Continual Dialling up Problem.

[growler 0]

Of late I am having a problem with continual dialling up every few minutes. I am the only person who uses the PC Windows XP. When I disconnect from the internet, and do anything off line, the damn computer keeps dialling up the ISP every couple of minutes.

It means I have to log off every time when I finish, rather than leave the desktop on as I did previously.

I would appreciate advise from any of you guys out there, who have a better understanding of computers than me. ( I would imagine that should cover well over 90%)

Thus far a mixture of kind words and threats have not produced any results.

[Babepecker 0]

Well, at the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, it could be quite a lot of different things.

 

Off the top of my head it sounds a bit like that virus/worm from May of this year: Sasser, version A thru F (or more). A patch for Win XP is available from the Microsoft site (www.msn.com).

 

It could, of course, also be a dialer or a very strange configuration of your Dial-Up Networking, though I believe that it is less likely.

 

Question time: have you got an anti-virus program on your PC? Do you regularly (at least once a week) update its virus database?

 

Have you got a personal firewall installed on your PC?

 

Have you got a spyware detector?

 

If the answer to all of these questions is yes: did you run it on your PC since your PC started misbehaving and what did those programs report?

 

If not: check Avast anti-virus (www.avast.com), Zone Alarm or Kerio Personal Firewall (firewalls) and Spyware Search & Destroy plus Ad-Aware (spyware detectors). All of these are freeware and downloadable from the internet.

 

Back to your problem:

Do you know how to get your PC to boot in the Safe Mode? If not: get someone who knows what he is doing to help you with your PC on-site (where you are...).

 

If you do know: get (download) the above mentioned software from a friend's PC, burn it onto a CD-ROM, boot your PC in the Safe Mode and run/install the programmes. One of those should find the culprit.

 

If all of this sounds unintelligible, ask cybers - I believe that he could help you further.

 

Good luck

 

 

[cybers1b 8]

one question to add...are you sure it is dialing your ISP access number and not some 1-900 (or whatever expensive service numbers you have in your country)?

 

There are a load of dialer detectors on the net. Other then that, It could be anything that was mentionem by Babe already. Most likely it is some harmless adware (like precision time which installs a clock and calender) that permanently tires to connect to the net and if you do not have a "allways on connection" it will trigger a dial up attempt of your PC

 

You could try this first and see if it is enough to solve the problem, but even if it does you should get up to date virus software, adware removal tools and a reliable firelwall (just 2 examples are sygate or zone alarm)

 

Open the Internet Explorer (even if you do not usually use this piece of crap to surf the net )

 

Go to "Tools" and there chose "Internet Options" -> go to the "Connections" Tab and make sure that the tab where it says "Never dial a connection" is the one that is checked, if not, check it. Some Spy or Malware makes use of the Internet Explorer (and also some dialer) and this function...if you have set it to anything other then "Never dial a connection" and you are offline, if you open the internet explorer and try to access a site, the PC will try to dial up to the chosen connection.

 

Also have a look at the connections and see if there are any connections that you do not know off. For example, you may have created a connection called "AOL" (or any other provider) for dial up to your ISP, but if there are some other connections and you are sure you do not use them and did not create them, just trash them, could be created by a dialer as well.

 

Some Links:

 

Firewalls (just 2 out of many)

 

http://www.sygate.com/ (free for personal use)

http://www.zonelabs.com (free for personal use)

 

Adware remover (also, many more available, just my favourite)

 

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ (free for personal use)

 

Dialer Dedector

 

http://www.ewido.net/en/ (not only for dialers but much more, used to be free as well, don't know if it still is)

 

any question, PM me

 

cheers and good luck

 

cyber

[growler 0]

Babepecker, cybers1b,

 

Many thanks for both your very detailed replies. I am attempting to nab the local internet whizz kid and show him your posts.

Thus far all I can say is I definitely connect to my ISP and I have anti virus and personal firewall. Hopefully I will be able to sort it out. Don't go away because I may have to ask for help again, and judging by the very limited number of viewers, most guys seem to be interested in other subjects .

[BigDUSA 71]

Microsoft will send you service pack 2 for XP free. Make sure you have all the updates for XP