Repairs and passwords

[Moederloos]

Which is what eventually happened. I was a little surprised that they require the password for all cases, and that they had no way of dealing with a customer who didn't wish to share his password. And also that, according to them, so few people have a problem with this.

Need to reverse that logic - they "require it" of everyone, since so few people care. If everyone acted as you did, the "requirement" would become less so.
They can test the machine easily enough with a boot disk. Then, they can call you in, let you enter the password, and do the driver updates quickly.
Just the same as the geyser repairman will need to spend an hour or two in your presence, so they should. It is a simple problem of too many people having no interest in their own security.

 

[UnoPanelvan]

Why on earth should I tell them to reformat the drive because my motherboard isn't working?

Only IF you are concerned about your data. As I stated they can if they want to access the data anyway as I can do it. Thus IF they claim it is the hard drive let them reformat rather than give away the password.

 

[BiteMe]

moderloos, you propose a secnario which would work, and which we have done in the past.

but it doesnt translate well when the customer is a few hundred miles away does it.?

so for local computer shops, then that is fine. for the bigger guys, you need an alternative.

so my question is...if you can remove the hard drive because you dont want to hand over a password to a limited user account, then surely you can just remove sensitive data from the machine at the same time? which means you can then give me a password?

disclaimer works like this: i'll do the job to the best standard, i'll test your machine with our test harddrive...it will work here.
if you get it back and it doesnt work at your location then it is a software problem, and as you ddint give us access to the software we were not in a position to guess this would happen, nor could we fix it. you must. (translate that into lawyer speak)

let me expand: you make a limited account, we test under that account, you get yoru computer back, and xyz doesnt work...we ask you do log in under that user account..does xyz now work? why yes...dankie, totsiens, go fix your own software. it does protect us from planks who cant differentiate between hardware and software. if you are different, then we personally dont mind making arrangements for you

 

[Moederloos]

Any account which allows access to the drivers will most likely allow installation of spyware - therein lies the problem.

 

[chiskop]

if you are different, then we personally dont mind making arrangements for you

That certainly wasn't the case where I had to take my pc, and if my not-unreasonable reluctance to share my password had been dealt in a calm and efficient manner, I wouldn't be complaining.

My point is that this is the 21st century - I'm surprised that people in the IT industry take such a lax attitude towards my data.

 

[BiteMe]

@moederloos
ok, so suggest something else? if you dont trust your repair shop then dont send your machine to them, or remove the harddrive. or find another repair shop. it is an open market.

if it is a warrantee issue, then just get them to change the hardware (i.e. motherboard, keep the hdd with you) and sort out software issues yourself, as should be the case.

sounds fair to me?

to speak on behalf of the rest of the population, when they receive their machine back and all the spyware has been REMOVED and so have the virus' and everything is runny well again, well, most of them are delighted.

i promise youw e dont swop spyware....we get so much of it on customers machines that is it now standard procedure to do scans and jsut get rid of it, as people will in anycase claim it wasnt there when they sent it in etc etc bullsh1t bullsh1t.
that is how some people are...scaly...

 

[UnoPanelvan]

people are weird.
you wont believe how weird

Thats true believe me. I recently repaired a desktop PC for a friend. He complained it was too slow and have problems. I found viruses and fixed the unit as well as updated Windows, IE, Media player AVG free and most of his preloaded software (The virus damaged many .exe files.

He took it with a promise he will see me right? and I said OK test and if you are happy buy a bottle of Scotch. A few days later he returned and dropped of the machine. Its still too slow. So checking i found he deleted any file he could find and in doing so not knowing what it is killed windows, it was well stuffed. I reloaded vanilla Windows, IE and WMedia and told him to collect. I told him that is as fast as the computer can be unless he upgrades to a new system. Well he promised he will test it and see me in a few days. That was two weeks ago. I told him now not to bother.

Thats it! No more freebies.

 

[UnoPanelvan]

, then surely you can just remove sensitive data from the machine at the same time? which means you can then give me a password?

In this case the pc is dead, motherboard failure? Easy to test without using the hard drive. But in most other cases you are right. The solution is to cooperate with the client, do what is possible and when you get to the stumbling blocks then discuss with the client on how to proceed to the nexy step.

 

[BiteMe]

also understand there are these things called "laptops" and sometimes the harddrives are not end-user removable.
so like it or not, the hard drive is going with the machine to be repaired...

unopanelvan and the dead motherboard...ok, so you keep the hard drive, we put in a new motherboard, test ok.
send to you, you phone back like a week later and say the spdif is not working.
stalemate....we know it was...you say it isnt...our word against yours..plus a myriad of software clashes that couldve caused it too, either before or after...you either become a charity, or you take a bit of a firm stance and develop policies to work with the customer.

