Any techies out there-help

[bantymum]

Im hoping to get an answer to this!
Why does the "privacy report" tab pop up from time to time?
even when im on here it has started to appear.
also If i turn off the computer then turn on the next day a strange modem appears in control panel. a lucent win modem which i dont have!!!! it stuffs up all my connection settings and its a drama to remove and replace with my modem.
Have I got someone hanging around using my a/c???
this is making my online life a misery.
I suppose I will have to keep my computer on from now on, or hibernate it each night!!!
any suggestions will be greatly received!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

I'm no expert but you probally got a bug or a virus floating around. Even the best full time firewall and virus protection can miss stuff. Other than that I don't know what to say. Back up your stuff and start over is what I usually do when that happens. And to prevent future bugs, I make it a habit to disconnect from the wireless in the house every night and run checks for viruses every week. Good luck.

 

[bantymum]

Thanks silkiechick, i dont wish to redo the system as I have really good firewalls etc in place, not if i can help it anyway!!!
Hoping for some techies to give any other opinions!!!!
thanks
Helen

 

[barg]

What operating system are you useing?
Does your motherboard have a built in modem?

 

[bantymum]

Hi Barg, im on xp proffessional. ahhhhh maybe it does have an inbuilt modem, any way to check???
thankyou Barg

 

[barg]

Look at the back of your computer and see if theres a place to put a telephone line into it.
If there is, go into your bios and disable it.

added Actually, ive seen some motherboards that had periferals as "optional" but not actually on that paticualr version of the motherboard. They still had it listed in the bios, so, check your bios either way, if you see it listed, disable it.

Most motherboards bios is accessable by hitting the (del) or (delete) button when you first turn the computer on. I belive some also use F11

 

[SpottedCrow]

Sometimes if you have a wireless connection, another person can have theirs set up on the same frequency...that happened with ours a few times.

 

[bantymum]

Thankyou for your help. yes I do have an internal modem (lucent win) and I have disabled it, Ive actually had probs with my mouse now and havent been able to go online until now, I fixed it yeah!!!!
I had to scroll using arrow buttons into control panel and add new hardware, (an old Mouse from Mikey's computer) and install. Im so happy to be online again!!!

 

[bantymum]

One last question, should I shut down this computer at night? I would prefer to leave it on, whats hibernate mean compared to turn off?

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I always shut down at night for 3 reasons:

1) Conserve electricity
2) Clear out all the junk in memory that Windows mis-manages
3) I'm on DSL, and even though I feel like my firewall is secure, leaving my computer on for another 8+ hours for someone to attempt an exploit isn't worth the risk.