Hi :)  

Martin, i wasn't referring to you having bad Cd images, i was referring to the person that seems to have had multiple problems that the rest of us hasn't (or only had in certain unusual cases when doing something quite peculiar).  


I am curious about setting up a login to a Ctirx server btw.  Could you give links or contact me off-list?
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I wasn't aware of the options to over&under clock systems from inside OSes.  I've only ever done that sort of thing inside the bios and by carefully selecting appropriate hardware (well, i have a  colleague who sorts my hardware tbh).  Also i've played around with quite a few fairly low-spec machines but not actual netbooks.  


With regards to supporting other people i tend to find that it really doesn't matter which OS they are given or how much help and advice they are given they somehow always manage to stuff up whichever system they are given.  Of course some few exceptions.  Typically i find the easiest ones to recover from and solve are Ubuntu or other OpenSource systems.  The most intractable ones tend to be Windows systems that have become infected or where the user themselves has managed to actively destroy things.  


Wrt the banking sector's idea of security i have to say that banks seem to have the number 1 most appalling security.  They have insisted on me installing ActiveX and Java in order to use their systems despite many high profile cases of malware and remote attackers using those to compromise systems.  It seems they want me to installing unsafe systems in order to be able to blame me when things go wrong.  If they used the same type of security advice for their physical assets then they would regularly be getting robbed by kids with water-pistols or old men with a bottle-in-a-bag.  It honestly would not surprise me to learn they were using Windows 1998 server (home), unpatched, and with passwords such as "password"


Wrt the virus resetting DNS to Google servers that somehow seems a bit toooo obvious.  The fact that there was a problem was found fairly easily.  Presumably even the weeu (wide eyed end user) noticed their machine was having a problem.  

Also a LOT of times i find that people claim to have become infected by some sort of virus as a way out of admitting they might have done something themselves to create the problem.  It's better than them admitting to having gone to a reported attack site, downloaded something, chosen to run it and ok'd the computer's grumble!  Ok, so i've not found people doing that but they do somehow install all sorts of strange crap and then blame anyone but themselves for having tons of toolbars in their web-browser.  


The only time i have heard of Gnu&Linux servers getting compromised was 

1.  Under coordinated attacks from thousands or millions of machines all at the same time
2.  One network of servers that was left unpatched for 6 years and didn't even have a maintenance chap sweeping away cobwebs between machines!  Not even so much as a reboot or even a glance through their logs.  

On the other hand i have seen people having to reboot Windows servers every few days and keep patched wekly and put a lot of time into dealing with all sorts of petty issues even for a simple internet-gateway, little more than a router really.  


As for Gnu&Linux getting infected it's a relative term.  People i have had to trust have given me infected files which my system remained immune to and oblivious of and then i have passed the file on to other people.  Nowadays i tend to run an antivirus program purely to stop myself accidentally passing on such infected files from other people.  

People such as Google are known to respond quickly if/when problems arise.  They don't spend the best part of 3 years adamantly insisting there is no problem and that you should buy certain stuff to fix it and then finally admit that there was a problem all that time but buying their newer release fixes all that.  


Regards from
Tom :)