Mr E, the grey boxes are a separate problem.

Start/Run, type services.msc, OK, scroll down to Messenger, click on it, press Stop button and then set Startup type to Disabled and OK.

Arly
If it is a sound card built in to the motherboard.
Look on the setup disk that came with pc. There should be sound card drivers on there to install and uninstall.
If you let me know the model number of the motherboard I can tell you which drivers you need
D.

If the messenger disable fails which is normally the problem remove the file called catroot. Then it works!

If i'm in my email for more than a couple of minutes i get this message, how can i alter settings to avoid it?

Cookie expired for muppettrader@home.btconnect.com

tia
d.

Mr E, as K says this could just be messenger let us know if the messenger disable works, I thought it might be worse because of the content. However it might be just that.

Mr Euro

I had a similar problem a while back. Do a file search for anything with "purityscan" "buddylinks" or "clickspring.net". They had somehow installed themselves on my machine and I was getting 10/15 pop ups a minute for a variety of things - sex sites, chat, credit cards, car loans, tech gadgets. Spaceman led me in the right direction and I finally got rid of them. If you find them report back and I can help you.

Regards
Rob

Internet phone dialler fraud

Updated: 5 April
Who is affected: All internet users

ntl would like to warn all customers about the risk of inadvertently loading premium rate phone dialler software onto your computer. This software could reconfigure your computer to dial a premium rate number to connect you to the internet, or cause your computer to dial other premium rate numbers without your permission, resulting in large phone bills.

This problem mainly affects dial-up internet customers, but can also affect broadband customers if you leave your phone line plugged into your computer.

Whilst there are legitimate uses for dialler software applications, many are designed to be downloaded and installed without your consent and to connect to premium rate telephone services, sometimes costing as much as 1.50 per minute, without your knowledge.

How to tell if you are affected
You should thoroughly check your phone bill for any 09 premium rate numbers, and check your dialler settings to make sure there are no unrecognised dial-ups set up. These can be found by going into Internet Options on your Control Panel, and clicking on the "Connections" tab or by searching for "Dial-up Networking" in Windows Help.

What should you do?
Installing and configuring a reputable firewall application will protect your PC from unauthorised downloads, and give you an opportunity to block any attempted downloads from unrecognised sources. You can download a free firewall here. You should not download software from the internet unless you are sure of the source.

It is your responsibility to make sure your computer is not used to make these unauthorised premium rate calls, and as an ntl telephone customer, you can bar premium rate phone calls from your line. Other telephone service providers can also offer this service.

If you suspect that you have been the victim of such a fraud, contact ICSTIS, the body that supervises telephone information services such as premium rate services, who can investigate cases of telephone fraud.

If you are an ntl broadband customer and you also have a conventional modem in your PC, we advise you to physically unplug your modem lead from the wall socket.

This could be of interest to someone!!!!!!!!!!!


Mega...

Thanks very much all. Have been through the various processes above and it seems to have worked. Found two additional dial up options which were premium rate. Will reboot to see if it all come back!

Once again many many thanks.

This Free Of Charge Virus Program is very good! 
Click the ICON  

D.

All's working well except that I receive a message "security settings prevent the running of directX"?

Mr E, I dont think any of the the things we suggested above should have caused that, the message is from IE and is related to the security settings you have in tools/internet options/security under the internet tab.

Thanks Spaceman, should I change it? What does it do?

Nostalgia Corner:

I'm a great hoarder, and have decided to throw out a whole load of discs (3.5") with old software on. Have kept them for years - just in case but reckon their use has expired now. Anyone recognise these:

DrGenius
DrDOS (You could compress your hard disc using this and effectively almost double your HD size)
Borland Paradox
AsEasyAs (123 shareware clone)
Claris Works
Borland QuattroPro
MsDos (various flavours)
Windows 3.11

Black bin bag time :-)

SC, you can sell this sort of stuff on eBay for surprising amounts. Just sold Windows 95 on floppies for 15. People with a hobby of restoring very old machines need the old software. Have a search to see what those things have sold for recently.

Kayak , hope you can help .... my pc thinks its 2001 and keeps seeing ghosts

cheers

:-)

Kayak, had't thought of that.

Will rescue the bin bag :-)

15 for Win 95. Gordon Bennet!!!!

Dil, I bet your computer think Wales are good at rugbt as well? its badly infected, I recommend clearing the hard disk and throwing the whole thing in a skip ;-)

Yes I'm still using Windows 70's Spaceman :-)

Getting a lot of "Mail Delivery (failure 'my e-mail address')" e-mail coming in these last few days.

Also, my ISP (OneTel) is filtering out e-mails, which contain virus attachments, from "obviously infected but they don't know" computer systems.

They come in with messages saying such things as:

A message filter removed the following attachment(s) from this message:

data.exe

A message filter removed the following attachment(s) from this message:

document_word.pif

A message filter removed the following attachment(s) from this message:

mp3music.pif

A message filter removed the following attachment(s) from this message:

message.scr

This is quite an excellent fringe benefit for OneTel customers.

Hi everyone,

Great tread,I want to use two screens with a router,have XP and Win98. Can I use them together or do I have to upgrade win98 to XP also? What router would you suggest?

regards

Pat