Dialers are the scum of the earth

[April]

Is there any way to keep them from infesting your computer?

Serious thread, so please treat it as such. Thank you.

Serious issue, as I now have to pay an addition 107 euro, which is about equal to $110. All because of one of those damn sneaky programs.

Any ideas?

 

[Spinaroonie]

when you're not on the net, unplug your phone line.

 

[Guest]

Serious issue, as I now have to pay an addition 107 euro, which is about equal to $110. All because of one of those damn sneaky programs.

What are the dialers?

 

[modest mouse]

when you're not on the net, unplug your phone line.

Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner.

 

[Gilly Bean]

You mean an auto dial up? I'm confuzzled, which granted, isn't hard, but what do you mean by dialer?

 

[Chantal Marchon]

you need to get a firewall and delete the programs causing the dialer. Secondly, if the charges are from your phone company, call them and explain the situation and how you were charged for calls you didn't make, didn't know about etc.

 

[bknight2602]

Good thoughts from a lot of folks. Just be carefule with those pop ups and sites.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Dialers are the scum of the earth

What are the dialers?

What he said.......

 

[Guest]

 

[Killswitch]

Get a cable internet connection, and yeah call the phone company.....and stay out of the porn sites.

Delete your cookies daily.
Delete your temp files hourly.
A good firewall is always a good idea.

And when a dialer pops up on your screen......dont click anything until you can translate the language they speak....I hade one that wanted me to add it, and it was in German.....I figured clicking no was a scam so I clicked yes to it, and it vanished.

They are very tricky these guys.

 

[Killswitch]

Anyone get this pop up that you cant delete off your screen when surfing Kazaa, called " Free Scratch Cards?"

It looks like a microsoft pop up box and has no " X " and you cant close it by clicking it on the menu at the bottom and clicking close either.

Bastards

 

[Chantal Marchon]

Kazaa is how I got my popups too. I hate those things. I put adaware in my computer and it is supposed to remove it. I haven't had anymore popups, but I think the program is still lurking in there somewhere.

 

[April]

I already run a firewall on all computers.
Broadband isn't an option where I live.
I run AdAware frequently and it has never picked up these dialers.
I've never received a pop up regarding these, personally, and am always ultra careful about what I click on. Unfortunately, someone in my house likes the porn sites. *ahem*
Apparently there are some dialers out there that install themselves without even asking.
I really really don't think unplugging the phone cord when the net is not on is gonna work. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Now, there must be some way of stopping these dialers. Isn't there? Some setting or program?

There're some very smart people here. Surely y'all can figure something out?

 

[peachykeen]

Please, please someone 'splain me what a 'dialer' is, afore my head essplodes.

 

[modest mouse]

I really really don't think unplugging the phone cord when the net is not on is gonna work. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Are you joking?

 

[ClaudiusMaximus]

Spybot Search And Destroy found a dialer on my computer the last time I ran it, and removed it. My computer isn't hooked up to a phone line so it wasn't a major problem, but it's nice to know you have a clean computer. Also deletes just about everything AdAware does, but it is up to date unlike AdAware which hasn't been updated in eons in internet time.

AVG (free version) found a virus in a program that I downloaded off Kazaa, if I had run it it would most likely have caused my computer to crash all the time.

Now I check all programs I download before running them, and sweep my computer for junk about once a fortnight. My computer is clean healthy and happy.

 

[ClaudiusMaximus]

Dialers are little programs that sit on your computer and dial up premium rate numbers. Some porn sites want you to install them, same with pirate software sites. They are evil.

 

[April]

Are you joking?

No, I'm not joking. Please explain to me then.

 

[estevie]

I really really don't think unplugging the phone cord when the net is not on is gonna work. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

when the net is not on? Thats a confusing statement, of course the net is not on or the dialer wouldn't be dialing to get on. Right?

I would think that if the phone cord is unplugged there will be no calls made.

This would be what I would do until I figured out how to get rid of the program.

Good Luck!

 

[April]

Well, I would think that if I have logged off the net, and closed my browser, then I wouldn't have to unplug the phone line. It would be pretty obvious that something was dialing out if my net related programs are closed. Right?

 

[Spinaroonie]

I run AdAware frequently and it has never picked up these dialers.

There's the problem. AdAware has not been updated in about six months, and thus is gonna miss a lot of crap on your computer.

Read more: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143470&highlight=AdAware

 

[sabbathstorm]

start -> run -> msconfig

and use this page to identify anything suspicious, such as the auto-dialers:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

 

[modest mouse]

April, you are thinking all wrong. If your browsers are closed a dialer can still dial. That should be obvious. If the phone line isnt plugged into the computer then the dialer has nothing to dial.

 

[estevie]

Well, I would think that if I have logged off the net, and closed my browser, then I wouldn't have to unplug the phone line. It would be pretty obvious that something was dialing out if my net related programs are closed. Right?

No, I don't think so, Angel. If your computer is on, even if nothing is running, your computer can connect. I don't think it has anything to do with your browser.

Of course, I could be wrong. I know nothing about computers!

 

[April]

Thanks for the link Sabbath Storm. I'll look at it more tomorrow.

Mouse, I guess I would have to see it happen to "get it".



Detecting these buggers isn't the problem. I've done that. I think. What I really need help with is finding out if there is a way to stop them getting in in the first place. Is there?