Perplexing Problem...

Somebody please...help me solve a very perplexing problem that I have here.

Okay...

I like to play the game NHRA Main Event at http://play.nhra2.com:8080/NHRAApplet.html . and I also like to use the chat rooms at http://www.nitromater.com/ and at http://www.deepstage.net/

But...

Every time I try to use the features at those sites that have JAVA... my Dial-Up breaks its connection.

Now...

I have done all of the things that you'd expect me to do... I have re-programmed my hard drive...TWICE...!!! I have reinstalled and up-dated my JAVA... Three times...!!! I have reinstalled the NHRA Main Event game... Scanned with Norton, SpyHunter and de-fragged many times...and nothing fixes it. My computer fix-it guy can't help, and the other game players and chat buddies don't know either. And it's not my Pop-Up blocker either.

So...

I figure that the trouble must be somewhere in my personal data that I keep in my "My Documents" folder, It must have some sort of worm or something in there causing it. I can't really afford to just trash my personal data, so I have always reinstalled all of it after re-programming my hard drive.

Does anybody know what to tell me about that, and what to do about it...???

I have Windows 2000 pro. I'm running 933 MHz. of Pentium III, 512 MHz of RAM and as I mentioned with a Dial-Up Internet connection. I double checked my modem and it is good.

Thanx...
Maso
Miami, Fl.

 

That is strange. Just your dial-up cuts off and everything else remains normal?? What ISP are you using?

 

Right...

I'm on EarthLink, and by the way...I called them about it and they don't know either. I also had the phone company check my line.

I think that maybe...somebody in the NHRA Main Event chat room might have used some sort of "Hacking" device just to screw me up... I must have beaten him real bad. There's tons of wise guys in there. I haven't been using a firewall. Also...I was running Windows 98 and switched over to Windows 2000 Pro...and it was about that time that these troubles began....but still...I did all of the things that I mentioned since then...it should work

Another thing... about that time I caught the MSBlaster virus...and I dealt with it ( I think...)

 

I used earthlink for years and found it to be nothing but reliable so that's probably not the problem... Have you tried using an alternative browser to run the java scripts?


Do you have a firewall enabled?

 

Ummm...

Alternate browser...??? Do you mean "NetScape"...? I use Internet Explorer.

I don't use a Firewall... Which one do you recomend, and does that help me after the fact...?

Could there be a Worm in my "My Documents" folder...???

Maso

 

I don't know about the worm.. but without a firewall enabled you could easily get another one. I'm not too familiar with Windows 2k, but there should be some way you can try right clicking on your dial-up connection, go to properties, then possibly advanced (I'm getting this from XP). There's a box you can check to tell it to protect your conection with a personal firewall. I had to do that to keep from getting the blaster worm when it first came out.

IF you do have a worm and Norton's updated and still not finding it you're going to have a hard time isolating it. You could check your running processes to see if there's anything like "dllhost" or something of that sort running in the background.


You could try using a browser like Opera to open the java sites and see if it still kicks you off.. I think Opera implements java differently than IE. I haven't touched netscape in years, but I suppose you could try that too...


This is all speculation, like I said, I don't know much about Win 2k, but I do know how to trouble shoot..

 

if you have no firewall then possibilities are you have quite a few baddies on your system.

you must install a firewall pronto and then start to work on the rest of the problems


Free firewalls
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=388


http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1056

After the firewall is installed then
http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27385


then

http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26149

finally I would also run

http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

This are the basics. If you follow all the instructiions given here, you stand a pretty good chance at finding the culprit

 

Just to add to endi's excellent advice, 2k doesn't have a built-in firewall like XP does, and XP's leaves alot to be desired. ZoneAlarm should do you just fine. If it's something from outside (doubtful) that's knocking you offline, that should block it, but either way a firewall is a must.

I'd also recommend scanning for spyware, have a look here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25834

 

I told you this was perplexing...

Okay...I'll follow endiablado's advice, tonight when I have time.

I still need to know if there's something in the data of my "My Documents" folder that is causing it, and how to eradicate that, if possible.

I'm sure that it's not something from outside my system that's knocking me off line now. I rather think that this is the result of some cleaver hacker who got to me through the NHRA Main Event game site... I'd like to confirm that, and I don't think that a new firewall will matter now ( later yes...) I think that I need some kind of really "hip" scanning device, maybe the pandasoftware will do that.

Any more comments...??? Please...

Maso