• MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    I remember setting up a fresh XP install for a friend, and within seconds of plugging in the ethernet cable Internet Explorer started opening tons of flashing ad windows everywhere. Firewall wasn’t on by default I guess? LOL

    I also remember that system messenger exploit that could send spam as system “OK” prompts to any XP machine. That was wild.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      23 hours ago

      Also if you had gotten a cracked “no key” version it would have come with malware

    • Scrollone@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Yeah the crazy thing is that most people were using ADSL connections directly from their computer, without a router.

      Raw dogging the internet with no firewall, that was wild.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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        18 hours ago

        That’s a really good point. Maybe that was cool before the Internet was swarming with exploit-sniffing bots, but nowadays? I can’t even imagine!

        I’ve seen some videos where people open port 80 on their home network running something like PFSense. In seconds it’s like "Now_all_of_China_knows_you're_here.jpeg" LOL.