Unwanted dial-ups from computers connected to a small network

[dbclan]

I have a connection to the Internet via a XP machine and a small local network which has two other W98SE machines on it. I have Internet Connection Sharing running. I have "never dial-up a connection automatically" (or something like that) setup on the HOST which has the modem.

Every once in a while, I notice that a dial-up to my ISP occurs spontaneously but I haven't been able to determine which computer on the network is responsible or which application. At the time of these dial-ups, no one is actively using the computers, so some application has made the request.

Can someone tell me how to obtain a log of activity or some way to identify exactly which machine and which application is initiating the dial-ups?

Thanks,
David

 

[InnoTech]

so are you sharing dail-up or broadband?

"Jack of all trades. Master of none."

 

[dbclan]

The local network is broadband. The XP computer is the one that has the dial-up connection. The others access the dial-up via the network, thus going through the XP.

I hope that is clearer, if not, I'll try again.

 

[InnoTech]

is you internet connection still active when the dail-up connection box appears?

you said you have it set to "never dail a connection" right? so that means you have a short cut to the connection on your desktop on your xp machine?

if the connection is fine when you get this box i would run msconfig and disable all start-up programs/processes and reboot. then connect again and see if the dail-up connection keeps popping up. if so, it would be a browser issue on that machine. make sure you really are connected to the net when those boxes are popping up. "Jack of all trades. Master of none."

 

[dbclan]

The internet connection is not active at the time that the dial-up occurs.

Yes, I outlook configured on the XP so that it comes up in the off-line mode first and I have to manually request a send/receive in order to initiate a dial-up. The other machines are used for IE only (no mail) and the way it is supposed to work is that the user would have to open up IE to kick off the dial-up request on the XP.

I'm not sure which box you are referring to in your 3rd paragraph. Also, do I run the msconfig on each machine or the XP only? And, since the unwanted dial-up occur only occasionally, it is difficult to check the success of any corrections until sufficient time has passed.

 

[InnoTech]

as far as i know (i may be wrong) your client pc's should not have anything to do with the host pc dailing the connection. if you were to open IE on a client pc it should only get "page cannot be displayed" error when the host isn't "online". the dail-up should only come from the host's requests. now, let me say again, i'm not positive about that. its been a while since i've shared a dail-up connection however i've walked many people through the process recently.

what i would do is have a shortcut on your desktop to your connection on your host pc and your "never dail a connection" setting should still be fine. the others should be set that way also.

but hey! if i'm wrong and its another pc trying to make the dail-up through the host, just unplug one pc at a time to see which one is doing so. going back to your first question. i'm NOT SURE there is such a program to do so that would be easily deciffered.

let me know if that helps anything. "Jack of all trades. Master of none."

 

[NigelR]

Did you get to the bottom of this problem as I've had the same problem for a long time ?
Cheers.

 

[dbclan]

NigelR,

I have not been able to get to the bottom of the un-wanted dial-ups. It is a shame that no-one seems to have a tool to identify which application prompted a dial-up session. I'm fairly certain that the problem is coming from my XP machine and not the other two machines on the local network. Other than that, I haven't been able to track down the culprit.

 

[orb1tals]

A workaround would be to install a firewall on the XP box that monitors outgoing connection requests (Internet bound) and will prompt you to grant or disallow the connection. I know it is not ideal but will give you an idea of what is initiating the calls. I have known of some windows processes (outside the obvious)that will try and initiate a connection to the internet. Hope this helps.

 

[dbclan]

orb1tals,

I have the firewall from the XP Home edition already turned on. Is there some setting that you can help me with to turn on this additional feature or were you talking about a firewall product from some other vendor?

 

[orb1tals]

Zonealarm Pro will list the local process that is initiating the call. You can see this providing you initially configure Zonealarm to prompt you when an application is requesting access.

 

[jess81]

Hi there,
I am having similar problems - my host computer will not disconnect after the allocated time (ie: Disocnnect if idle for 5mins.) This is when the client computer dials up from the Host computer. This did work once but now I am beside myself as to why it won't work again. I am assuming that this is becuase an application is running in the background that may use the dial up connection. But I can't figure it out?? I looked in the processes in task manager but there seems to be nothing there that uses the dial up.
Help anyone?

 

[compgirlfhredi]

I had a friend who had this problem. I asked if he had Fax Service running. He checked, and he did. When he reset the Fax Service to "manual", it still happened. I had him go into Control Panel and on his Modem Properties Power Management tab, and uncheck both boxes. Then reboot. He has not had the problem since. WHY? I honestly have no clue...

 

[blister87521]

On the server go to your Dial-up connection advanced properties. Uncheck "Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer......."

That's all.

Blister

 

[dbclan]

Blister, unchecking the "establish a dial-up connection..." setting is what prompted the original question because it doesn't work. Even though all obvious switches were in their "off" position, I would still get spontaneous dial-up activity. I'm now off of the dial-up service and on a c-modem. But it still concerns me that there's some process/program on the computer that is ignoring the "never dial" setting.

db

 

[dbclan]

I noticed another thread called norman360 which contains what I believe to be the answer to my problem. I think the culprit for the spontaneous dial-ups when I was using a dial-up ISP was the "windows update" feature of XP.

db