Internet Sharing, Modem making calls, XP

[Mike Kane]

Have just installed XP on my home network using 3 PC's connected to a hub and using 1 machine to connect to my ISP via modem. Internet Sharing has been set up and all machines can connect to the internet. The problem I have is that users on the PC's without modems cause the master PC to connect to the internet intermittently for no apparent reason. They are not browsing etc. Any ideas how to stop this?:mad:

[mbigna]

Many programs, including Windows itself, tend to check for an internet connection when starting up. When these attempts to connect are made, your host machine will dial up. Here are some examples.

Windows-Windows update
RealPlayer-updates itself
Anti-Virus-looks for most recent virus files
Quicken-Online banking
Earthlink-automatic update
AO(Hel)L-automatic update

You will need to identify the culprit program and see if there is an option to turn off the auto-internet check. Some will, some won't. This list is, of course, only partial. You also need to be on the lookout for 'spyware' that tries to send personal data without you knowing about it. Check your startup folder and win.ini and registry to see what all is loading up at boot (with or without you knowing about it).