Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 221 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#181

Post by cheiVia0 »

Chromozon wrote: post #152
faitswulff wrote: post #8

I was really hoping for a discussion on how to keep parents from watching videos about the healing properties of crystals and government chemtrail conspiracies... ...but to answer your question perhaps you can get your parents a Chromebook? I'm not sure what photo editing options exist on the platform, but hopefully it's an obscure enough platform to avoid the majority of malware.

Related. Conspiracy theory websites are also very dangerous places to browse. My grandfather loves conspiracy theories, mostly the ones related to free energy machines, and he told me some sites that he went to. I was curious so I visited a few of them (using Firefox + AdBlock). This was the first time I actually got a virus just by browsing a site. It used an exploit that bypassed the browser download popup security…

I hope you reported the vulnerability to Mozilla.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#182

Post by hawski »

colanderman wrote: post #173
jdietrich wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And don't tell me about "Google Cloud Print." Cloud Printing requires a PC or Mac connected to the printer and a copy of the Chrome browser running. In this scenario we're trying to replace a PC or Mac, not add to them, so Google Cloud Print is a non-starter. There are a huge number of affordable wifi-enabled printers that support Google Cloud Print. Replacing your existing printer isn't ideal, but it's not a total…

My mom has one of those, a Brother model that loudly proclaims it supports Google Cloud Print. Doesn't work with her Chromebook at all. (Unfortunately we bought it well before she owned a Chromebook so returning is not an option.)

There is API for printers on ChromeOS - printerProvider. There are some apps that use it, maybe something will work for you:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipp-cups-printing-...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wifi-printer-drive...

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#183

Post by sandGorgon »

rovr138 wrote: post #167
sandGorgon wrote: post #166

Use Linux. Seriously. I installed Fedora 24 in my dad's PC and I haven't had a support call in 3 years.

Does he use it? I installed Ubuntu LTS on my mom's. If it weren't for the SSH connection that always calls a server I have and I can use it to log back to her computer, I would have to get a sister to drive there in order to walk me through what she's seeing. With the SSH tunnel, I can just SSH to her computer through my server and fix almost everything.

its brilliant. It has gnome and he loves it - he says its better than hunting through "my programs".

Windows 10 and Gnome have fairly convergent UI. And all the software is already built into Linux

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#185

Post by victorhooi »

gruez wrote: post #146
victorhooi wrote: post #105

I second what some others here are saying - get your parents a Chromebook (or Chromebox if they want a desktop). I got a Dell Chromebook for my mother. It's nigh on unbreakable, and is great for non-tech parents. Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing). It automatically updates in the background (none of that Windows update rubbish), it has inbuilt malware b…

>Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing). doesn't really help when rogue extensions can still do a lot of harm (ie. log passwords)

Chrome extensions are installed via the Chrome Web Store - so much like say, the Apple App Store, you'd need to get it past both the automated checks, as well as the manual checks.

To be honest, I've yet to actually see any rogue extensions on the store - have you seen any?

Furthermore, each time you install an extension, you need to explicitly grant it rights to various things. So there's definitely some user attentiveness needed there, just in case.

But if you want to be heavy-handed (and have GSuite and a Chrome management license) - you can actually set it up so they can only install whitelisted Chrome extensions. So you could whitelist all the common ones you think they'd install, and if they want additional ones, they can request them:

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1375694?hl=en

A lot of corporate/school environments have it setup this way - they whitelist known good ones, and the admin will add more when people request it.

To be honest though, most non-tech savvy parents probably don't need extensions - my mother for one hasn't installed any. The Chrome browser itself covers most of their use-cases.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#186

Post by [deleted] »

quasse wrote: post #174
victorhooi wrote: post #105

I second what some others here are saying - get your parents a Chromebook (or Chromebox if they want a desktop). I got a Dell Chromebook for my mother. It's nigh on unbreakable, and is great for non-tech parents. Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing). It automatically updates in the background (none of that Windows update rubbish), it has inbuilt malware b…

My findings have been that old folks (and even some middle aged folks) are still able to be completely bamboozled by popups on Chromebooks. Those popups that hijack the back button and pop up an alert when you try to close them are enough to get them calling the phone number they see in the window and pulling out their credit card to "have their computer fixed".

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#187

Post by victorhooi »

quasse wrote: post #174
victorhooi wrote: post #105

I second what some others here are saying - get your parents a Chromebook (or Chromebox if they want a desktop). I got a Dell Chromebook for my mother. It's nigh on unbreakable, and is great for non-tech parents. Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing). It automatically updates in the background (none of that Windows update rubbish), it has inbuilt malware b…

My findings have been that old folks (and even some middle aged folks) are still able to be completely bamboozled by popups on Chromebooks. Those popups that hijack the back button and pop up an alert when you try to close them are enough to get them calling the phone number they see in the window and pulling out their credit card to "have their computer fixed".

Yes, it's unfortunate that crooks are pretty creative and will always find a way. I've seen some pretty innovative phishing scams.

However, the Chrome browser uses a Safe Browsing list which blocks many known malware/phishing sites.

https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/

The list is constantly being updated, both by automated and manual means.

You can also submit bad sites here:

https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/... https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?h...

If you find one that isn't blocked, I'd definitely encourage you to do your bit and submit it.

Firefox also uses the same Safe Browsing service:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-m...

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#188

Post by [deleted] »

jff wrote: post #88
jrockway wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things. She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time. Some…

> Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads I'm not even mad, I'm honestly impressed both that your mom went to such lengths and that a website managed to convince a layperson to do such a thing.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#189

Post by victorhooi »

jrockway wrote: post #64
nickcw wrote: post #20

How about a Chromebook? Cheap, keeps itself up to date, fully cloud based. It wouldn't tick the Lightroom box but it does the internet based stuff extremely well with low maintenance.

I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things. She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time. Some…

Wow, that is some seriously impressive social engineering...lol. And some determination from your mother =).

I assume this wasn't a device where she had to open the case and short out some jumpers to enable Developer Mode? =)

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#190

Post by pmlnr »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #32

tldr: Linux. I had more or less the same issue (except things still booted) with my parents about 5 or 6 years ago. In a move I thought was insane, I put them on Xubuntu. I moved them to Mint for a while, but they are back to Xubuntu. It's my preferred distro, and the Ubuntu base (for good support) and XFCE (Windows familiarity) made me comfortable it was Mom and Dad proof. Aside from showing them where things are, t…

Same here.

Give them a Mint with MATE or XFCE; closer to Windows XP than anything else out there. Ublock + Chrome, make sure unattended upgrades are running and they are good to go.

You may want to add a dyndns entry and an ssh running with key-only auth, just in case you need to fix anything remotely for them.

Post reply on HN