BEWARE ITOK, ITok, or Itok

[gen11]

ITok, or Itok, which appears to be a downloader of Outlook Express and many other computer programs is A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE, who will use phony service contacts to take over your computer and use it for their own purposes. Each time they do "service work" they may be installing a program that will, within hours or a day or two, cause a problem that will have you calling them for more free service. Then they tell you not to move your mouse or use your computer for any reason until the "service work" is done. They kept my computer-ignorant friend's computer tied up for as much as 36 hours, seveal times a week, after charging her $85 to download Outlook Express and provide "free service" for her computer.

They advertise that they are subcontractors for Outlook Express and Comcast (Comcast is her ISP--if yours is XYZ, they'll present themselves as subcontractors for XYZ). COMCAST STATES THEY ARE 100% BOGUS.

[DuckiesDarling]

I wish your friend knew enough to do a simple google search and check out prospective companies. Plenty of links pop up about the scam.

[roy m cox]

this is why i tell all my friends not to put any thing important on their computer like cell ph# ss# credit card# cuzz fake company like to look around in you'r pc and get info on you or like what happened to a friend of mine got a nasty p0rn down loader and ended up getting some very illegal p0rn:eek: on his mac that he was always bragging about , so i help all my friends with their pc's or mac's , i hope others will do like me and just help any one they can with their computer problems like i do ..

[baddogma]

I had Comcast for about 3 years and when my computer got a virus on it I called the Utah Comcast tech support guys and they said that they had a partner company that could help protect my computer, and they sent me to Itok. I have been using itok for about a year now I have even been to their office here in Utah. Real nice people, but I do have to agree that some times it takes to long to fix my computer. But I trust them, and I love the tuneup they do on my computer every 3 months.

[void()]

In my humble view a suggestion of using Debian (http://www.debian.org/) or Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) as an operating system make sense. Evolution (http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/) email is very similar to Outlook and will operate in nearly any Linux variety, if not all. Evolution is also available for Windows. I use Thunderbird (http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/) and even did so two years ago in Windows. Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/) is a roughed in Windows replacement desktop environment you can use in Linux. There are other (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Home) desktop environments as well if Gnome doesn't grab you.

On the downside me and the wife are finding a few things which don't work with Linux. Netflix allows users to download movies via Nintendo Wii, which uses Linux as an operating system, but won't let you do it in straight Linux on a personal computer. And a Hughes net, a satellite internet service provider won't cooperate with Linux. Comcast runs to all but two miles of our home. we can watch the cable end out the road a piece. They would need enough demand to consider running more cable a viable option.

Those downsides are few and far between, though. Linux does really well for general purpose use, and it has capacity for so much more. We've yet to plumb the depths as we had done in Windows. Left Windows because it kept breaking, you can not fix it without lawyers and generally tired of being told what you could and could not do with your own computer.

Tired of viruses. Been in Linux two years and so far, there is a possibility I may have stumbled on one, even then we're considering it may have been me toying around and not a virus. You have to have an idea of what you do in Linux. I often forget reading man pages, or manuals and try it out for myself. Which often is alright. But sometimes it might bite you back. It happens, no big deal. You just reload your operating system quick as a whistle and back at it.

And no, you don't really need to use a command line. It is recommended you at least get used to command lines, though. Linux works faster in command lines, and offers lots of neat toys in command line. :) But you can get by for the most in a graphic interface.

Me and wife even play a game over our Lan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network). We couldn't do that over Windows. And the game is a moderately graphic one, real time strategy. Wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org/) is the one we like. Reminds us of Heroes of Might and Magic. And we could even play others via the internet. So far we're still in the learning stage.

And with using Linux, almost all software is free, as in free beer and free speech. There are usually message boards for users, or mailing lists, or irc chat rooms, or FAQ pages, or all of the above. And most free support options do offer good solutions. You may need to look a little bit, see Google, but you can normally find help in minutes. the help is nearly always free, too.

You may need to post an error log, for developers, but that isn't much trouble and most devs will guide you how to do it. Linux and it's programs are constantly developed. But understand newer versions may not always be better. Devs and users on forums, lists, irc can give you a better guide. The community is welcoming, too. Just make an effort to find a solution, then ask for help if that doesn't. See How To Ask Questions The Smart Way (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html) for a guide on how to merge into the community.


Rebooting is a thing of the past, too. I think I've rebooted maybe once this week. That was simply because I felt it safe to do after a system upgrade, to help reset permissions and flush memory. I have gone a month without rebooting, though. You just don't need to do it in Linux.