Dial-up logs on by itself

[jawn_tech]

I have AT&T Worldnet dial-up at my home office. One day, w/o any changes by me (that I can think of), it started wanting to log on all by itself. In fact, every time I restart the computer, it tries to log on. I keep it controlled by unplugging the phone line when I don't want it to go online (and to get other work done without it popping up on me).

Norton virus definitions are up to date, and my spyware is as well -- neither find anything. I've tried looking through preferences and can't see anything that stops it.

If I click cancel or close the application, it suddenly reappears and tries logging on again.

Could this be the work of a virus, spyware, or should I call in an excorcist?

[wenwilder]

Sounds like a dialer to me. Do you have ad-aware (http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button) and spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) on your computer? Spybot would catch a dialer faster than ad-aware but it never hurts to have both. (both are free downloads)

If it is a dialer you may want to watch you phone bill.

[jawn_tech]

Sounds like a good catch... I'll install and post the results.

Thanks, wen!

[jawn_tech]

Like magic!

I downloaded both, but so far only have installed the spybot. Zap! Nailed it!

It was DCExploit somethingerother.

Thanks, security watch expert!

(<<one happy customer)

[wenwilder]

I'm glad that helped :)

Just keep it(them) updated and run it(them) weekly! Oh, and if you have any more problems post them ;)

[jawn_tech]

Argh, it's back. Now it won't go away. Spybot sees it, says it fixes it, but when I run it again to see if it really goes away, it hasn't. Ad-aware doesn't see it.

Self-dialing has returned. It simply logs on to the connection, and I see data is being transferred.

I'll try updating and see if that helps, but I think it's up to date. If all fails, it's back to reinitializing with factory disks. Ugh, which means lengthy re-installation of software, windows service packs, downloading of virus definitions... :*(

[wenwilder]

Do you have AVG or HiJackThis Jawn? If you do it can still be fixed painlessly.