The 'Dial up Connection' screen comes up after every boot.

[Gaard]

Every time I boot up my system, the 'Dial Up Connection' screen comes up immediately after Windows loads up. I have to Cancel it about 4 times to keep it from popping right back up. Any ideas?

 

[HappyPuppy]

Try going into msconfig/startup. Look for an entry relating to your dialup connection and uncheck it.

You can also try looking in the Windows/Programs/Startup folder.

 

[Gaard]

Nothing in either.

 

[WarCon]

Do you have any programs like a virus scanner that is set up check for updates automatically?

Do you have a spyware scanner? I use ad-aware to scan for spyware.

 

[Gaard]

Would Norton's do that?

Edit: I guess not. I unchecked the Update option for Norton's and rebooted a few times. Same thing happened each time.

 

[altonb1]

a) Do a search for Boot Log Analyzer on Google, or your favorite search engine. Download the program (it's shareware or freeware, not sure which) and then reboot, hit F8 to get to the Windows start-up menu, and select option 2, so it creates a bootlog.txt file. After booting, launch BLA and open your bootlog.txt file. See what options are taking a long time to load. More than likely, something in there will help identify your culprit.

b) Edit your Internet properties (2 ways are either through Internet icon in Control Panel, or when in IE, use pull-down menus for Tools, Internet Options) and click on the Connections tab. In the middle of the screen, change your options to Never dial a Connection. You'll still be able to dial your ISP when needed, but this will prevent the system from trying to connect automatically. If you have Active Desktop enabled and you really don't need it, turn it off. It might be causing Windows to look for a connection, too.

c) (Don't think this will help at all, but sometimes strange things happen) Check your network settings and see what is listed for the primary network logon. If it isn't already, set it up as Windows Logon.

d) boot to a Windows 9x startup disk and when you get to the A:> prompt, type FORMAT C: /S /Q. (Just kidding!)

Use option A because that program is handy to have. However, try "option b" BEFORE rebooting. This way, when you reboot to create a bootlog.txt file, you'll also be able to see if that fixed your problem. You can still analyze the bootlog.txt file to see if anything else is slowing you down, but you'll save yourself a reboot by doing A and B at the same time.

I think you'll find that B is causing your problem. I wouldn't put money on it, but it is a strong hunch I have. Let us know either way, so that if someone else has this problem, they'll see what helped you.

 

[Gaard]

altonb1 - you should've put money on it. It was 'B'. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Slikkster]

Well, that may prevent the auto-dialup, but it's still not telling you what it was that was trying. I'd download Zonealarm Free edition. It makes you authorize every program that's attempting to use the Internet. It will tell you right off the bat what's trying to go online.

I think it's important that you do that because there's a possibility you have a trojan horse program looking to send out your passwords and other personal info via dialup. Just turning off auto-dial won't help ya, as it will be active whenever you go online. Do a complete virus scan with an up-to-date virus scanner! And get ZoneAlarm Free Version at Zonealarm.com.

 

[altonb1]

very good advice! I know Windows soemtimes wants to automatically connect, but I didn't even think about why. I bet it is probably something simple like a AntiVirus program's Auto-update or Active desktop, but it is very good advice to try checking with ZoneAlarm. i use it on my broadband connection and i didn't even think about suggesting it!

 

[pjf]

If none of this fixes the problem then I would suggest right clicking on your Internet Explorer icon (or going to internet options in control panel) and then going to the tab called connections. Once in this tab make sure that the box that says "dial when no network connection is present isnt checked. If it is then change it to the box that says always dial my default. I work for an ISP, and I have found that this corrects this problem almost always. It is always worth a shot.

 

[DaiShan]

lol first rule here is to read all posts in a thread, that way you avoid puting your foot in your mouth (I learned the hard way) good advice, just a day late and a dollar short. Welcome to anandtech

 

[altonb1]

ROFL...

I would like to know if he was able to definitively identify what was kicking off the dialer, though. We know 'WHY' it would prompt, but what was causing the connection to be sought in the first place?

 

[Gaard]

Either Grokster or the Internet Explorer update. Due to an unfortunate incident I had to reformat yesterday. I noticed I wasn't getting the problem and I was going to make a mental note when it started...install this and reboot a couple times, repeat for every installation. Unfortunately, I forgot for a few installations. When I remembered, the only installations that had anything to do with onlineness were Grokster and the Explorer 6.0 update. I'm leaning towards the update because the same thing happened when I was using Morpheus and didn't have Grokster. Anyone using the 6.0 and not having this happen?

I'll get ZoneAlarm later this afternoon and post the results.

 

[altonb1]

Unforutnately, i didn't satrt using File Sharing programs until I got DSL back in january, so I have no idea if those would have caused that problem. I HAVE been using IE 6 since it was released and did not have that problem, though, but I also had my IE settings setup to never dial so i wouldn't have noticed it. Sorry...

 

[Gaard]

Got ZoneAlarm installed. The culprit is Grokster. Of course now I have 2 things popping up...the Dial-up Connection and ZoneAlarm. All I have to do is choose 'No' and 'Remember' the next time Zone pops up?