View Full Version : Modem dialling up randomly
My parents are still on dial up and their phone bill came in today :eek:
The pc has been dialling up it's Virgin connection at 2 minute and 11 minute intervals, all the time the pc is switched on, for 20 - 30 seconds at a time. Nearly 1800 times since end of July !!
I disabled all automatic updates etc and waited and it tried to dial again and again while I was there. Could the modem be kaput? It is a Dell pc, :roll: ( I know) and I'm not very computer literate, what else can I do to help them? (We've pulled the phone cable in the meantime)
My parents are still on dial up and their phone bill came in today :eek:
The pc has been dialling up it's Virgin connection at 2 minute and 11 minute intervals, all the time the pc is switched on, for 20 - 30 seconds at a time. Nearly 1800 times since end of July !!
I disabled all automatic updates etc and waited and it tried to dial again and again while I was there. Could the modem be kaput? It is a Dell pc, :roll: ( I know) and I'm not very computer literate, what else can I do to help them? (We've pulled the phone cable in the meantime)
Have you run a virus / spyware scan? The most likely cause of this is something 'phoning home' and the most likely cause of that is virus / spyware.
You've done the best thing just now - disconnect the phone line. There are other ways to do it to stop it dialling just now, however that is the most definite and safest until you know what the problem is.
Thanks, AVG scans the pc every week. Should I try spybot S&D or something similar? Could I download such a program and save it to disc here and take it with me to their house as it is sooooo painful waiting for something to download at their place on dial up speed [lol]
Thanks, AVG scans the pc every week. Should I try spybot S&D or something similar? Could I download such a program and save it to disc here and take it with me to their house as it is sooooo painful waiting for something to download at their place on dial up speed [lol]
Take Spybot and Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php) with you. Make sure AVG is up to date as well as there is no point in having antivirus that is out of date.
Putting them onto a disk and taking them there is fine. If the machine is clean come back and let us know.
Thanks for that link, never heard of that one before. AVG updates automatically every day, explained to them how to do it manually just now since the line is unplugged.
I'll get back to you with the results, ta very much for your help :D
Yoo-hoo Blueivy :D
Did all the scans you suggested, just the usual cookies etc, nothing untoward found.
What I did stumble upon was an event log, dont ask me how, I was bumbling about in scheduled tasks lol Norton was in the pc when they got it and because it used up so much and made it run slow I uninstalled it a couple of years ago. It seems to be 'liveupdate manager for symantec corp' that is trying to access the internet and the filepath is broken so it keeps trying. Any suggestions? I searched for all files containing symantec, norton etc but there were none to delete, cant think why it would suddenly be trying to update 18 months after it was uninstalled anyway [disgust]
Yoo-hoo Blueivy :D
Did all the scans you suggested, just the usual cookies etc, nothing untoward found.
What I did stumble upon was an event log, dont ask me how, I was bumbling about in scheduled tasks lol Norton was in the pc when they got it and because it used up so much and made it run slow I uninstalled it a couple of years ago. It seems to be 'liveupdate manager for symantec corp' that is trying to access the internet and the filepath is broken so it keeps trying. Any suggestions? I searched for all files containing symantec, norton etc but there were none to delete, cant think why it would suddenly be trying to update 18 months after it was uninstalled anyway [disgust]
Ahhhh. Glad you caught it. Another reason to dislike Norton!
You should be able to uninstall it under Add / Remove Programs. You'll be looking for either Symantec Live Update, Norton Live Update or just Live Update. If it's not there look in Program Files for Symantec / Norton etc. You should also be able to find it under the Startup tab (or maybe the Services tab - I'm doing this from memory) when you run MSCONFIG.
Hi, thanks for the quick reply.
I have looked in add/remove programs, cant see it ! Searched for files/folders etc containing all the obvious words, symantec, norton, live update etc there is absolutely no sign of it anywhere. A friend had a devil of a job removing Norton and said he had to search for words that were not obviously related to the Norton program but cant remember what it was he had to look for :roll: I'll try again next time I am visiting, they still have the phoneline unplugged in the meantime, thanks for your help again :D
What is your opinion on this http://www.ccleaner.com/ before I download something that will make things worse :-)
plasticjock
31-Oct-08, 20:34
In response to the many, many complaints from customers who bought computers with Norton embedded, Norton released their own removal tool. I've used it for the last three laptops I've bought and it does the trick.
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
In response to the many, many complaints from customers who bought computers with Norton embedded, Norton released their own removal tool. I've used it for the last three laptops I've bought and it does the trick.
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
Thanks for that link. I had seen it before but dont know which Norton product was in the pc, It was uninstalled 2 years ago but this liveupdate manager suddenly began dialling up again a few months ago. I might have a guess at which one it was though and have a go. :)
Thanks Blueivy and plasticjock. Fingers crossed whispers - 'it's gone' :lol:
Oh dear I spoke too soon - it's doing it again [evil]
Oh dear I spoke too soon - it's doing it again [evil]
What I would suggest you do is download an application filtering firewall (such as Comodo) and installing it. THEN when whatever app is trying to connect out to the internet tries to do it, it will pop up and ask you if it's allowed. This isn't important - what you want the firewall for is to find out which application is trying to dial out so that you can then go and delete it!
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