 

[Robin Hood]

Lets put it this way...A geonocologist has to look at a woman's fanny sometimes even though its "private"...same goes for tech's...What you DONT need to give them though, is passwords of anything WHILE in windows ( on average )...ie documents, encrypted stuff...etc etc
The stuff Techs DO need ( sometimes ) is passwords to

1) Enter Windows ( username )
2) Internet Dialup ( for testing lines )
3) Router Pass ( if testing your router )
4) Bios/Cmos Passwords

Also if youre a professional ( as i hope i am ), you dont even bother with the guy's private stuff...In all my years as a tech i can count on my finger how many times ive looked at peoples "stuff"...it just doesnt bug me...My priority is getting the machine fixed...thats it

 

[UnoPanelvan]

also understand there are these things called "laptops" and sometimes the harddrives are not end-user removable.
so like it or not, the hard drive is going with the machine to be repaired...

That for sure, I mean its a warranty repair. Still no reason to access to test whether the motherboard failed.

 

[BiteMe]

ok, you are right, i'll go tell the 80 staff they are unemployed as of tomorrow

 

[diabolus]

And also that, according to them, so few people have a problem with this.

I think this is more a situation where most home users do not password protect their windows to begin with. It's on auto-login anyway.

Either way, what still amuses me is, this is all very windows specific. What is a repair dude gonna do if i put some flavor of Os-X on there, or Gentoo or something they probably haven't seen or heard of...how do they test hardware/drivers then ? Surely they can't rely on a Windows OS [and having the skills to use every other OS] ? What do they do then? Skip the test but charge me the same anyway?

 

[Robin Hood]

Lets put it this way...A geonocologist has to look at a woman's fanny sometimes even though its "private"...same goes for tech's...What you DONT need to give them though, is passwords of anything WHILE in windows ( on average )...ie documents, encrypted stuff...etc etc
The stuff Techs DO need ( sometimes ) is passwords to

1) Enter Windows ( username )
2) Internet Dialup ( for testing lines )
3) Router Pass ( if testing your router )
4) Bios/Cmos Passwords

Also if youre a professional ( as i hope i am ), you dont even bother with the guy's private stuff...In all my years as a tech i can count on my finger how many times ive looked at peoples "stuff"...it just doesnt bug me...My priority is getting the machine fixed...thats it

To add onto this...Most of the time it IS essential to test the computer while the OS is running...Most of the time i restart my machines about 6 times just to make sure everything is A-ok

 

[chiskop]

Which is great, but seeing as the laptop has linux, we're all just kidding ourselves that the techs will actually know what to do once they're in.

Also if youre a professional ( as i hope i am ), you dont even bother with the guy's private stuff...In all my years as a tech i can count on my finger how many times ive looked at peoples "stuff"...it just doesnt bug me...My priority is getting the machine fixed...thats it

Good ...and I'm sure that the vast majority of technicians feel that way. And I'm sure that the vast majority of waiters have no intention of skimming my credit card, but I still prefer not to relax my control of my credit card - why should it be different with my personal data?

Yeah, maybe having passwords might make it easier in some cases, though I'm not convinced that applies in this case. But there was no method for them to gracefully respect my wish not to give up my password, and that is what I have a problem with.

 

[Robin Hood]

Which is great, but seeing as the laptop has linux, we're all just kidding ourselves that the techs will actually know what to do once they're in.

Very true, but i have WINPE which means i can run everything from a CD...no HDD needed...This way i can also check your PC, but unfotunatly not your software...unless youre standing nexto me and guide me through linux as i investigate the prob ( if software was at fault )

 

[chiskop]

Very true, but i have WINPE which means i can run everything from a CD...no HDD needed...This way i can also check your PC, but unfotunatly not your software...unless youre standing nexto me and guide me through linux as i investigate the prob ( if software was at fault )

In which case I'll just do it myself, thanks. I understood that they would not support linux, when I put it on there, and I don't expect them to support it.

All I wanted was for them to replace the (under warranty) motherboard, not to poke around with stuff they don't understand. And I didn't expect an argument about why they had to have my password.

 

[BeVonk!]

I've got MyADSL on auto logon (lazy me). So when a fellow MyADSL addicted techie gets access to my Windows account I may just find myself arguing with myself on this forum . Can be funny ... or not.

 

[BeVonk!]

Re encrypting data on the fly ... what application is best for personal use (considering price, encrypt/decrypt speed, ease of use, secureness)?

 

[diabolus]

Re encrypting data on the fly ... what application is best for personal use (considering price, encrypt/decrypt speed, ease of use, secureness)?

Truecrypt.http://www.truecrypt.org/ It's free and basically instant. You don't decrypt/encrypt like you think [i.e. liking zipping files] . You create an encrypted "container" [i.e. a folder or virtual drive] and you just dump your stuff in it. Basically you have to "open" the container with a password/passkey everytime you want to access the stuff.

It's the easiest way to even password protect your DVDs you burn....

I see they now sell USB drives with truecrypt on it.

Oh and it's indepedent of Windows, i got the same stuff working on Linux.