Unwanted Autodial on startup

[kris love]

Using XP sp3, Firefox 3.5.3

Hello everybody,

Here's what's happening. When I boot, the system does an autoconnect/autodial. No programs are open, nothing's in startup which would prompt this. It started happening after downloading the August black Tuesday files after Woody said OK (around 09/03).

Here's what used to happen. It autoconnected when I opened Firefox. That's the way I want it. That lets me do other work without being online. Still have dial-up until broadband becomes available at my location, hopefully next summer. Need the phone line open.

Can't blame Firefox. It isn't even open when the autodial happens. Control Panel/Internet Options/Connections is set at "Never dial a connection", so I guess I don't have a "proxy server". Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services/Remote Access, Remote Access Auto, and Telephony are all set on Automatic. If changed to Manual, Firefox does not autodial.

A topic search showed some suggestions from 2003-04 which I'm reluctant to try on 2009 XP. Somewhere in my searching I found that XP defaults to autodial and that one must change the registry. I am definitely not going to mess around in the registry without explicit instructions.

Is there anywhere else I need to make changes first? If the registry is the answer, would someone tell me the registry line to look for and how to change it.

Thanks,
Kris

[JoeP517]

[quote name='kris love' post='793393' date='15-Sep-2009 10:43']Using XP sp3, Firefox 3.5.3

Hello everybody,

Here's what's happening. When I boot, the system does an autoconnect/autodial. No programs are open, nothing's in startup which would prompt this. It started happening after downloading the August black Tuesday files after Woody said OK (around 09/03).

Here's what used to happen. It autoconnected when I opened Firefox. That's the way I want it. That lets me do other work without being online. Still have dial-up until broadband becomes available at my location, hopefully next summer. Need the phone line open.

Can't blame Firefox. It isn't even open when the autodial happens. Control Panel/Internet Options/Connections is set at "Never dial a connection", so I guess I don't have a "proxy server". Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services/Remote Access, Remote Access Auto, and Telephony are all set on Automatic. If changed to Manual, Firefox does not autodial.

A topic search showed some suggestions from 2003-04 which I'm reluctant to try on 2009 XP. Somewhere in my searching I found that XP defaults to autodial and that one must change the registry. I am definitely not going to mess around in the registry without explicit instructions.

Is there anywhere else I need to make changes first? If the registry is the answer, would someone tell me the registry line to look for and how to change it.

Thanks,
Kris[/quote]

It is most likely something "phoning home" to check for updates. You can use a utility such as Autoruns for Windows to see what is really started when you boot the system. With Autoruns you should pay particular attention to the Logon tab. If you are not sure of what the startup programs are post a screen shot of the Autoruns Logon tab.

Joe

[kris love]

Here they are. Do you suppose it's IE? I've loaded IE8 and keep it updated but never use it except when manually downloading updates.

Sorry, I'm fighting this interface. This is my first post since we changed to the new server.

[Leif]

[quote name='kris love' post='793402' date='15-Sep-2009 17:16']Here they are. Do you suppose it's IE?[/quote]
Do you have IE set to automatically check for updates?

[attachment=85540:x.gif]

[kris love]

No, Lief. The box is unchecked. I turned that off when I loaded IE8.

[JoeP517]

[quote name='kris love' post='793402' date='15-Sep-2009 11:16']Here they are. Do you suppose it's IE? I've loaded IE8 and keep it updated but never use it except when manually downloading updates.

Sorry, I'm fighting this interface. This is my first post since we changed to the new server.[/quote]

You have several programs that can try to access the outside world on a boot. Avast, ZoneAlarm, Securnia PSI, and possible the HP software. A couple of the other s I can't quite make out. H

Have your updated any of these recently?

Have you checked their configurations?

Joe

[kris love]

Thanks, Joe. It was Secunia. Avast, ZA, and the printer have been around for years, but recently I let Secunia into startup because it seemed to provide valuable warning information. Using Mike Lin's startup.exe, I removed it, did a hard boot, and all is well.

Too bad. An instance of an excellent and useful program causing a problem. Every time Secunia is opened it tries to get into startup. Fortunately, StartupMonitor warns me so I can say no.

And thanks for sending me to Autoruns. Not sure what it all means, but useful for the next time something breaks.

[JoeP517]

[quote name='kris love' post='793411' date='15-Sep-2009 12:01']Thanks, Joe. It was Secunia. Avast, ZA, and the printer have been around for years, but recently I let Secunia into startup because it seemed to provide valuable warning information. Using Mike Lin's startup.exe, I removed it, did a hard boot, and all is well.

Too bad. An instance of an excellent and useful program causing a problem. Every time Secunia is opened it tries to get into startup. Fortunately, StartupMonitor warns me so I can say no.

And thanks for sending me to Autoruns. Not sure what it all means, but useful for the next time something breaks.[/quote]

You're welcome. Glad you found it. Thanks for posting back.

Joe