Realtor with major computer issues, any help?

The mind of me (and my Step-Father) | 11/19/2008 | me

[TheBattman]

OK... I will make this as brief as I can:

My Step-Father is a Real Estate agent just outside of Houston, TX (Tomball and the Woodlands area). He uses Windows XP, and has a history of computer troubles, mostly related to scripts and worms that for some reason every Anti-Virus he has ever used just won't seem to keep out.

I have jokingly told him to buy a Macintosh next time around... but he has held to his Realtor-related business requires Windows. Fine...

Well, about every two weeks, his Internet Explorer (latest version) will not work at all - it just loads then trying to get to any web site - comes up with an error. Firefox works just fine. Whatever the problem is also appears to affect his Outlook as well.

He just got his PC back from a shop that had to clean it out and get it back up - at the cost of just over $200. It came back working fine.

He is following the security/anti-virus guidelines of my mother's employer, Lonestar College district) which suggest Avast Antivirus, SpamBot, and AVG. He has the latest versions of these, and keeps them updated (Avast and AVG via their built-in auto-update). And scans daily in addition to auto protection.

The fact that the recurring issue always starts with IE and then Outlook, I have little doubts that it is a worm/virus of some form. He would just as soon dump IE as anyone... BUT

Remember, he is a Realtor. The Houston Area Realtor's Association (and the nationwide organization they are part of) use TEMPO MLS. TEMPO MLS requires the use of Internet Explorer. There is no workaround to this requirement that he or I have been able to track down. Opera and Safari both have User Agent switching to appear as IE. While you can login, the MLS search that is the core of functionality will not work. He and I have both tried every browser we can find on both Windows and Mac OSX.

He is rather frustrated. When he called this morning, I could hear emotion in his voice when he asked if you can run IE on Apple machines. I told him you can, under Windows. He then asked if they are affected by the same viruses and such... I said the Windows side - yes. But it shouldn't bring the whole computer down.

I am fairly confident that the TEMPO MLS issue is related to Active X. Without it, you cannot use the basically mandated software for searching, adding, and generally doing anything with listings with this organization. Active X is the portal by which so many problems enter a PC - turning it off is a good idea... unless you need it as he does for TEMPO MLS.

He has been unable to find any significant help with this problem. I have run out of suggestions.

I am open to any thoughts, common experiences, help, etc. He just cannot afford to keep throwing money at his PC. His business is WAY down anyway - the market is at a snail's pace in his area too.

Oh - and this is on the heels of a major crash that resulted in some serious data loss several months back...

I know - I have already scolded him about doing regular back-ups - to an EXTERNAL drive...

I really want to help him.

[JerseyHighlander]

http://www.realtor.org/archives/techwatch200707

http://www.apple.com/business/solutions/realestate.html

The other option is Parallels, the upside is if your father has a digital camera he uses to upload photos/video he can use the camera inside parallels to upload to the MLS service, saving himself a step. http://www.parallels.com/

Parallels Desktop for Mac. This software, available for $79.99 from Parallels Inc., allows users to run Windows or Linux applications on an OS X Mac without rebooting the system. Windows applications appear in windows alongside native applications on the Mac desktop. Parallels Desktop for Mac also supports Windows-compatible hardware, like phones and cameras. Windows Transporter, which is included, guides users through the process of migrating a Windows system and resources to the Mac.