Thinking cap time.

The machine in question, reports the obligatory "No Dial Tone" message. I can access the ISP (AOL), by using a hand-set on the same line to aquire the dial tone. The modem then dials the access number automatically, as it normally would. ( I believe this is true for any connectoid, BTW.)

It gets better, if you hang up the handset, you loose the connection.

Now...I have searched the DB here, and have read as many "No Dial Tone" threads as practical. Let me assure everyone that nothing is wrong with the phone line, and the cables are in their appropriate holes.

It is also interesting to note that a hyperteminal attempt, results in an immediate illegal op.

I will try a number of things before I reinstall the modem. It has the "Mighty Fine" enumerator, and I will put that off as long as possible.


Besides, I have a strong reason to believe this is software (third party possibly) or an unwitting reg hack (also from an offending install) related.

Since the machine showed-up with a squeaky clean TIF and Cookies, I decided to look elsewhere. Not only has it been cruising the seemier side of the tracks, an interesting "dialer" was magically installed in C: . Also, a trip to Windows > Temp revealed up to 4 exe's masquerading as TMP's.

Normally, I save mystery files, in this case they were dumped. (The Dialer, BTW , was listed in "Add/Remove" programs, and "uninstalled" (???) from there.

Tauscan is reporting as clean, and it's process monitor shows nothing untoward. Same is true for rmboxes' Start-up Log. (Except, I honestly don't understand the Stub Log, looks like a lot of basic junk was installed along the way.).

Oh, I guess I should add, that it is clear that up until recently, the Primary users AOL PW was compromised. (It really does just keep getting better...dosen't it ?).

Anyhow, I haven't reinstalled DUN's yet. But I notice there is a VPN adapter installed as well as the AOL adapter. I need to figure out what that is about. And I'll do the DUN thing.

My thought is that, there may be a reg entry that is interfering with the normal access to the "dialer". If anyone can point me in the correct direction I would appreciate it.

If you have the silver bullet, but choose not to post, please mail me.