Computer/Internet Nightmare (Hope someone can point me in the right direction)

[Tax Prep by Deb]

Ok, so to keep from having possible computer problems this year, I went out and bought a brand new machine with Windows10 Pro.  Within less that a month I opened a stupid email that turned out to be a virus. Shut the computer down immediately sent it in to my repair guy who wiped the hard drive and re-installed Windows.  Everything was going great but starting at about the same time I got it back up and running I started having issues with my Internet service (I originally blamed it on the weather because we have had a tone of rain this year), kept calling AT&T out who would do their testing and originally showed some problems, corrected the problems and everything seemed fine for two to three days, then Internet bogged down to a crawl, never dropping, but definite slower than slow.  I called them again and again, until the tech told me to have the computer itself looked at because if I disconnected it from the Internet service would restore and speed was where it should be, plugged the computer back in and it bogged down again.

So my computer guy checked some things and found no error log, checked router and modem and nothing, finally looked and found that Windows 10 was trying to download the anniversary update which is a huge download and his thought was that each time I would restart the computer it would stop the download and my bandwidth would be restored only for it to bog down again when the download resumed.  He suggested bring the machine in to him and he would let it download on his internet which was much faster than mine, and in the meantime I could shop for better service.  That was two days ago and he is having problems getting it to download as well.  He did say he is getting error messages, but as of yet I still don't know what's going on, except I have not been able to work for the past two days.

Has anyone else had a problem with the anniversary update?  As far as that goes, I think since I got it back in January I have only had one update, didn't really think much about it till the other day, so something is blocking the downloads.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  I hope he can spend more time on it today and get it fixed.

[rfassett]

I don't know if it is offered, but I would suggest getting the biggest fastest internet connection available.  I did that reluctantly a few years ago.  Reluctant because I was not convinced it would make much of a difference.  I was wrong and haven't looked back.  When bigger and faster becomes available now, I am on the list to automatically upgrade.

I do not know anything about Windows 10.

I hope things work out for you - sooner than later!  Good luck!

[Tax Prep by Deb]

Definitely upgrading Internet speed.  My tech guy says that will take care of the bog down problem, however still can't get the computer to download and install the anniversary windows 10 upgrade.

[BulldogTom]

Deb,

I have AT&T as well and it has been spotty to downright bad for the last 2 months.  But I don't have Win10.  I still use Win7Pro.

I looked at cable internet and nearly choked on the price.  I am going to have to wait for it to go on sale. 

Good Luck getting this fixed.

Tom
Newark, CA

 

[rfassett]

12 minutes ago, BulldogTom said:

Deb,

I have AT&T as well and it has been spotty to downright bad for the last 2 months.  But I don't have Win10.  I still use Win7Pro.

I looked at cable internet and nearly choked on the price.  I am going to have to wait for it to go on sale. 

Good Luck getting this fixed.

Tom
Newark, CA

 

I have cable internet and it is mixed in with our six land lines and our 888-number and our television (I need that to watch my sports without bogging down my computer) and our static ip address.  I have chosen to not even look at the bill - I just write the check.  I would rather give up a couple of lunches every week to not be frustrated with slow internet.

[Tax Prep by Deb]

I too am going cable.  Been with AT&T for years.  My price is only going up  10.00 per month for 12 months then I will relook at it.  Currently at 3.0 MBPS to 200MBPS so hoping for the best. 

[BulldogTom]

The 40% price increase from AT&T made me go look at cable, but I quickly closed the browser when I saw what Comcast wanted. 

Tom
Newark, CA

[Eric]

If your computer guy hasn't tried it yet, I would suggest going to the Microsoft website and downloading the Anniversary Update update disc image, and installing it offline instead of letting Windows Update do it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-windows_install/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-anniversary-update/fab99802-4358-49d9-8278-e9664cd56311

[michaelmars]

its way too important to be down this time of year, for $500 or less I would buy a new machine [maybe with win7] and this way you can still work and have a back up.  Whenever I upgrade I keep the previous machine handy "just in case"

[Tax Prep by Deb]

23 hours ago, Eric said:

If your computer guy hasn't tried it yet, I would suggest going to the Microsoft website and downloading the Anniversary Update update disc image, and installing it offline instead of letting Windows Update do it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-windows_install/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-anniversary-update/fab99802-4358-49d9-8278-e9664cd56311

He did that and it still gave him an install error, he tried the patch, ect....

[Pacun]

Since your computer has been on the shop for a few days, why didn't he wipe it again and install everything and be over with?

Another work around... if you have issues only when connected to the Internet, disconnect it. You will be able to roll over returns, work on returns, create efiles and do everything.  When you are ready to send the efiles, connect it to the internet and do your transfers. If you want to update forms, do it at the beginning of the day and then reboot without being connected to the Internet.

Another option is to buy a new computer and let the computer guy have fun with that download and later you will have a back up computer. Since you were infected with a virus, you should have a back up computer anyways.

Remember this... when I get an email that I don't know the person or if it contains a few lines of text and a link, before opening I ask myself... "will I sleep well if I don't open this email?", if the answer is yes, I don't open it. If I know I won't be able to sleep if I don't open it, then I open it and most likely I will not sleep anyways because I will spend the night cleaning the virus from my computer.

 

[michaelmars]

new scam going around. email comes from a person who says that he was recommended by one of your clients and you if you could glance at the attached copy of last years return and give an estimate of cost.