Computer dialing-up by itself

[Eustace]

My computer again started dialing-up by itself without me telling it to.
It happens when I have left it unattended while connected: then it does
it when the dialup is disconnected. I suspect it has to do with the
McAfee upgrade but I am not sure. I caught the button in the taskbar
when it was trying to do so, here it is:

http://www.geocities.com/itaintme_babe/temporary/Connection.jpg

Does anybody know with what program the icon is associated with?

Thanks,

Eustace

 

[Lem]

My computer again started dialing-up by itself without me telling it to.
It happens when I have left it unattended while connected: then it does
it when the dialup is disconnected. I suspect it has to do with the
McAfee upgrade but I am not sure. I caught the button in the taskbar
when it was trying to do so, here it is:

http://www.geocities.com/itaintme_babe/temporary/Connection.jpg

Does anybody know with what program the icon is associated with?

Thanks,

Eustace

It's possible that McAfee is attempting to connect to do an automatic
update, but more likely, you are infested with some variety of malware
that is trying to phone home. I assume that you have no 3rd party
firewall installed (such as ZoneAlarm) that would identify what
application is trying to access the Internet.

Follow MS-MVP Malke's advice for cleaning your computer:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

 

[Eustace]

It's possible that McAfee is attempting to connect to do an automatic
update, but more likely, you are infested with some variety of malware
that is trying to phone home. I assume that you have no 3rd party
firewall installed (such as ZoneAlarm) that would identify what
application is trying to access the Internet.

Follow MS-MVP Malke's advice for cleaning your computer:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Thanks. I should have thought of it myself. I did a deep scan with
Ad-Aware (normally I do a quick one) and this time in addition to the
usual cookies it found a couple of registry keys form IEHijacker, which
I removed. When I clicked for more information, the Lavasoft webpage
said: "Don't worry. This is not what Spyware looks like." I hope the
problem is now fixed. If it comes back I'll try Hijack This, which I
have used once some time ago.