I'm not going to tell your kids what to do but...

I had one of my longest appointments ever today as I cleaned a computer free of almost 15,000 viruses, setup a network, installed a wireless card, removed bad security software and replaced it with AVG, did troubleshooting on a fax machine problem and installed Firefox.

I even left for lunch and to another appointment for a while. The appointment took 5 hours not counting virus scans (I went to lunch and another appointment once I saw that there were more than 500 viruses.)

Of course my client was curious how so many viruses got on the computer. I had to explain that it was all caused by infected files that were downloaded through a file sharing program.

It always makes me a little uncomfortable to explain to people that their kids are illegally downloading music and movies etc. Then further explain that it is this same activity that is infecting their computer and causing 95 percent of the computer's problems.

People always get a little frustrated by my answer when they ask what they should tell their kids, spouse or whoever may be the culprit.

I try to avoid the question because I don't consider it my job as the computer guy to tell people what policies they should setup for their kids. So, I just tell them flat out - "this" is what's causing the problem, it's up to you how you want to manage it.

I don't think that appliance repair guys ever have to give parenting advice, so why should I?

Telling people that their kids are bringing in viruses by downloading illegal music is only slightly uncomfortable. The real tough part is when I can tell that a computer is running slow because one spouse or the other is visiting porn sites (which I should clarify was not the case at this particular appointment). I never know quite how to handle that one. I really consider it none of my business even though it is my business, technically.

I have said it before, being an on-site computer guy is a strange and wonderful business. You never know what you will see from day to day.

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