automatically dialing in to the internet

[nubs]

Has anyone had a problem with the computer automatically dialing up to the internet?

I have modem, and sometimes when I disconnect from the Internet and walk away for a few minutes, I come back to find that my computer has automatically dialed up to the Internet.

I find this rather bothersome, because I can not tell what is happening when I am not at my computer. I have not monkeyed with any settings that I can remember.

Also, about 90% of the time when I boot up my PC, it will go ahead and connect by itself while my desktop is loading.

Any ideas?

[Steve]

It sounds like you have picked up a dialer program somewhere. It could be expensive to you and bad for your computer. You can run a HiJack This (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html) scan and post the results here. One of us should be able to find it if it is in the log.

A full virus scan would be worthwhile also.

[Budfred]

If you are running Norton Antivirus it could be due to that. I have had it happen with updates. It will try to dial in until it is able to do it successfully. I actually had to uninstall it once and reinstall to fix it....

[palkot]

I've had that happen with the AT&T ISP. Depending on how you disconnect, it will popup and ask if you would like to reconnect (with a 30 second countdown). ? I guess it assumed it was involuntarily disconnecting.

And as for connecting on startup, I've seen options for "automatically connect to the internet on startup" under some dial-up preferences.

[Paul Komski]

Not a cure but a security measure to prevent DUN dialing without your intervention you can enable "Bring up terminal window before dialing" under the DUN settings. Then the enter key must be manually pressed before dialing that number can begin.

[mjc]

Please post the HJT (HijackThis) log.....some of those dialers charge in excess of $10/minute...so a 30 minute call would be over $300!!!!!

[jeeza]

Another good program for dialers is Spybot Search & Discovery. It looks for lots of other mal-, spy- and other ware besides.
You can download it from security.kolla.de