Why is my computer trying to connected to the Internet when my computer starts up?

A program on your computer that opens on startup is attempting to access the Internet.

Many different types of programs use this practice, some include the follow:

Chat programs such as Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ.
News and weather programs such as Weatherbug.
Program looking for updates, many programs these days look for updates automatically when your computer starts up. These programs include everything from antiviral software to computer printer software.

How can I make them stop doing this?

*If you do not feel comfortable changing setting on your computer you may not want go further. Humboldt Internet can not take responsibility for any damage that may happen by following this guide.

There are a few ways to prevent this from happening.

Solution 1) Go into the program and look for an option to disable connecting to the Internet automatically.

Solution 2) Prevent any programs from opening on startup that would cause the computer to connect to the Internet.

Solution 3) Disable autodial on your computer, this will prevent your computer from dialing the Internet when a program request it.

Solution 1)
We will want to go into all the programs in the lower right hand corner of our screen. Keep in mind that all programs are different and that these directions should only be used as a guideline. Right clicking on each icon will mostly bring up a menu; you will want to select something called options, preferences, configuration or open.

After you have selected the menu you will need to look for any options to disable this program on start up. It may say something like “Run this program when windows starts”. You will want to uncheck that box, this will disable it. This will need to be done with all of the programs in your taskbar. We will now restart our computer to see if the connection window comes up, if it does continue on with this guide.

Solution 2)
Another place you can look to see which programs are running on startup is the “startup” folder. You can see what is in there by clicking on the start button and then going to “Programs” or “All Programs” (depending on your Windows version) and finally “startup”. If you find that there are programs in this folder, then you can remove them by right clicking on them and selecting delete. You should still be able to access this program, it just won’t start up automatically when Windows starts. Again, if you don't feel comfortable doing this you may want to consider taking it into our computer repair department here at Humboldt Internet.

Go to the ‘Start’ button in the lower left hand corner and click it. From there go to run and click that. From the run window you will need to type in “msconfig” without the quotes. This should open a new window called “System Configuration Utility”. You will then click on the “Startup” tab.

Listed below are all of the programs that start up when your computer starts up. Some of these programs are very useful to have start up like this. Examples of this are: antiviral software, task reminders, printer software and any other software that you would like to start automatically. One of the programs listed there may be the program that is trying to access the Internet on start up. There is no way to say for certain which programs are trying to do this. The only way to find this out is to disable it. You can disable the program from opening on startup by removing the check box next to the name. Keep in mind that if you disable this program from opening on startup, you should be able to go back to this location in the future to re-enable it.

Solution 3)
We will now disable your computer from autodialing when a program requests it. To do this go to your “Control Panel”, you will see an icon called Internet Options”.

Clicking on this icon will open a new window, select the “Connections” tab. You will see three radio buttons. The first one will read “Never dial a connection” If this is not selected, you should select it. Once this is selected, click “OK” and close out of any windows that you are in. After this you should restart you computer to see if the connection window will still come up on start up. If this is already selected, then this step does not apply. Continue to the next step.

After doing this your computer should not automatically connect to the Internet when you attempt to access it via programs like Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. You will have to access the Internet directly from the dialer, You can do this by looking for an icon on your desktop called “Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to that. If you do not see that program on you desktop select your operating system below.

Windows 95 and 98
Go to “My Computer from the desktop, then to “Dialup Networking”. From there you will probably see an icon called “Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to this. Right click on the icon and click “Create Shortcut”. You will see a message appear, click yes.

Windows ME
Go to “My Computer from the desktop, then to “Control Panel”, then to “Dial Up Networking”. From there you will probably see an icon called “Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to this. Right click on the icon and click “Create Shortcut”. You will see a message appear, click yes.

Windows 2000
Go to “My Computer from the desktop, then to “Control Panel”, then to “Network and Dial-up Connections”. From there you will probably see an icon called “Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to this. Right click on the icon and click “Create Shortcut”. You will see a message appear, click yes.

Windows XP
Go to the “Start” button, then to “Connect To”, then “Show all connections” From there you will probably see an icon called “Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to this. Right click on the icon and click “Create Shortcut”. You will see a message appear, click yes.

Once you have done that you will want to close out of any windows that you are in. Now on your desktop you should see an icon call “Shortcut to Humboldt Internet Dialer” or something similar to this. This is how you will connect to the Internet, after the connection is may you can use the Internet as normal.

What if that does not fix it either?

If after taking all of the above steps and your computer still try’s to connect on its own, then we have a few final things to consider.

Do you have antiviral software? If so, is it up to date with the most recent virus definitions? If not we recommend you do that and then run a complete virus scan.You can learn more about that at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html

You may have a new computer threat called “spyware, adware and malware”. To learn more about that and how to remove it from your system go to http://humboldt1.com/services/malware.html.

If this still does not solve the problem you may consider taking it to our computer repair department here at Humboldt Internet, for more info call 825-4638.