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Why Me?
By guppygirl from the question of my whole life, department, Section Diaries Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 01:42:59 PM PST Tags: (all tags)

Sorry to have been gone a while. Went away to open up our cottage in The Great White North, came back to find that all of my guppies looked putrid.

Wanted to get into GL, but remembered something had messed up our DSL just before we left, and I couldn't get it to work again. I tried booting it, but after a few times that was pointless, my foot was sore, and it was time to go.

Got a call the day we got home from our relatively new ISP provider telling us that there has been an enormous amount of activity from our address.

Gee, we haven't even been home. Well some kind of virus or hacker was here and turned my computer into a "giant spam machine."

Oh happy joy, why me? Why is it that it always seems that someone sees my id out there and thinks, "Oh, that looks like a challenge, lets see if we can get in THERE!!!"

Seriously, I've got more anti- spam, virus, worm, spy, lurker, trojan, you-name-it-I-got-it, software than the law allows.

You'd think I was guarding government secrets or something. In actuality, I'm too paranoid to even do my income taxes on-line for fear someone would steal our identities.

So, here's my theory, they hack and hack away, and finally get into my system, find that the only "goodies" inside deal with keeping guppies healthy, a youth baseball schedule, and a few "paintings" by my four year old.

So then they get really p---ed off, and wreck my machine.

Anyway, I'm hoping that I've exorcized them again, and now I've added a physical firewall to hopefully keep them out. Somewhere in the back of my head a little voice is saying, "Oh, that's smart, tease them some more."

Well, back to my gups.

I did wind up losing all of the really dark fry, so I'm left with 6 now. Two are really tiny, and I'm not certain that there aren't a few of them who's spines may not be quite straight.
(How's that for a triple negative)

I had moved the mother to another tank, and now this morning I fear she has passed, as I don't see her, and she was looking pretty sickly when we returned. I think that they got some sort of bacterial infection.

Perhaps Miskairal can empathize with me since I fear that when I do keep up with the vacuuming and water changes, as I usually try to before a trip, I only seem to make matters worse.
Reminds me of a Rolling Stones song...

"Here it comes, here it comes, here comes your 19th nervous breakdown...."

Oh, it's so good to be home.

gg
:o)

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Why Me? | 5 comments (5 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Why Me? (none / 0) (#5)
by guppygirl on Tue Jun 07, 2005 at 03:09:32 AM PST

Hi Guys and Gals,

Thanks for the sentiments and suggestions.

I am now the proud owner of my very own router, and the Activity light on my DSL isn't blinking a thousand times a nano-second anylonger.

Thank goodness, they didn't invade my address book, as no one that I know has received any unsolicited e-mails from my address.

Maybe when they saw that my contacts are mostly uncles, Miskairals, and people who have "kids" in their addresses, they thought I don't have enough of a life to bother with. Tee-Hee. ;o)

Seriously, though, I was directed to a Web site that was created by a local computer geek, of the finest kind. He has a segment once a week on a local news station and writes occasionally in our largest newspaper.

His site is www.Securitytango.com, and it is a real life (and computer) saver for many people.

My computer is now fairing better than my gups. I hate to say it, but I think its time to give the final curtain call for the remaining two, and concentrate on the six fry that I have for now.

Seeing that the remaining two are almost two years old, I think they've had a nice long life with me, and shouldn't be left to suffer at this point. I tried adding some Maracyn, but I fear that even that change in their water caused two to kick off during the night.

Well I'll be off to the LFS later to get some supplies to clean things up a bit, and then hope for the best.

Thanks again guys and gals,

gg
:o)

Re: Why Me? (none / 0) (#4)
by miskairal on Sun Jun 05, 2005 at 10:00:15 PM PST

Crikey gg you get me laughing!!

I can just picture a cranky hacker coming across your 4 year old's artwork! and then hitting his/her head in frustration at the guppy information available to them.

If your guppies are dying along with Maggie's what hope is there for the rest of us. If unc;e starts reporting losses I think we should all just give up.

I've just dialled up using my new trial ISP and I only had to click once to get into GL - Yeehaa!! Normally it takes at least 7 clicks on several links and no one can tell me why but I've just proven to myself that it's my old ISP and not my pc. One advantage to having dialup - no hackers would stoop so low :)

Cheers from a temporary lady of leisure
miskairal
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help

Re: Why Me? (none / 0) (#1)
by maggie1270 on Sun Jun 05, 2005 at 06:18:54 AM PST

Welcome back GG,

Before we experienced a severe storm, at work we were told to use to routers and that would keep a lot of that crap off our machines. We also use DSL, so since we are permanently connected to the internet, we shut down every night. Before we started these procedures, I was sitting at my desk writing a list of my to dos for the next day when suddenly my screensaver went off and I saw my cursor moving around looking in my windows folders. I had to fight them but I was able to shut down before they did anything drastic. Hopefully you've cured your situation.

Sorry for your losses.
Maggie

Re: Why Me? (none / 0) (#2)
by angelhologram on Sun Jun 05, 2005 at 02:13:35 PM PST

Sorry for your losses, but as to the internet maybe unplug the phone line from the DSL modem next time you leave town?
*BEFORE you buy fish make sure you understand what "Cycling" a tank means <- quoted from miskaral* ~Trying to make a difference one fish at a time~
[ Parent ]

This time of the year, unplug both the computer (none / 0) (#3)
by unclescott on Sun Jun 05, 2005 at 07:11:14 PM PST

and the phone line to it. Often we remember to unplug the computer and forget the phone line. Next thunderstorm, someone gets a fried computer through the phoneline. :(

I share your distrust of giving financial info on-line anymore GG. A certain amount of shopping is done by calling the 800 phone number and putting my order in there after consulting the site.

Did have to register for the AKA national using PayPal because I procrastinated in registering. A while back, someone tried to use my PayPal account for a $750 purchase and PayPal effectively blocked them. That leaves me verrrrry edgy about putting anything more sensitive than "partially change the water more often" on-line. Surely am grateful to them for their diligence.

Did those spammers use your name or addy in their spamming? That is also one of the things, though a different issue, which drives me crazy. Several of us, on a fishy mailing list since '97, have had our names and e-mail addresses "spoofed" on spam. Indeed two old mailing lists have folded because of invasive spam. Hate to dump all the old addies; unclescott would become unclescott2547372@godzillanet.com ;)

We rolled in from the great crowded East about an hour and a half ago. Good to be back and good to see you back GG. Tomorrow, right after an oil change, must run up to the good soul who is babysitting the convention purchases we (yep, by me AND my bride!) made at the AKA convention. Boy, do I owe that gentleman big-time!

All the best!
unc

[ Parent ]

Why Me? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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