[plug] How MS-Windows cost one man over $2000 - and he doesn't even use it

[Leon Brooks]

Sorry, *what* was the cost of MS-Windows again?

----------  Forward; originally to Leon Brooks  ----------
Subject: OK can't really blame you for that one then
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 16:01
From: "Craig Xxxxxxx" <DESPAMMED>

Dear iiNet Clients,
 
Investigations into the load caused on iiNet's mail servers have found 
that large amounts of spam from a specific IP range was being directed
towards iiNet customers.  The sheer volume of mail being processed
was causing mail queues and the server load to rise.
 
The IP range in question has since been blocked and the spam is
being actively cleared from all servers.  
 
While the server load is under control, there are still mail 
queues that are required to be cleared.  As such, clients may 
still encounter delays in the receipt of mail for the next few hours
until the queue is under control.
 
The situation will continue to be monitored by technicians and an
update in relation to this matter will be made within 24 hours.
----------------------------------------------------------

    ...and...

----------  Forward; originally to Leon Brooks  ----------
Subject: iiNet
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:43
From: "Craig Xxxxxxx" <DESPAMMED>

jbackshall Thu, Oct 9, 2003 20:07:21 (iinet-public - Public)

iiNet advises the short term fix applied on Tuesday evening [shutting 
down ICMP completely, ISP-wide -- LB] has been successful in combating 
the current issue, and is able to confirm the network is currently in a 
stable condition.

Clients known to be infected by the Welchia / Nachi virus are being
contacted on an individual basis, in order to ensure the situation
does not re-occur. Once this has been completed, it is envisaged the
ability to send ICMP echo packets (i.e. pings) will be reinstated.
This is expected to occur within 48 hours.

Thank you for your patience. Further updates will be provided no
later than 13/10/2003 17:00 WST.

----------------------------------------------------------

A co-worker of mine lost a job and probably a customer yesterday because 
the email problems at iiNet mentioned in the first mail and brought on 
by the network flooding mentioned in the second mail prevented him from 
receiving the item they wanted worked on.

The price of MS-Windows just went up about $2000 for him on that job 
alone, to say nothing of the future work he's likely to lose. Where 
does he go to recoup it?

The emails quoted above were from a customer of mine who was also 
experiencing lagged (half a day) emails, which he thought at the time 
were simply being lost, and this also hampered his business.

Don't know how much it actually cost him, but at least two hours of his 
time fielding queries from his staff, contacting me etc and probably at 
least ten times that in lost staff time across roughly 30 people, plus 
a small bill from me for time spent investigating his mail system. Call 
his time $120 an hour (conservative estimate), and his staff's time $20 
an hour, and he's lost at least 2 x $120 + 20 x $20 == $640. Amortise 
that across his roughly 20 workstations and the price of MS-Windows for 
him just went up $32 a workstation.

All of his MS-Windows boxes are behind my firewalls and having their 
viruses excised by my mail servers (a policy akin to the one recently 
espoused by Microsoft themselves), so at least he's not directly 
contributing to the problem.

Cheers; Leon
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