Windows XP problems

**A face** · 07/04/2004, 11:27 PM

Lads,

A mate has Win XP, and keeps getting pop-ups, changing homepage and stuff added to his favorites. He cant do a full scan disk and fix all errors. He has some problems with his search (it wasn't searching) but that has kinda cleared up. When he tries to shut down/restart, it says that "Win Min" and "rundll32" are not responding and end task window pops up.

Fair nuff ... standard problems .... Add/Remove ... deleted diallers .... temp ... standard trouble shooting ..... cant find what is happening.

He has looked at his bill ... itemised .... and calls have been made while he was on the net and not on the net. The calls were made to EM-SAT (international call) e.g. 45 mins = €217. When he was on the net, all the times correspond to when he was billed for the flat rate tarrif, it knocked the other one off, eircom have sent him a letter saying they have noticed the activity and are monitoring it and sending him bills monthly, restricted access, itemised bills etc (their request, not his) ... this is happening with the 1893 flat rate number only.

Anyone heard of similar ??

**dahamsta** · 08/04/2004, 7:59 AM

Eircom earns millions from these porndiallers and has a whole department dedicated to embarrassing customers into paying for the charges they rack up. Here's a couple of threads on the IrelandOffline forum about it:

If your friend isn't worried about the "embarrassment", get him to make lots of noise about it with phone calls and letters to ComReg, RegTel (not strictly their remit, but it should be), the Minister for Communications and his local TD's, Senators and councillors (contact details on the Oireachtas and party websites).

He should also take a case in his local Small Claims Court -- it'll only cost him a tenner, and either Eircom won't turn up (likely) or they will turn up and so will a few people like me. With placards and stuff. If he is embarrassed, tell him to quit whining and pay the bill, and tell him I said he's a wuss-ass moron for doing so.

As to the computer, you need to do a few things. First of all, take a complete backup of the machine for evidence. Then reinstall Windows and patch it completely immediately, and dial those security settings up high on IE. Even better, "uninstall" IE from the computer and install Firebird or another browser.

Finally, and this is absolutely the most important step, give your buddy a hard slap on the side of the head for being such a ********.

adam

**pete** · 08/04/2004, 9:36 AM

Did he select ther wrong a/c dialup for the web or something?

**eoinh** · 08/04/2004, 10:21 AM

is the competitions regulators is it not?

isnt it odd that there is only one competitions regulator?

Surely there should be at least two!!!!

**pete** · 08/04/2004, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by eoinh

Surely there should be at least two!!!!

who regulates the regulator?

**dahamsta** · 08/04/2004, 11:15 AM

Who regulates the regulator that regulates the regulator? Who regulates...

**Plastic Paddy** · 08/04/2004, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by A face

Lads,

A mate has Win XP, and keeps getting pop-ups, changing homepage and stuff added to his favorites. He cant do a full scan disk and fix all errors. He has some problems with his search (it wasn't searching) but that has kinda cleared up. When he tries to shut down/restart, it says that "Win Min" and "rundll32" are not responding and end task window pops up.

There are three steps I'd recommend your friend takes to get rid of the crap and stop this stuff reoccurring:

1. Install spyware detectors
2. Download and install Windows service packs and security updates
3. Install a home firewall

1. For this, there's two pieces of free software that I'd recommend:

Lavasoft's AdAware - www.lavasoftusa.com - this will root out the spyware that seems to have installed itself on your friend's PC and quarantine/remove it. It sounds like loads of self-extracting software has taken over, but shouldn't be too much of a problem to remove.

SpyBot Search and Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php - pretty similar to AdAware, but sometimes picks up on other stuff too.

Make sure your friend downloads update files for each from the websites, as these will contain up-to-the-minute spyware definitions for the programs to remove. Both are easy to use, btw.

2. I'd also recommend your friend goes to the Windows Update website - http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com - and downloads updated Service Packs and Security Updates. Details of how to do this can be found either on the Microsoft website or at http://www.sophos.co.uk and again, it's all free.

3. To allow control over who can see your machine or what is being downloaded to it, I'd recommend installing a firewall like ZoneAlarm from www.zonelabs.com. Again, easy and free.

Best of luck!

PP

**Plastic Paddy** · 08/04/2004, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by dahamsta

Who regulates the regulator that regulates the regulator? Who regulates...

Ahhh, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" - as ancient as the hills, that one...

PP

**Footie_Fan** · 08/04/2004, 9:51 PM

Originally Posted by A face

Lads,

A mate has Win XP, and keeps getting pop-ups, changing homepage and stuff added to his favorites. He cant do a full scan disk and fix all errors. He has some problems with his search (it wasn't searching) but that has kinda cleared up. When he tries to shut down/restart, it says that "Win Min" and "rundll32" are not responding and end task window pops up.

I had issues with that for ages ad-ware and spybot did nothing the only one that got rid of my problems was This

Could somone explain this eircom thing?

**A face** · 08/04/2004, 11:17 PM

First up ... nice one lads !!

I am going to the game tomorow so i wont see him till Sat

Question ... i wanna ring eircom on Sat to see where they are on this, are they open Sat (does anyone have a number so there is no buck passing)

Then i'll back it up ..... I wanna format, seems to be easiest option ?? (how do you format in XP, if there is no DOS, not very good with this new fangled OS

)

To turn up the security on XP, is it the same as 98, Me etc.

But yeah .... Cool with that. Let ye know how i get on !!

PS. Can anyone confirm is XP a crock of sh!t .... i am glad i never went near it.

**Plastic Paddy** · 09/04/2004, 8:35 AM

Originally Posted by A face

Can anyone confirm is XP a crock of sh!t .... i am glad i never went near it.

Happy to. After installing it over the top of Windows 2000 Pro a fortnight ago, my PC kept falling over. £250, several arguments with Mrs PP and two engineers later and we managed to reformat the hard-drive and reinstall W2000. The second engineer told me that, in his considered opinion, "I wouldn't touch XP with yours, never mind me own".

Enough said.

PP

**cosmogrl1** · 29/04/2004, 3:41 AM

Originally Posted by A face

First up ... nice one lads !!

I am going to the game tomorow so i wont see him till Sat

Question ... i wanna ring eircom on Sat to see where they are on this, are they open Sat (does anyone have a number so there is no buck passing)

Then i'll back it up ..... I wanna format, seems to be easiest option ?? (how do you format in XP, if there is no DOS, not very good with this new fangled OS

)

To turn up the security on XP, is it the same as 98, Me etc.

But yeah .... Cool with that. Let ye know how i get on !!

PS. Can anyone confirm is XP a crock of sh!t .... i am glad i never went near it.

yes yes yes it is a crock! I had it for a couple of years..then I switched to MAC...no more worries

**Peadar** · 29/04/2004, 8:06 AM

Originally Posted by A face

PS. Can anyone confirm is XP a crock of sh!t .... i am glad i never went near it.

No way. It's one of the best client operating systems available.
It has a built in Firewall which you should switch on and activate the relevant options. Look here

Originally Posted by cosmogrl1

yes yes yes it is a crock! I had it for a couple of years..then I switched to MAC....

Windows XP is only coming into its own now so perhaps you were a little too hastey?

**cosmogrl1** · 30/04/2004, 5:06 AM

Originally Posted by Peadar

No way. It's one of the best client operating systems available.
It has a built in Firewall which you should switch on and activate the relevant options. Look here

Windows XP is only coming into its own now so perhaps you were a little too hastey?

Nooo I am happy with the new OS