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I am having a problem with my computer ( Windows XP Home Ed. ) randomly
connecting to the Internet. I have turned off as many Automatic Update
features as I dare to and have checked all downloaded programs I can think of
to make sure they are not set up to automatically connect my computer but I
am not getting anywhere. The problem seemed to get worse after IE 7 was
installed, before then, with IE 6, I used to just occasionally get a double
dial-up connection box popping up ( I would be prompted to connect when
already online. ) But I never found that the computer would just all of a
sudden dial itself up as it is doing now. It will do this if I am sitting at
the computer working offline on something completely unrelated to the
internet, it will do it if I have disconnected to take a phone call ( it
literally tries to establish a connection while I am using the telephone ) it
will even connect itself when no one is even using the computer. Quite often
I sit down to use the computer after returning home from running errands in
only to find that it connected itself while I was gone, it sometimes is
connected for hours before anyone notices! It is very frustrating as there
are many times when someone is trying to reach us and we don't realize that
the computer is connected and their calls are not getting through. I have
probed every setting I have found through the Control Panel and all the
obvious properties and preferences boxes, run diagnostic tests, used
Troubleshooters and can not find anything that seems to make a difference. I
have disabled Autodial ... nothing seems to fix the issue. I have sat at the
computer and watched it while it dials itself up and once it is connected it
does not seem to do anything, there are no programs that pop up saying that
there is anything new to install so it does not even seem to have a purpose
for dialing up. If I have IE open ...reading the news on our home page
perhaps ...and try to open up another program that uses the internet in some
fashion the computer does not always even recognize that I am already online
and will try to establish a second connection, it then usually tells me that
it can't establish this connection because it is already in use ... something
I already knew ! Is there perhaps some program running in the background that
is using the dial-up to update itself without my knowledge ? Any help would
be greatly appreciated as I can't find any information on the Microsoft
website concerning this particular issue. Thanks
I will check the BIOS and see if there is an Option for Wake Up on Ring or
on LAN or something like that in the BIOS.
Scan for malwares from here:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
http://www.safer-networking.org ; for Spybot S&D
Did you checked the Radio Button Under Connections Tab to Never Dail-Up a
Connection ?.
HTH.
nass
Hey Nass, thanks for responding to my question. I'm not sure about the radio
button under the connections tab you mention, perhaps I'm not looking in the
right spot? I accessed it from Control Panel/Internet Connections/Connections
...can't find anything but my server list, and the " always dial my default
connection etc..." buttons and the LAN settings button which they say does me
no good if I am on dial-up. I am downloading Ad Aware as I write this ...
used to have it on my old computer, not sure why I didn't think to download
it again when we bought this one 2 years ago. As far as other utilities of
that type goes I have been using AVG Free for virus control ( and been very
happy with it, we have never had problems with a virus since installing it,
seems to be very user friendly ) and I downloaded Spyware Blaster as well as
that seemed to be a good program and helped me out on the last computer when
we couldn't get anywhere while trying to surf the net. It also seems to do
what it says it is supposed to do, but one often wonders what things might be
lurking in the background wreaking havoc with your computer that you are
unaware of. I will install the Ad Aware and run the scan to see if it detects
anything I am not aware of and continue to work at this. Any further help you
can provide would be greatly appreciated. I will keep in touch to let you
know of my progress, thanks, Nola
Hi Nass, just wanted to let you know that after installing AdAware I ran the
scan and it came up with something I found rather interesting that certainly
sounds like it could be causing me some trouble. It found a WhenU Desktop
Toolbar. When I looked at the TAC page for it, it said that it was an auto
run agent that tracked my internet usage in the background with me unaware of
it being there. Sound like something that could possibly be dialing me up
without my prompting ?? There were 2 other WhenU listings as well, not sure
where they came from. There were also 2 possible hijack attempts that I'm not
sure about. Could perhaps be related to changes in Security/safe sites lists,
etc...anyhow, that's what I've got for now, I will continue to monitor the
computer and see if anything changes now that those items are in Quarantine.
( The TAC page did mention that you could not disable this toolbar so it will
be interesting to see what happens now.) TTFN
I have this issue with a client recently but the client wasn't complaining
about the Connection, it was something else.
When I done check up found a search toolbar been hooked/installed by a
third-party trusted by the client without knowing so, I gone to Control Panel
and uninstall it from there, so try to go to Control panel and then click
Add/Remove Programs and look for it.
