Computer dials ISP as soon as windows loads

[Lou]

I've been cleaning viruses off of a friends computer to the best of my
limited abilities, but the computer still immediately upon loading windows
tries to dial an Internet connection repeatedly. It has to be clicked off a
number of times.

I thought maybe it was spyware so I also installed Spybot Search and Destroy
and Adware with Zone Alarm as a firewall. I also changed the settings in
Outlook Express so that emails weren't automatically previewed. According to
Norton it had already deleted 17 viruses over the last few months. When I
got through it had cleaned 7 viruses today. Looking at the log viewer was
scarey because there had been so much virus activity for these people that
don't use the computer very much. Spybot.worm was a frequent one, but there
were others. Sometimes it had been cleaned and sometimes it had failed.
They do not d/l music or use IM, so the viruses must be sent to them via
email. I am wondering if there is some fragment of a virus left or a
registry entry to cause the computer to repeatedly try to connect to the
Internet. I was going to do an online scan of viruses with a different
program, but then I discovered that the phone was out of order. I can't
believe the computer had anything to do with that but it sure is strange.

The computer was locking up and my friend could do nothing with it, so I
first ran autosysclean from Trend Micro, then the version of Norton on the
computer that was last updated August 5. The computer hadn't been scanned
since January. I set it to auto scan once a week now, so I hope that will
help.

The viruses are gone according to Norton and I also deleted the system
restore files. I have disabled some of the suspect start up items. Back web
is gone now too. I think that was part of the updating process of HP
products. Spybot found 81 problems and Adware found 15.

I have disabled and changed settings on a number of programs to get the
computer to keep from dialing as soon as windows loads. I'm at a loss what
to do next. The page it dials is the home page of the ISP. I have the same
ISP and this doesn't happen to me.

I hate to be dumb, but what am I overlooking? I think I have disabled the
auto updates except for Microsoft Windows XP. I need help because this is
beyond my knowledge. I've removed a number of start up items. What next?
If this is the wrong group, please direct me to the right one.

Thanks.

 

[Julian Moss]

I've been cleaning viruses off of a friends computer to the best of my
limited abilities, but the computer still immediately upon loading
windows tries to dial an Internet connection repeatedly. It has to be
clicked off a number of times.

Try using TCPView from SysInternals Freeware. That should show you not
only what program is trying to call out, but where it is trying to
connect to.

 

[Robin Graham]

Check to see if you have had a dialler loaded onto this machine. Control
Panel / Network Connections. This will open a window with your connections
in it. There may be a dialler in addition to the ones you want.

Rob Graham

 

[Criminal Element]

I've been cleaning viruses off of a friends computer to the best of my
limited abilities, but the computer still immediately upon loading windows
tries to dial an Internet connection repeatedly. It has to be clicked off a
number of times.

I thought maybe it was spyware so I also installed Spybot Search and Destroy
and Adware with Zone Alarm as a firewall. I also changed the settings in
Outlook Express so that emails weren't automatically previewed. According to
Norton it had already deleted 17 viruses over the last few months. When I
got through it had cleaned 7 viruses today. Looking at the log viewer was
scarey because there had been so much virus activity for these people that
don't use the computer very much. Spybot.worm was a frequent one, but there
were others. Sometimes it had been cleaned and sometimes it had failed.
They do not d/l music or use IM, so the viruses must be sent to them via
email. I am wondering if there is some fragment of a virus left or a
registry entry to cause the computer to repeatedly try to connect to the
Internet. I was going to do an online scan of viruses with a different
program, but then I discovered that the phone was out of order. I can't
believe the computer had anything to do with that but it sure is strange.

The computer was locking up and my friend could do nothing with it, so I
first ran autosysclean from Trend Micro, then the version of Norton on the
computer that was last updated August 5. The computer hadn't been scanned
since January. I set it to auto scan once a week now, so I hope that will
help.

The viruses are gone according to Norton and I also deleted the system
restore files. I have disabled some of the suspect start up items. Back web
is gone now too. I think that was part of the updating process of HP
products. Spybot found 81 problems and Adware found 15.

I have disabled and changed settings on a number of programs to get the
computer to keep from dialing as soon as windows loads. I'm at a loss what
to do next. The page it dials is the home page of the ISP. I have the same
ISP and this doesn't happen to me.

I hate to be dumb, but what am I overlooking? I think I have disabled the
auto updates except for Microsoft Windows XP. I need help because this is
beyond my knowledge. I've removed a number of start up items. What next?
If this is the wrong group, please direct me to the right one.

Thanks.

Is it set to "Dial a connection whenever a network is not present" and "Active Desktop" on? The "desktop"
could be trying to dial out.

 

[Obius]

I've been cleaning viruses off of a friends computer to the best of my
limited abilities, but the computer still immediately upon loading windows
tries to dial an Internet connection repeatedly. It has to be clicked off a
number of times.

I thought maybe it was spyware so I also installed Spybot Search and Destroy
and Adware with Zone Alarm as a firewall. I also changed the settings in
Outlook Express so that emails weren't automatically previewed. According to
Norton it had already deleted 17 viruses over the last few months. When I
got through it had cleaned 7 viruses today. Looking at the log viewer was
scarey because there had been so much virus activity for these people that
don't use the computer very much. Spybot.worm was a frequent one, but there
were others. Sometimes it had been cleaned and sometimes it had failed.
They do not d/l music or use IM, so the viruses must be sent to them via
email. I am wondering if there is some fragment of a virus left or a
registry entry to cause the computer to repeatedly try to connect to the
Internet. I was going to do an online scan of viruses with a different
program, but then I discovered that the phone was out of order. I can't
believe the computer had anything to do with that but it sure is strange.

The computer was locking up and my friend could do nothing with it, so I
first ran autosysclean from Trend Micro, then the version of Norton on the
computer that was last updated August 5. The computer hadn't been scanned
since January. I set it to auto scan once a week now, so I hope that will
help.

The viruses are gone according to Norton and I also deleted the system
restore files. I have disabled some of the suspect start up items. Back web
is gone now too. I think that was part of the updating process of HP
products. Spybot found 81 problems and Adware found 15.

I have disabled and changed settings on a number of programs to get the
computer to keep from dialing as soon as windows loads. I'm at a loss what
to do next. The page it dials is the home page of the ISP. I have the same
ISP and this doesn't happen to me.

I hate to be dumb, but what am I overlooking? I think I have disabled the
auto updates except for Microsoft Windows XP. I need help because this is
beyond my knowledge. I've removed a number of start up items. What next?
If this is the wrong group, please direct me to the right one.

Thanks.

*********************************************

Check to see if they have any Messenger programs like Yahoo, or ICQ loading
in the start menu. Also check to see if any of the mail programs are
loading. If so change the preferences to NOT load at startup.

 

[Lou]

Thanks for the suggestions and I did try them. Tonight they couldn't get on
the Internet. I got them back on the Internet by making a new connection
and got the virus definitions updated. Run Spybot again and it found
backweb.exe again. I've tried everything suggested but there are some bugs
I just can't get out, so I told them to just use it because it's useable
now, but to get someone else to get rid of the rest of the bugs. I'm afraid
to do much else or I might miss it up where it won't run at all. I think if
it were mine I might just put the recovery CD in and start again as they
have only about 8GB of data on it. .