[sac-forum] Re: Disturbing Phone Call

Wayne and Mark,
Thanks for your help. Wayne, maybe there is something to what you say. I don't know. I have auto updates to SeaMonkey and Thunderbird turned off. When the phone line connection is broken it does not automatically attempt to re-dial. When I close all applications and bring up SeaMonkey it does not come up with the dialing dialogue box and it does not attempt to dial. When I open Thunderbird it comes up with the dialing dialogue box, as I know it always does, but it does not attempt to dial.
I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it was coincidence that it attempted to dial at the same time the call came through, but I don't recall it ever dialing on its own. If I have SeaMonkey up and am at a web site and I break the phone connection, it will always come up with a dialing dialogue box because the web page is attempting to download something, but it never does the dialing on its own. 
Stan

On 5/26/2010 12:46 PM, Wayne Westlake wrote:

Hey Stan,

One thing to check, do you have your computer set to automatically
dial when it's offline?  Many Windows programs and Windows itself
periodically check for updates.  Typically most check when you log
into Windows after a fresh boot (thus making the booting so dang
slow), but if you're computer has been on for a while one of the
programs could be trying to check again.

Most email programs like Thunderbird will check for new mail every 10,
30, etc minutes - however you have it configured.

As a test, close all your open applications and disconnect from the
Internet.  Then launch SeaMonkey.  If it causes your computer to
connect then you know it's automatic.  You could also try having
Thunderbird open, disconnect from the Internet and then tell it to
Send/Receive to see if it will automatically connect.

Viruses are definitely smart enough to trigger the connection, but
most tracking ones periodically phone home and again, if your computer
is set to auto-connect, the request itself could be enough to trigger
the auto-connection.


Wayne Westlake


On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Mark Wyzenbeek<markwyz@xxxxxxx>  wrote:

Short answer, Yes.  I would disconnect the computer from the phone line and
run a virus scan.  If you use dial-up for internet access, leave the
computer connected long enough to download the latest virus definitions
file.  Good Luck.
Mark

Stan Gorodenski wrote:

I believe many different subjects are allowed to be discussed on this
list.

I had Thunderbird (Mozilla email) and SeaMonkey (Mozilla web browser)
minimized. About 1/2 hour ago I got a phone call and it went to my answering
machine. I was preoccupied with something else. A few seconds later the next
thing I heard was my computer attempting to make a phone connection.
Question: Do hackers and other scum now have the capability of directing
ones computer to dial in?
Stan

Other related posts: