Got net connection

Finally, got the net connection at home ! Had to shell out a bit, but, in exchange, got a 256 kbps, unlimited connection . Downloading debian cds right now.

Also got the first taste of spyware and adware. Connected to the net without any firewall installed. Just out of curiosity, checked the list of tasks running in the pc, and was surprised to find tasks like “Internet Optimizer”, “Search assistant”, etc running in the pc. I fail to understand what sort of an optimization it was doing since the only effect i noticed was, ironically, a drop in the network throughput.

Spent a painful 3 hours cleaning up the pc. Started off by installing spybot and adaware. Then had to make several forays into “Safe mode”, “Safe mode command prompt” and “Safe mode with networking”. Finished off by installing sygate (a free personal firewall) and avg anti-virus. A virus scan revealed a few more unwelcome guests : trojans. Sigh ! And to top it off, every time I log in, I have to manually kill and restart explorer to see the start menu !!

Anyway, PC is in pretty decent shape now. Bought diablo 2 yesterday. Have to log into battlenet tonight. Gotta talk TK into joining me for a multiplayer game.