Computer? Whats a computer?

I was taught by my parents to show kindness and help your neighbors. After my current interactions with my neighbor, I might have to re-think that idealistic concept. My car has custom license plates with the word ‘PC-Doc’ imprinted on it. Well my neighbor saw this and knocked on my door one night. They asked if I fixed computers and I told them that I was a Network Engineer but asked “what was the problem they were having?” After hearing her reply I said I would drop by since it sounded like a spyware / virus problem. I loaded Adaware, Spybot and AVG Anti-Virus onto a USB thumbdrive and went over. Once I got there the machine was infested with viruses and spyware. The file / registry key count was in the thousands. I spent an hour and cleaned the system out for them. They then asked how much they owed me for the service and I did the neighborly thing and told them not to worry about it. I also told them to do themselves a favor and purchase Symantec AntiVirus and a Linksys DSL/Cable router since their cable modem was directly attached to the workstation. Well they didn’t listen to me about the router and I have since had to pay them two more visits. They have now turned into the bane of my existence. Looking back at things now I should have charged them my regular rate of $150 an hour and they would have thought twice about asking me again for help. Since I was kind and helped them, I am now their personal computer guru (pulls hair out of head just thinking about it). Take a tip from your uncle Doc, avoid helping out friends and neighbors with computer problems unless you truly want to have the little personal time you have for yourself stripped away.

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