Phone dialers

[Steve Chafer]

Saw a scary programme on the box yesterday dont know if anyone else saw it.

Apparantly malicious software can get into your PC and you can end up calling numbers without your knowledge untill the phone bill hits your doormat;

what's the best way to guard against these and if there any way to check one's PC for their existance?
Steve

 

[blicky_1]

what's the best way to guard against these and if there any way to check one's PC for their existance?
Steve

Don't have a phone line connected to your PC I'm on NTL cable modem so no need for a phone line.

 

[Dieselman]

Run a decent firewall and antivirus program.
The AV will detect the program and the firewall will stop the activity.

 

[Spinal]

Run a decent firewall and antivirus program.
The AV will detect the program and the firewall will stop the activity.

Most antivirii won't detect all diallers... especially if it isn't updated...

That said, some good advice would be too ask your phone company (BT does this) to ban premium numbers from being called from your line.

If you are on cable internet (i.e. a nice thick coaxial cable comes out of your modem, nothing is connected to the POTS) you are pretty safe

Michele

 

[pammy]

Was gonna say much the same - ie if you're on a cable connection you're OK. Good to know ntl's good for sommat

I did a sweep of my PC spme time ago now and found about 3 diallers

 

[grasmere]

get on broadband - these dialler programs are then not an issue AFAIK because they need to dial out on a number but broadband is differnet

 

[Spinal]

get on broadband - these dialler programs are then not an issue AFAIK because they need to dial out on a number but broadband is differnet

I'm curious... do diallers work through ADSL/DSL modems too? Because an adsl modem IS connected to the POTS... and it does dial a remote number to connect too...
Michele

 

[SEM]

Having Spoken to BT Several Times basically to tell them i have a fax connected to the telephone line on my broadband connection, and that no modems were connected to line, why should i pay for the premium numbers on my bill (sex and game sites). I reported them to some official site that check out these numbers, in Italy South America and Some Eastern European country. I still had to pay the £60 but i have free premium block an all my phonelines, thats the simple way. Broadband is always open and you are only open to attack via hackers, so get a router and firewall, infact get several firewalls..there are some cunning blighters out there!

 

[PJH]

When I was last on dail-up (between ISPs) I used this download from BT.
http://www.bt.com/btprivacyonline/

It reported some strange attempts to dial out, ie numbers that were not full UK spec.

 

[grasmere]

do diallers work through ADSL/DSL modems too? Because an adsl modem IS connected to the POTS... and it does dial a remote number to connect too...

no the adsl does not dial any numbers - so the dialler progs will not work

eg you can set your pc and normal phone line with dialup modem to connect to a variety of ISPs at your choice but with ADSL broadband the line is preset to a single ISP - thats why you have to 'migrate' to change broadband ISPs - its a pain in the ar$e - which I guess is good You then set the adsl modem to the ISPs settings and thats that so you can be always connected etc

These Dial up programs work by disconnecting your normal ISP dial up connection and redialling a different premium rate ISP number without, hopefully you realising it so you caryy on surfing at eg £x a minute etc- like you putting the phone down and calling someone else in practise.

 

[Spinal]

no the adsl does not dial any numbers - so the dialler progs will not work

eg you can set your pc and normal phone line with dialup modem to connect to a variety of ISPs at your choice but with ADSL broadband the line is preset to a single ISP - thats why you have to 'migrate' to change broadband ISPs - its a pain in the ar$e - which I guess is good You then set the adsl modem to the ISPs settings and thats that so you can be always connected etc

These Dial up programs work by disconnecting your normal ISP dial up connection and redialling a different premium rate ISP number without, hopefully you realising it so you caryy on surfing at eg £x a minute etc- like you putting the phone down and calling someone else in practise.

Yeah, I've worked with dialers before; but never with adsl... I went from Gambia's 36kb/s (only very late at night and very early in the mornings... during the day when all the companies opened, connecting was impossible!) To AOHell's 56k (which I got kicked off after realising I could keep it on 24/7 To Blueyonder's coax cable... 3/4 years and never looked back; Love it, love them! I've called them at 3 in the morning after landing from a trip and the phone got prompty answered

Anyways, returning to ADSL; does the modem dial on the same line as the phone? Or do they use the extra pair of twisted wires that don't get used to run a second line for the ADSL?

