#1 joy thief: Malware,hardware,or ISP?

I entered the computing/Internet world,2006,via a $100.00 system picked up at the Canton Flea Market.

An elderly E-machine,256 mb RAM,with an ancient install of Windows ME.

This was outfitted with a Net Zero dial-up connection,and i was off.

No Firewall. No AV.
"Slow Joe" as I affectionately called my system,plugged right along,until he caught
some sort of worm,that a download of Avast! av,cleared up,at least to my satisfaction at the time.

By early 2007,I was able to buy a proper system,if a bit ram challenged.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 duel core,1gb of RAM. I was also able to hook up a three meg
DSL connection.


In a few weeks,my DVD drive stuck closed.
Warranty covered the replacement.

In a few months,a flood caused by a disgruntled neighbor in the flat above me
leaving his bathtub running full force, while plugged,destroyed my new machine.

Renters Insurance bought me an identical replacement machine.

That is it.

One incidence of Malware,two hardware related issues.

Now,my ISP?
Figure on at least two hours per month running winsock repairs,speed test's,
and on hold listening to "Muskrat Love",with at least four days a month with speeds
that make dial-up look great!!!

Is this typical?

What causes you the most problems?

1. Malware
2. Hardware
3. ISP

ISP without a doubt. I've been lucky with hardware on my current Dell system which is 3.5 years old (Intel Core 2 Duo, E6600, 2Gb RAM) - never had a problem with any of the parts except for the mouse and keyboard (but I blame my old gaming habits for that haha).

Malware - well, I haven't been infected for many many years, and the few times I got infected in the past was because I ran dodgy executables from dodgy sources on my REAL system. Big surprise.

Generally, internet speeds and reliability in my country aren't too good. Hoping it will improve ASAP, but I'm not holding my breath. I also find it frustrating that my internet cuts out randomly at least a few times a week - after some diagnostics, the ISP is to blame.

None of the above.

Guess i have been pretty lucky over the years.
I still have my first computer from 2000, All ISP`s i have ever been with have been rock solid and since i have been using Gmail with its excellent Spam and Antivirus filters i have never had any problems with malware which is why i have decided to try a set up almost identical to ssj100 replacing srp for applocker.

Now if you had added kids laptops to the list that would have got my vote.

None.
I like my ISP nowadays (crazy stuff), my hardware is still pretty new, and I don't often encounter malware.