It’s the most fun you can have reading a dictionary.
I have the odd feeling Eve didn’t get anything done last night.
Yep, we had fun over here, too. So, we’ll keep working on this, and see what happens.
Catsix: Yep, USB means bad things happens unless you have fun with deleting enough of the driver to reinstall. Remember, Eve seems to have uninstalled Zone Alarm somehow.
Eve: Are you sure you uninstalled Zone Alarm? Start, settings, control panel, add/remove programs. Check to see if Zone Alarm is listed. Uninstall it if it’s listed. If not, it’s good.
And don’t forget: If you have a modem, it’s really worth trying to see if you can dial up with it. Ask Comcast for instructions.
Eve, I second the suggestion that you take some time to educate yourself about computer basics. You don’t need to know the nitty-gritty, but not knowing what right-click is is the equivelant of somone owning a car and not knowing how to lock the doors, or calling the clutch “the middle pedal”. Knowing the basics will make it easier for people to be able to help you with the nitty-gritty.
Here are two other things to consider for future situations that might arise.
Cablemodems rock However, I have found that having an old modem and free-internet account has saved my ass occasionally. You don’t need to have them installed or anything, just worth having in your computer toolbox.
Another thing worth considering is choosing a friend or doper that you trust (really, really trust) both in terms of their computer knowledge and general integrety, and using the built in windows function of “Remote Assistance” with. This would basically give them complete controll of and access to your computer over the internet. While they would be able to fix your problems, they would also (depending on the set up) be able to copy your documents, look at your internet bookmarks, total your whole computer, etc, hence the trust issue.
For the geeks: Eliza was the first thing I thought of when I read that too I have Eliza in my cellphone, and also as an NPC on the mud I play, much fun is to be had by putting two of them in a room and letting them loose on eachother!
E-Sabboth and catsix are correct about the Zone Alarm. All though I would not uninstall it. I’ll bet that when the popups came up the answer supplied was ‘No’.
As long as Eve did not check the little box saying that she wanted Zone Alarm to remember her answer, it will ask again.
I know that DNS activity and svchost.exe activity is monitored by Zone Alarm and it will ask if you want to let it access the internet. It will aslo ask if you want it to act as a server.
Sounds to me like this is the cause of her inability to access the net.
To scan your ports and make sure you are safe. When you get on the net. Go to http://www.grc.com click on Shields Up. There are a few other tools on his site that you may find informative.
Damn, that’s pretty geek there Hoopy Frood. You’re one of maybe 10 people who won’t ask me ‘What does that stand for?’ and look incredulous until I just say ‘It’s a computer thing.’
