...easy Solution For Computer Illiterates

[TCH-Thomas]

My mom and her guy got their first computer a while ago.

On this computer which was a gift from us kids in the family, I installed AVG antivirus and Zonealarm firewall and configured it so they should not have to worry about clicking buttons they don´t understand. However, last time I was at their house I found out that there was new versions of these programs to download. I downloaded them and installed them. They are on dial-up, so the download took time but since I thought all settings was gonna be saved I skipped checking the settings after installation.

 

Yesterday my mom calls and says there are popups all over the screen. Since their english isn´t good (see below), my mom ended up angry on herself, since I had problems understanding her and she had problems understanding me since all these popups was a blur to her.

 

My problem is that I live 2 hours drive from them so any questions & problems that they have must usually be dealt with over the phone.

 

They are computer illiterates and their english is limited to yes, no and hello.

 

So now I want to find a antivirusprogram and firewall that more or less takes care of itself but still doing its job good.

 

If the configuration is on a more advanced level, that will be no problem but after configuration is done the programs must be able to work on their own without popups, warnings or decisions to make for the user.

 

Now you wonder why I ask this since most of the usual programs can do this and can easily go to the closest store and buy one.

My problem is that they don´t wanna spend too much money on this since they don´t use it that often. Its more of a games and email computer for them than surfing the internet.

Second, I think we all sometimes only have the big programs in mind while there might be other free or low cost alternatives that might be better for people like my mom and her guy.

Third, I really don´t know which programs might be best for their conditions.

 

Requirements for both programs:

Easy to use meaning it take care of itself or can speak swedish.

Running on Windows ME.

Free or low cost.

 

Any ideas appreciated.

[wampthing]

I've had the same problem with parent that live in GA. I have had them get a www.logmein.com account (free). This probably wont work for you as they are on dial up, but for me it allows me to take control of their computer without having them understand anything. Then I can fix the problem from the other side of the US.

[Madmanmcp]

Thomas, first of all Antivirus and a Firewall will not stop the popups, you need to either purchase a popup blocker or get the updates for IE which block them...or use a different browser

 

The only sure way to protect them from the Internet is to disconnect them from the Internet.

 

So now I want to find a antivirusprogram and firewall that more or less takes care of itself but still doing its job good.

 

Most Antivirus programs now have auto-update features that will check to see if updates are available and automatically download if there are. I don't use AVG so can't say if that one does or not, but McAfee and Nortons do this.

 

As for updates to a Firewall...a firewall is a firewall and does not need "updates" like another program, there could be a software update but there is no auto-download feature.

 

I would suggest you add two or more additional programs, a Spyware program like Spybot and a Ad blocker like Adaware.

[TCH-Thomas]

Some clarification from me...

 

What I ment with popups is that zonealarm asks my mom if she wants to allow blah blah to enter the internet. Atleast that is how I understood her being the problem.

As for firewalls not needing updates. My norton asks all the time if I want to update this and that, and I think in my moms case that might be one of the issues, but I am not sure.

 

As for spybot, yes that is on my install list next time I see them.

[youneverknow]

I use the free version of Avast anti virus. You might want to check it out here

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Here is a quote from their site: "Automatic updates are another key point in virus protection. Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, i.e. only the new or missing data are downloaded, thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a virus database update are tens of KB, the program update usually has hundreds of KB.

 

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically in fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

 

Having the up-to-date virus database and antivirus program all the time - it is the most certain way to protect your computer. "

youneverknow

[Madmanmcp]

What I ment with popups is that zonealarm asks my mom if she wants to allow blah blah to enter the internet.

Ok, I understand now

 

This is a "feature" of ZA that allows you to allow or deny Internet Access for any program that attempts to do so. Once you answer this once for each program it does not return. So this should be an easy fix...just answer for all the possible program and the popups will stop.

 

As for firewalls not needing updates. My norton asks all the time if I want to update this and that, and I think in my moms case that might be one of the issues, but I am not sure.

