NTLWORLD Cable Modem Question

[Guest Taoski]

Question.

My mate has NTL phone and Ntlworld Broadband via a cable modem at home.

The cable modem is plugged into the cable connection and then into a Linksys router and then the PCs he uses are connected via Ethernet to the router which is running DHCP etc...

He has just gone through his NTL phone bills and has discovered quite a few premium rate numbers being dialled at £3 a time but the weird thing is that they are dialled exactly on the turn of the minute. Sometimes dialled 5 times in quick sucession (£15!!) - but exactly on the turn of the minute...

His PC is also reporting that it has a "potential dialler" installed which McAfee cannot delete or quarantine. But... the PC is not connected to a phone line at all and does not even have a modem in.

So... is it possible for a rogue dialler on the PC to utilise the cable modem to make voice calls? I personally think not... just wanted to know as i use ADSL rather than cable.

Cheerz

[Guest Rob.P]

There is a good chance that the dialler is using the modem to make the connection because of the nature of cable connections. Due to the fact that he also has his telephone account with NTL, the NTL service will allow that service to be used and it all runs down the same cable.

I have NTL broadband only, no telephone acount so if a dialler landed on my machine it wouldn't be able to go anywhere because the telephone service isn't enabled at the NTL end.

With ADSL you need filters for phone and data, so it's a lot harder for that sort of stuff to happen.

Your mate could definately do with talking to NTL about this problem, if he informs NTL then they will be able to either block the number on their network and/or chase up who owns the number and get them shut-down. He could also do with blocking the dialler prog with firewall or clean it off if possible manually (and prehaps ditch McAfee and get another more reliable AV, IMO). Can also configure the Linksys Router to block that computer from doing that sort of stuff. A number of options available to restrict/stop the cost being incurred.

[Guest Taoski]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

He has spoke to NTL and they advised him that they would be able to block premium numbers on his voice line - but not on the broadband connection. And they game him a telephone number of a Government place that would tell him which software to install to get rid of his issues.....!?!! Needless to say... it is always engaged.

I have advised him to get hold of ad-aware to strip the Dialler out but he is right in the middle of encoding a DVD and its gonna take ages aparently - so we shall see.

I expect he has inadvertantly clicked "Yes" when prompted to download and install so-and-so search bar or something like that whilst browsing. He is not the most technical guy in the world - but he is usually very carefull about stuff like that.

[Guest Rob.P]

Encoding a DVD, lol, I do that for a job, need a lot of power.

Blocking the number on telephone account should do it.