One of our clients is running SBS 4

[mjstanton]

One of our clients is running SBS 4.5. They have a dial-up connection to the internet which is shared via MS Proxy Server.

Their dial-up number for their ISP is not a local number, it's a "local TOLL call", and they pay $.07/minute. So they use the internet sparingly, basically to check email and to do occasional online banking.

They shut down every computer on the network (it's not a big network - only 5 workstations) except the server when they leave for the day.

When they got their phone bill for the month of September it was 10 times higher than usual - when called, Verizon (their local phone carrier) said that the modem line had been in use hundreds of hours, like one day for 19 hours! How could this happen? Is it possible that the modem has gone haywire? Could it just decide to dial up on it's own?

FWIW, it's a Dell Poweredge Server (about 5 years old).

Thanks in advance for any/all replies!

 

[TonyGroves]

It sounds like the modem is not hanging up as it should. To be on the safe side, I have my modem set to disconnect after 5 minutes (in Modems/Properties/Connection/"Disconnect after ...&quot, plus a similar setting in Modems/Properties/Connection/Advanced/"Extra Settings" appropriate to the particular modem model; in my case (a USR modem) it's "ATS19=5" (without quotes) where the 5 stands for 5 minutes.

 

[devastator]

Or just unplug the line from the modem / or wall mount each night and over the weekend or turn the modem off if external.

 

[mjstanton]

Thanks TonyGroves and devastator for your replies! They are now unplugging the modem at night, but they want to know if there is a way to tell how and why this happened? Nothing has changed in their setup/settings in over a year. This is the first time something like this has happened. Can diagnostics be run on a modem? Between their local telephone company and their ISP, they owe over $500 for the month of September!

 

[ashleym]

Was the modem setup for dial in? Is it possible someone dialed into the modem? It could be spyare on one of the PC's or even the server perhaps? Check their event logs if they are still there and corelate the dates of the phone bill with event log dates and see if you find something. Could the server have been dialing out for antivirus updates or checking email (just the server) and maybe not have hung up like somone else suggested?

AM

 

[mjstanton]

The modem was not set up for dial in. Would spyware on one of the PC's cause the modem to dial their ISP on it's own? As I mentioned, the PC's are all shut down every afternoon at closing time. I suppose it's possible that the server's AV software might be set to automatically update - I'll have to check with them about that. There is no email client set up on the server, so it's not that the server's checking for email.....

What I find so puzzling is that nothing has changed setup or settings-wise in well over a year and this has never happened before.....go figure!

 

[jono261970]

Hello,

What' happening is that some software on your machine is trying to reach the internet. This inturn wakes the proxy up and the proxy activates the line.

A company I know had the same problem with an ISDN line and proxy. I wrote a small program that would schedule RAS from 7am to 6pm - monday to friday. Outside of these hours the RAS service would be shut down thus preventing any connection to the outside world.

After further investigation I found it to be Norton's Anti virus that was causing the problem.

hope this helps

jono


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