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Yes. Especially in the last 18 months or so. I figure that whatever spam I get is because I’ve one long-standing e-mail address which I either need to shut down and change, or to get some sort of challenge-response system to filter out the bad actors.

I had already migrated our files and e-mails away from Google file storage; when the it which is Google started sending me automated notices that it had found things like driver licenses and passports among my files, that was my exit cue. Because they were obviously trying to stretch the definitions of the words privacy and security well past their breaking points. Google’s initial slogan of “Do not evil” was abandoned at least 18 years ago.

Har, har. Microsoft would only admit what it couldn’t get away with.

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Fred, Alex5723

In a time window from maybe 2019 to 2020 I tried Microsoft Teams twice because I was interested in being accommodating to two companies with whom we wanted to collaborate. Each time I installed Microsoft Teams on my machine I started getting a trickle of phishing e-mails from purported human names and gobble-de-gook email addresses. And Microsoft Teams also failed to work in both instances. I uninstalled it, and will never again install it.

Until several days ago I’d still been fiddling with wonky mouse issues. I’d been using a Logitech wired mouse. The problem was solved by replacing both the mouse and mousepad. In this case, I wanted good precision with minimal effort, So I got this new Logitech G305 mouse to solve the immediate need of having a smoothly-working mouse.

Oh, yeah. I’d already heard about Apple’s mesh network which tracks Bluetooth enabled devices. That sort of tech is a two-edged sword. And, of course, there’d never be any way that corrupt law enforcement or clandestine agents would ever abuse this 😉

Google is an “it”, and it’s support has been both sophomoric and horrible for several years. We had already migrated our files away from Google’s hegemony. Some years ago we also transferred our mail away from its servers. When you have any company scanning your files without your permission, that’s not a company we’d ever be willing to do business with. We trust them with very little, and we trust them with only the things we don’t mind losing access to for a while.

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks

I hadn’t heard about this. Thank you.

So by your reply does that mean they only sell through VARs or Microsoft corporate?

 

James Bond 007 wrote:

Windows 10 1809 LTSC

Might you have a preferred source for that license? I’m seeing prices of $290 for them and there’s no advantage for me in paying that much. For example, I’ve two machines running Office 2019 and each license was $50. Thank you.

For me, your thread is all about dependability and security. So here, in short, is what I’d opted to do:

In the Fall of 2019 I opted to begin using Windows 10 Home on my desktop machine, switching from Windows 7. I didn’t want to have to later hunt down how to keep the Whac-a-Mole of Windows 8.x security updates functioning and I was switching to newer, more powerful hardware. When Microsoft later offered a free Windows 10 Home license for my 2015 laptop I changed that away from 8.x. I avoid using the term upgrade because it almost never means improvements in either dependability or ease of use.

But on those machines I run O&O ShutUp 10++ and I’m happy that stops Microsoft’s telemetries. Its controls are granular, and I only have to set it up once and then leave it alone for a very long time. I use the same definitions file on both machines.

I also use the free 0Patch security product as well as whichever internet security suite I subscribe to. Two separate drive images run automatically every day. If something might go amiss with an OS, I would first restore an image, and then suss out what made the problem happen. I’d be back up and running in less than half an hour.

Windows 10 Home did a full meltdown BSOD crash last October on a perfectly-maintained desktop machine. I wiped its drive and installed 10 Pro for free. But I don’t suggest 10 Pro because a pernicious bug no one has figured out crash-reboots the machine every few weeks. I’d posted about that on this site.

By the time Windows 12.x or 13.x are foisted upon everyone I’ll have a strategy in mind to either skip to one of them, or to instead switch to Mac with an OS which allows me to use either Mac or Windows.

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kandb, Cybertooth

I was thinking similar things to PKCano. I’d be checking the subnet mask especially. One of our printers is an OfficeJet Pro 8035. It connects OK using HP’s Windows app. In the past I’d also made configuration access changes in both our ISP’s gateway GUI and our dedicated firewall’s GUI. If I were you (and I’m not) I’d be ringing up Netgear’s support line. They used to be pretty good, and it’s in their primary interests that you don’t have to spend lots of time on this.

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CADesertRat

I have used HMA VPN and Bitdefender. HMA’s UI and Windows client are very good.

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Fred

Top 10 Nextiva vFax Alternatives & Competitors

Paul T wrote:

I use an offline password store

Yup.

DrBonzo wrote:

I would never store passwords online for exactly the reason you say. It’s not IF a site will be hacked, it’s WHEN.

I’m with DrBonzo on this, and have been for 20+ years.

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Slowpoke47, DrBonzo