help me avoid dialers please

[chercat]

Hi

My computer was seriously attacked in June and I still have not received a phone bill but I believe that an Internet Connection wizard was used to dial out to adult sites.
I had a broadband connection and had to eventually reformat and wipe the pc clean because of numerous reg. changes that I could not fix, etc.
Unfortuantely, I did not realize that the phone line was still in the back of the pc when I had a dial upa connection.

I will fight any charges , of course , but now I am afraid to use the computer at all . I returned the cable modem , disconnected the phone cord and have nto used it in almost a month .

A friend at work helped me reformat again but before I attempt to use it again I need some serious help.
I called my local phone co and they put a 900 block on my phone . I was told they could not block internat'l calls so I went thru AT&T for long distance in order to get that block established .
Previously , I had no long distance carrier because I NEVER make long distance calls.

Now a cousin told me that they could have been able to make calls using a 10-10 workaround . I called to ask if I could block all but local calls on my phone and they said yes , but that would still not prevent me or anyone else from making internat'l calls to adult sites or gaming sites .
Verizon claims that I will have to get an ISP and ask that they put parental controls that will prohibit anyone in my household from going to those sites.
That is not the issue - I want to make sure that someone else cannot install a dialer or somehow load script or software to override my settings and access those sites and use my phone line to dial out .

No one can seem to give me accurate info from these phone companies .

If anyone can tell me how to prevent this from ever happening again, I would be eternally greatful !

Rught now , I do not have the drivers installed on my 56K modem and phone cord is out . I was told that I have to check off " Never dial a connection" after reformatting , which is the default , but it will not let me do this - it is greyed out , I assume because I do not have the modem drivers installed ???

Any advice on hwo to totally protect myself will be much appreicated or I Will be destined to use the library computer forever because this is so stressful to me !! Thanks a lot !!!!

[snowbound]

Hi chercat. :)

This is more of a privacy issue so i will move your thread over to privacy problems for better attention.


snowbound

[Blackspear]

{QUOTE-> ...Any advice on how to totally protect myself will be much appreicated... <-QUOTE}

Hi Chercat, take a look at the following thread:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=43117

and post number 4, if you have disconnected your telephone connection from the back of your PC, going back to cable broadband will be fine.

Hope this helps...

Cheers ;D

[chercat]

Thanks for the reply .

I am planning on usign a dial up connection when I do reconnect because the cable was ober $50 a month here and too expensive .

A friend uses AOL and he has a dialer on his computer and he does not know how to get rid of it .

I called Verizon and asked if I could just haev a local access only phone line because of security issues with the computer and they said "yes " but then they told me that there is no way for them to restrict the computer access and I could connect via the Internet Connection Wizard ( which is apparently what the hacker did ) and they could not prevent that . She said it was up to me to get an ISP that allowed parental controls and that was it .

This makes no sense to me since I did not dial out to the porn sites - someone did a proxy override or whatever to control my phone line .
Is there a way to diable the Wizard or to diable any other dial up other than , say AOL or Compuserve, etc?

Also, when I now turn on my computer ( no phone line , no Internet access, no drivers installed on modem now , etc. ) , a zig zag line flashes across the screen right before Windows loads . A guy at work said he thought this meant that someone was trying to network with me and that they could have hacked into my BIOS.

This never happened before . The only thing I did differently was that I DL'd Nvidia drievrs from their website after reformatting since , for some reason, the disc for the drivers would not open.

Does anyone have any knowledge about this ?

Thanks a lot

[Paradigm]

Dialers are a scourge here in the U.K.

You can see what a tremendous war of words has been waged between us and uncooperative Telcos here:

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t11685.html?

Not everyone likes reading,I know,but the fact is,it's up to us to educate I.S.Ps who are essentially clueless about this issue.

Furthermore,don't fall into the trap of thinking cable/ADSL makes you immune.I suggest you research this with the company that manufactures the router/connecting device.It clearly states that a malicious programme is capable of connecting to a pay-per-minute location on my router manufacturers website (ADSL in the U.K. still employs POTS).Regardless of the fact you don't dial a number to connect to the Internet via a router.

If you are hit with a dialer,under all circumstances FIGHT.Resist payment,because the people behind these things are criminals.They should not profit from these fraudulent scams.The Law is lagging on this one,and needs to be brought up to speed-fast.

[Blackspear]

{QUOTE-> ...A friend uses AOL and he has a dialer on his computer and he does not know how to get rid of it... <-QUOTE}

Tell your friend to try this website: http://spywarewarrior.com/

{QUOTE-> ...I called Verizon... She said it was up to me to get an ISP that allowed parental controls and that was it... This makes no sense to me since I did not dial out to the porn sites - someone did a proxy override or whatever to control my phone line... <-QUOTE}

This is not their fault, part of the responsibility of owniing a computer is securing it, no different than not locking you car and leaving the keys in it, and then blaming the insurance company when they don't want to pay out. This said, it is still worth fighting against, some telephone companies will waive the charges if you persist.

{QUOTE-> ...Also, when I now turn on my computer ( no phone line , no Internet access, no drivers installed on modem now , etc. ) , a zig zag line flashes across the screen right before Windows loads . A guy at work said he thought this meant that someone was trying to network with me and that they could have hacked into my BIOS.

Does anyone have any knowledge about this?... <-QUOTE}

Hacking the BIOS is very unlikely.

If you follow the link that I provided above, it will show you what products that you need in order to secure you PC, starting with a good Anti-virus, a good Firewall - so you will know if something is trying to dial out...

Hope this helps...

Cheers ;D

[look here]

http://www.cfos.de/watch/index_e.html