Open the Search by clicking Start >> Search and type the name and look for
the file and Delete them by SHIFT + DELETE to bypass the Bin.
also Open the Run Command and type in:
regedit.exe click [OK]
On the Registry Editor locate this Key:
[-]HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main =
Look in the Right Pane/Window for the search Bar and Search Page if it for
this tool bar delete it.
[-]HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Toolbar =
look for the extension of the toolbar in the Right Pane/Window.
[-] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Look in the Right Pane/Window for the search Bar and Search page if it for
this tool bar delete it
[-] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Toolbar =
The same here.
HTH.
Let us know.
nass
Hi Nass, sorry I haven't returned your message until now ... you gave me
quite a bit to chew on so I have been spending what free time I have had the
past 2 days working on trying to slove this little problem. I have downloaded
the Microsoft free Malware removal tool and it did not find anything. I have
also downloaded the Process Explorer and taken a look at that but I'm not
sure if I'm seeing everything I would like to on there because I'm not able
to run the help file at all to find out how it all works, I just keep getting
the "your page can not be displayed" Internet window, but from just looking
at it I can see what kinds of programs are running ... will keep looking at
that. I have also looked at just about every registry key we have in our
system. I had no idea the kind of info. you could access if you knew where to
look for it. I didn't however find anything in those registry files that was
even similar to the When U item I was looking for. I found it quite curious
what you wrote about the woman who had something similar installed on her
computer without her knowledge, sounds a lot like the problem I'm having. I
checked the Add/Delete programs list a while back, one of the first things I
thought to do but didn't find anything of question there either. I have been
"Spring cleaning" as I go along though, absolutely crazy the things I have
found...bits and pieces of files/downloaded programs, etc... that have long
since been uninstalled but left little trace elements of themselves ...empty
folders, missing shortcuts, registry keys...that sort of thing lying around.
Just like the stuff you find at the back of your junk drawer! Anyhow, I'm
hoping that when I ran the Ad Aware scan and quarantined those malicious
items that it removed all traces of them and that that's why I can't find any
further listings of them. I didn't delete them out of quarantine yet though
because I wanted to be able to look at their threads, etc... just in case I
find something that looks like it might be realted to that. While I think of
it, do you know what " Bonjour " does? It's an Apple program that I found
listed on our computer in several places and I can't think of why it's there,
and I'm not even sure what it does. Don't remember downloading that one...??
So ... the computer connected itself all over the place yesterday despite all
of my efforts, however it has only done that once today and that was when I
turned it on this morning, it connected right away, but hasn't done it since.
I checked into the Internet Connections radio button again today and it was
back on the old setting with the check beside Always dial my default
connection so I rechecked the Never dial ... box and pushed Apply beforing
closing, is ti possible that I forgot to check Apply last time I changed that
or will I have to change that after every time I shut down the computer? The
only thing I haven't done yet is to perform a clean boot. I have only done
that once before quite some time ago and will have to look up how to do that.
I'm quite curious to see if anything shows up there. I have noticed that
sometimes when I shut the computer off there is a box that pops up that says
something about a BroderBund DSS Background Agent and that if I close now I
will lose any unsaved data ... could this be an issue as well? Hope I'm not
bothering you too much now, you have been so incredibly helpful and I'm sure
that I'm eventually going to find out what's going on. Any further
assisstance you're willing to provide would be greatly appreciated, thanks so
much, Nola
Hi Noila,
Good work ( although it is slow <G>), you done pretty good search and
documentation that make things a lot easier now.
About the Bonjour Program:
Bonjour Is an application comes with iPod or iTune and also with QuickTime
Player and can be installed with Camera software which install QuickTime
Media Player.
So if you have One of these Products you have this Program running with
them, if you don't then you can uninstall if you don't have use for it you or
any member of the family.
Come to your trouble maker:
BroderBund DSS Background Agent:
DSSAGENT.exe (Brodcast) by Broderbund and can be found in these paths;
C:\Windows\<Here is the applicatio/program>
C:\Program File\ <here the application/program>
There is a removal Tool which created by the Program Vendor? to uninstall
this Piece of adware from here you can download:
http://support.learningco.com/brodcastpatch.asp
Also in the Registry you can find this Entry For it:
[-]HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run = look
in the Right Pane?window for an entry called TrashApp "C:\Program
Files\Trash.exe"
Ca All about DSSAgent:
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=55399
I don't know if you have Anti-Virus Application installed or not and also a
firewall, but you can get a free Avast or AVG and get Comodo or Zonealarm to
protect you and tell you in the future if such application wanted to connect
to the Internet and alert you to suspicious Traffics on your Computer.
HTH.
Let us know.
Regards,
nass
