I feel like the victim of a happy set of circumstances that has left me with too much life and too little time.  Regular blog posting has been a casualty in recent weeks.  I’m moved to write this post by a painful and somewhat embarrassing experience that ambushed me last week.

In a vain attempt to multitask, I wasn’t paying enough attention when I tried to open what I thought was a  legitimate link to a video that had been sent to me on Facebook by a trusted friend.  The friend is indeed trusted, but the link was NOT legitimate, and it had not been sent intentionally.

The net result was that I installed a vicious worm on my XP Pro system.  As a result of this malicious intruder, any time I clicked on a search result (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc), my browser would be redirected to an advertising site.  The same thing happened when I tried to go to blogs in my Google Reader.  To make  a bad situation worse, the worm also disabled some of the anti-spyware protection on my computer.

The very worst of it, however, was that although I was able to get rid of the worm by using standard anti-malware software, I was not able to repair the damage.  I could not get my searches and my Google Reader to function properly  To say the least, this was frustrating; and it was costly in terms of my time!

That’s my cautionary tale.  Now for the happy ending and a tribute to the wonderful people who facilitated it.

I wasn’t aware of Geeks to Go! until I went in search of help with my Google redirect problem, but I’m extremely glad that I discovered this amazing community!  Someone in Dublin, who goes by the name of Rorschach112, and who is a “moderator” with Geek University (Geek U), provided me with exactly the help that I needed in order to restore my system to normal.

The fix required a complex multi-step process, but the instructions were detailed, clear, and ultimately successful.  I  was also impressed by the fact that the personal response to my query on the appropriate Geeks to Go forum came just a few hours after I posted about my difficulty.

A brief exploration has revealed that Geeks to Go! is an online community that offers support  on its forums for all manner of software and hardware issues.  Here’s how they put it in their own words:

Geeks to Go offers free, quality technical support, in a non-technical way. We take pride in being a friendly, family site, that’s accessible to all.

It turns out that Geek U, which is part of Geeks to Go!, offers free intensive training in the “techniques and tools of malware removal”.  Graduates of the training are expected to “pay it forward” by offering help on the forums of Geeks to Go!. Volunteers are encouraged to apply, but I could find absolutely no evidence of soliciting for financial support anywhere on the site.

I love the concept of Geeks to Go!– a community of people who help other people, just because they want to!   On the basis of my initial experience with them, I can’t recommend Geeks to Go! highly enough.

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