Once again, a word about your kids

Just so you know I'm not making this up, read this link and this one.

Today I saw a client who's grown son (who works with computers all day) decided to get his mom all set up by installing a heavy duty firewall and security package on her computer.

After installing the program he left back to his home abroad. Soon after she started to lose her dial-up Internet connection. It would connect, but the firewall and security wouldn't let her visit any websites.

Since that time, I am the second computer guy to work on this problem. The last guy charged her $60 (for an hour) and didn't fix the problem. When she called him back he said that he was sorry and he would be willing to only charge her $50 per hour.

When I got there, I tried (as the past guy had done) to remove the security package. The son had put the user name and password to remove the security system on the desktop in a text file. The text file had been deleted and now no one knows the password.

There was nothing I could do. I am going to have to reformat the computer because it is easier and faster to erase and start over than it is to snoop around for a back door that lets me remove the firewall.

In the end, my advice still applies: Don't let your kids fix your computer -- no matter how old they are or who they work for.

As for firewalls on dial-up Interent connections, see my column in tomorrow's newsletter.

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