Windows

sounds suspiciously like a backdoor trojan trying to dial-out or a viral infection. Have you recently done a full system check for trojans viruses and worms?

regards
rick

Try downloading and installing the free version on AdAware from www.lavasoft.de. This program will scan for "dialers" as well as many other bad and or irritating files / programs.

Thanks guys,

I hava AdWare and it did pick up some Gator files. I've also got McAfee Virus scan which tells me everything's OK but I still get the dial up request for no apparant reason.

I'd actually like to be able to "see" where the data is going to also.

There is an easy way to tell. Install a software-based firewall like ZoneAlarm. It will tell you when an application tries to access the Internet. You will get the filename of the app that is trying to phone home.
You can then research that filename and see if it SHOULD be talking to the Internet or not.
www.zonelabs.com
hope this helps

may be you have AIM,ICQ,or some sort of messenger service. real one player also can be configured to check for updates automatically and so with other software. try checkin this before blaming trojans and stuff like that:)

Thanks for the ZoneAlarm tip;

unfortunately I already have it installed...which is why this problem is so frustrating. That withstanding, ZoneAlarm doesn't tell me exactly what data is being transmitted, just that someone wants to "talk". I'd love to know what's going out and where on my computer it's being taken from.

thanks, Steve

If you already have Zone Alarm installed it's quite simple really....Right click on the ZA icon in the systray>Click on Program Control on the left>Then Click on the Programs Tab on the upper right>Right Click on each program (except IE Explorer), and click remove. After you have removed all application/programs listed I'd restart the box. When you get back up use the box as normal, taking great care as you get the applications access pop-up's to only give rights as a 1 time thing for a while (you will feel nagged but it will be worth the trouble at least until you find out what culprit application it is). Once you get that first Dial-Up terminal window allow it to connect, then see what asks for permission besides the IE Explorer, should be any messenger (or messenger auto-updater) you have starting w/ Windows if any, any anti-virus software update feature, Windows Critical Update Notification or Windows Auto-Update (God Forbid you authorized that feature), Microsoft Q Mgr (it requests constantly but I've never allowed it ever, should anyone have further info on whether I should please tell me so), and many other items/applications that request and need access will request it as you load and use the programs.

Could also simply use the ZA log feature and read the logs to find out what app's. are (or have been) contacting the net or being denied access. I've found out more that way than any other after you remove those programs from the ZA.

To view the ZA logs; Start>Find>Files or folders>Type in ZA logs.txt Start the search, scroll down through the results till you find the latest logs, might want to look @ the previous ones to find a pattern if IP Adresses then just use Who-Is.

Other things I never allow are many, but especially Windows Explorer. Windows Media Player 9 asks now due to lic. requests when used, and on ZA itself make sure on the Overview Section, Preferences Tab that it is set to manually update instead of automatically.

Good luck.