Michele

P.s. don't tell my lecturer I don't know this! Networking is my strongest subject; but we haven't really gone into ADSL much... only know "asyncronous digital subscriber line"; how it sends the data, when encoding it uses etc...) Michele

 

[grasmere]

returning to ADSL; does the modem dial on the same line as the phone? Or do they use the extra pair of twisted wires that don't get used to run a second line for the ADSL?

no - its the same wires = 'asynchronous'

ie (digital communication) pertaining to a transmission technique that does not require a common clock between the communicating devices; timing signals are derived from special characters in the data stream itself [ant: synchronous] 2: not synchronous; not occurring or existing at the same time or having the same period or phase

in a nutshell - the broadband send /receive signals are on the same wires but essentially at a different frequency to the telephone conversation send/receive. Thats why you need a micro filter to connect and use a phone to an ADSL enabled telephone line. If you can hear a noise when using the phone in that situation then its a symptom that the microfilter is knackered.

HTH

 

[Spinal]

no - its the same wires = 'asynchronous'

ie (digital communication) pertaining to a transmission technique that does not require a common clock between the communicating devices; timing signals are derived from special characters in the data stream itself [ant: synchronous] 2: not synchronous; not occurring or existing at the same time or having the same period or phase

in a nutshell - the broadband send /receive signals are on the same wires but essentially at a different frequency to the telephone conversation send/receive. Thats why you need a micro filter to connect and use a phone to an ADSL enabled telephone line. If you can hear a noise when using the phone in that situation then its a symptom that the microfilter is knackered.

HTH

Ah, thanks! So the microfilter is nothing but a modulator that combines the analog version of the ADSL signal (as supplied by the adsl modem) and the POTS signal... right? If so, why aren't these built into the modems?
Michele

 

[grasmere]

right? If so, why aren't these built into the modems

no - they are a frequency filter ( i believe) so you can attach a telephone to an ADSL enabled line - try it without one fitted.

If anything they should be fitted to the phone rather than the modem.

anyway - like I said - go broadband and do not be troubled by dialler programs

 

[glojo]

I'm curious... do diallers work through ADSL/DSL modems too? Because an adsl modem IS connected to the POTS... and it does dial a remote number to connect too...
Michele

Just read the information on the BT site:

**************Whilst a broadband line cannot dial a premium rate number, many converts to broadband leave their old dial-up modems connected and fall foul to scammers this way. If you use broadband make sure your old modem is unplugged from the phone line. If moving from a dial-up to broadband service before attempting to install broadband on your PC please remove or disable BT Privacy Online modem protection .*********

Regarding filters for broadband.

We were getting a terrible 'hissing' type noise on all our telephones and I could not resolve the problem. Eventually the BT engineer was called and he removed all the ADSL filters and simply put in a new connection type box where the telephone line entered our property. No more hissing, and no more filters everywhere!!

John

 

[Sp!ke]

Did BT cover this cost or was it down to you?

 

[glojo]

Did BT cover this cost or was it down to you?

Hi Spike,
The engineer stated they were responsible for the line outside of my property, but that was four weeks ago and no bill so far.

I suppose I ought to check, but then again....

John

 

[machasm]

As far as these diallers go. I think the safest way to ensure you are not running up big bills is to actually remove the connection from your dial-up modem to the BT wall socket and only connect it when you intend to dial-up.
That said, unless you can't get broadband in your area I believe everyone should be on broadband by now.

BTW ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line) the Asynchronous part refers to the fact that the upload speed is different to the download speed 512/256 or 1024/256 or 2048/256. There are SDSL circuits available (synchronous digital subscriber line) which provide (you guessed it) same speeds up and down.

Mac.

 

[grasmere]

As far as these diallers go. I think the safest way to ensure you are not running up big bills is to actually remove the connection from your dial-up modem to the BT wall socket and only connect it when you intend to dial-up.

that wont make any difference, the dialler programs are designed to end a connection and redial a new number. eg you connect to your normal dial up ISP and at some point eg after 5 or 10 mins whilst you are reading emails or looking at a webpage, the line disconnects and redials the premium rate number to an ISP and you carry on surfing as though nothing has happened - even though you may hear the redial tones.

The big bill comes from a few minutes at £5 a minute or whatever without anyone realising till they get the bill - I know, I was that man

 

[Spinal]

that wont make any difference, the dialler programs are designed to end a connection and redial a new number. eg you connect to your normal dial up ISP and at some point eg after 5 or 10 mins whilst you are reading emails or looking at a webpage, the line disconnects and redials the premium rate number to an ISP and you carry on surfing as though nothing has happened - even though you may hear the redial tones.

The big bill comes from a few minutes at £5 a minute or whatever without anyone realising till they get the bill - I know, I was that man

What he means is physically disconnecting the cable from the socket.
Michel