auto dial-up problem?

Ebonyks

Don't know if this is the right place for this but a problem has risen.

Something on my comp is set to dial up and connect to my ISP account every so often. I'm not sure where to look, is it some kinda of spyware, virus etc..

I know its not using a different dial up number and only connecting my account. But I just can't find what's doing it.

?? help....

ToxicPaddy

Firstly, what operating system is running on your PC?

Lukin Black

Download Spybot - Search & Destroy or Ad-Aware and run it to see if you have any spyware.

Secondly, if you have "Always Dial My Default Connection" or "Dial Whenever A Network Connection Is Not Present" select in IE Options, then it could be something like ZoneAlarm, or Windows Auto Update or something checking to see if there is a connection.

Ebonyks

Sorry its Win XP Home

Have ran Ad-Aware a good few times and it hasn't found anything new, will give Spybot a go.

My settings for dial-up have always been set to "never dial a connection", prefer manually.

Never had ZoneAlarm, but have recently activated Windows Auto Update. Would that be causing this?, comp goes to connect every 20 minutes or so.

the_syco

Originally posted by Ebonyks
Never had ZoneAlarm, but have recently activated Windows Auto Update. Would that be causing this?, comp goes to connect every 20 minutes or so.

Auto update is handy, but check the settings; Do this by going into Contorl Panel, and tehn into Windows Auto-Update. An dthen turn off the auto-connect option. Its default to auto-connect, me thinks. Very annoying.
Also, if you only have copper-wire (56K phone-line), some downloads will take AGES, and will hog yer bandwidth, and you won't know why yer line is so slow, as it hides down in yer taskbar.

Lukin Black

It doesn't show an icon for the Dialup Connection box by any chance? I know whenever Winamp and a couple of other programs try to connect, the connection box shows the icon of the prog in question in the taskbar. I know of at least one that shows the generic 'white box' icon, so it's not definite, unfortunately.

Ebonyks

No dialup connection box is their in the tray, nothing else is their and as far as I know no other programs that I see running would do this.

Windows update is now off, BUT this only started last night and Windows update has been running for weeks.

This is startin to extract the urine altogether

Lukin Black

Have you had a look in Task Manager to see if there's anything odd running? (ctrl+shift+esc)

Eurorunner

windows xp 'phones home'...this probably isnt the solution to your problem (but u never know)..but you should do this anywayz


double click on the clock at end of the taskbar. click on the internet time tab...uncheck the 'automatically synchronise....'

conZ

Hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete.

Go into Processes. Look around for a file called ''msblaster.exe". If it's there, go HERE. If it's not there, go here anyways.

I dunno, it sounds like that virus. My computer was acting awful strange when I had it, i.e. the red drop-down bar on boards.ie was'nt showing. Some say it doesnt affect IE.

Ebonyks

FOUND the little muda*****.....culprit

Never occured to me to just wait till it happens again and look for it in processes and sure enough there she was

rasautou.exe

In folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Description: Remote Access Dialer
Company: Microsoft Corporation
blah de blah

Anyway what do I do with this now, should I just delete it or would disabling remote access stuff in Services sort it??

Is there something malicious on the comp using this program or something else.....?

Cheers buds for all suggestions anyhow

Eurorunner

XP has a service called WINDOWS TIME that takes care of
syncronizing your clock with a time server. You can
safely disable it. In the control panel click ADMIN
TOOLS, SERVICES, scroll to the bottom to find it. Double-
click to bring up the window that allows you to disable it.

Ebonyks

OK think I sorted it

Disabled the service "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager"

It's not auto dialing anymore anyway, this is probably only a temporary solution.

Dawg

You could try XP AntiSpy
It disables all Xp's phone home features. Worked a treat for me when I was running XP.