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I asked this question on SO. (My Original Post here)
But they thought it might belong here:
Question:
My old parents have been hacked/virus-ed for the nth time.
I have an old HP server.
I thought of rebuilding it with VMWare (free version) or Oracle virtualbox and having them use windows in a controlled environment. I would back it up and patch it, etc. Maybe they RDC to my server.
I assume I would need a Windows server license to allow multiple connections. (I could also use it for myself to host Plex media server.)
At a 10,000 foot level, is this possible or just a technology quagmire?
Marinaio
Posted 2019-03-03T20:39:51.727
Reputation: 139
Short answer: yes, it's possible. But the effort will be huge. Better use BSD/Linux NAS – Romeo Ninov – 2019-03-03T20:42:33.487
The question is what use they make of their computer: Do they save files and emails on the local disk, or all they do is browse to websites and use web-mail? – harrymc – 2019-03-03T21:09:30.493
@Romeo Ninov Thanks. You are referring to https://freenas.org/?
– Marinaio – 2019-03-04T15:02:49.610@harrymc They have basics: spreadsheet of accounts and home projects. Word docs with some medial info and a letter of poor service, etc, etc. They most browse web. However, they are hell-bent on using Outlook locally unless I can convice them to use web-mail – Marinaio – 2019-03-04T15:05:13.973
@Romeo Ninov What about installing virtualbox and running windows. Then I backup the VM and can restore if they corrupt it? Can I run it from BSD/Linux NAS ? – Marinaio – 2019-03-04T15:07:04.210
If the vector of infection is via the browser, it can be isolated from the rest of the system. Unless they also open doubtful emailed files. – harrymc – 2019-03-04T15:13:48.030
@Marinaio, you can do it. But think about install some linux on the parents machines... – Romeo Ninov – 2019-03-04T19:49:27.390