 

Nortons is a collection of programs and a firewall is just one of them. The updates you are seeing is for the Virus program and is part of the auto-update feature I mentioned. I think the popup is giving you the option to update now or later, so if you are busy and do not have the time to wait for the download you can skip it and do it later. I would suggest that you just explain these to mom and dad and tell to just accept them all the time. Once completed the popup will go away.

[TCH-Bruce]

I use AVG and it updates automatically. It does toss a pop-up on the screen while it's doing it though.

[Madmanmcp]

I use AVG and it updates automatically. It does toss a pop-up on the screen while it's doing it though.

 

Thanks, the popup is a "feature"

[newhorizonz]

Hi

 

I have used logmein.com on my son's dial-up connection and connected successfully from a broadband connection to sort out his problems so it might be worth installing that.

 

Also Avast! has worked really well for him and updates on its own.

[Samrc]

Used AVG for over a year on the old ME machine and it worked great until I brought in the newest version (7) of the free program. The new version seems to be buggy with lots of extra popup notices and other strange things like the database is out of date, etc. Would not recommend the latest version of the software till they get some things straightened out!

 

ZoneAlarm only pops when a new program it does not recognize asks for access. Once you check the box to remember, it will not pop again. It's a no-hands software that really works well!

 

-Samantha

[TCH-Bruce]

Yes, it's version 7 with the popups. I don't mind them. Let's me know it's working.

[TCH-Thomas]

Thanks everyone.

 

However, now I have one problem though.

All these seems to be great suggestions, but (there´s always a but ).

All these have these choices the user needs to make after configuration is done, example zonealarm needs to know if blahblah is allowed to use internet. What I would need is program where I can do that before mom is allowed to use the computer again (pretty much like nortons scan for programs that needs internet for any reason) or that they speak swedish which unfortunately none of these suggestions do.

[Siberian H.E.A.T.]

Thanks everyone. 

 

However, now I have one problem though.

All these seems to be great suggestions, but (there´s always a but ).

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Here is a suggestion, and is how I usually set up low-tech folks.

 

Avast! anti-virus is a one-time install and self-updates (AVG used to be the same way, but haven't used them since starting using Avast a year ago). This takes care of Virus protection and is hands-off from there. It will occasionally need to reboot, but is never mandatory... It also hooks into email (such as Outlook) to protect from that as well. AVG did the same thing. Both are free! Avast has support for Finnish...which suggests that someday it might support Swedish.

 

Install Spybot Search and Destroy, then update it to the latest version. Also make sure you hit the immunize option. This will prevent all kinds of malware from squeaking by and it will prevent them from "accidentally" going to many redirected sites. If you turn off the Tea-Timer option (a good option, but it does pop up every now and again asking for user intervention), the user should never know this program is running, except you will know they are protected. I wish it auto-updated, but unfortunately it does not...still this will give good protection on this account. You can update whenever you visit. This program is also available in Swedish!

 

Install pop-up stopper free edition. This will keep all those pop-ups from showing up (the annoying ads). However, you will have to explain to your Mom that if she finds a page she WANTS to see, and it is a popup, she will have to hold down the CTRL key to allow that popup. Just configure this software not to report anything and you can do 99% of your surfing without ever even knowing it is running.

 

Regarding ZoneAlarm, like others have said it does have a few popups at the get-go, but afterwards it lays pretty low. I'm not sure what else you could do on a dial-up line (it would be easy if she had broadband as you could simply throw in a router and do NAT). If you are worried about it, just sit down and surf the web for a while, do a few downloads, hit some secure sites, ftp, and so on. That should take care of most of the "normal" popups that show up (it is looking for ports to open or close). Also, be sure to check out the options as there is probably a way to either deny all or accept all, or suppress those popup messages.

 

I also disable the popup blocker in XP SP2 and depend solely on Popup-Stopper and have never had a problem. You can also look into the Firewall option in XP SP2 if your mom has XP? It might be less intrusive than ZoneAlarm.

 

Hope some of this helps. These options should MINIMIZE user interaction.