Re: [Nolug] Why windows must die

On Wednesday 19 November 2003 08:34 pm, John Souvestre wrote:
> I did an ADSL install about a month ago. The company's computer consultant
> was there. He had set up the router and LAN for them. Within 1 minute of
> my connecting the modem to the router the workstation he was using got
> blasted. I turned off the modem right away, but it was too late. Out of 4
> computers at the office, that one and another one were infected.
>
> While this is due to a Microsoft bug, it was also due to:
>
> 1) Not applying patches which had been available for about 6 months.

Of course, you have to get onto the internet to get the patches, so it's a
catch-22. This is what a Linux box is for.

>
> 2) Not turning on the firewall in XP.

Does this really work? Comments I've heard have been all over the map.

>
> 3) Setting up the router with no form of NAT or other protection. They
> needed public IPs for each machine because of some #$%$^& finance program
> they used remotely.
>
> Fixing any one of the above would have blocked blaster. So I can't blame it
> ALL on Microsoft. ;-)

They just make it sooooooooooooooo easy. It's like leaving a pile of cash
on the porch behind a screen door. The result is just as inevitable.

The VM was a brand new install from the CD, hours old. True, I probably
should have run windoze update and let it run all night. Maybe because
I'm running Linux I'm just used to being as unconcerned as a wolf in a herd
of sheep, instead of being exceptionally wary as one of the windoze sheep
in a pack of wolves. This is what being in a hurry with windoze gets me.

A do-over.

Andy Johnson

>
> John
>
> John Souvestre - Southern Star - (504) 888-3348 - www.sstar.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nolug@joeykelly.net [mailto:owner-nolug@joeykelly.net] On Behalf
> Of Andrew S. Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 8:09 PM
> To: nolug@joeykelly.net
> Subject: [Nolug] Why windows must die
>
> I've been spending the last few hours trying (in vain) to get my
> company's VPN software to connect from an XP pro VM.
> In desparation, I set the VM to a static IP address, and set it
> to a DMZ host from the firewall in order to see if it would connect
> at all. Less than a minute after that, I got a popup with an RPC
> error, and the system was shutting down. I got msblasted in less
> than a minute on the internet. I didn't even have time enough
> to download any patches. Truly, Microsoft represents the
> decline and fall of western civilization.
>
> Windows must die,
>
> Andy Johnson

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Received on 11/19/03