We have been having the same thing happen since I used a 30 day evaluation version of BlackICE Defender...whenever I go oof line, within a minute or two the phone rings, usually just one ring, sometimes up to 3 rings...when I answer...there's no one there! I just figure the government's checking up on me...no need to get paranoid...after all, they're the good guys...right???!!!

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Phone Company equipment or software glitches. Similar callbacks sometimes happen related to answering machines. Naught be to worry.

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Thanks everybody....glad to hear I'm not the only one it's happening to.....(I think).

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Okay.... something ain't right here. I'm not wacko. I was just attacked. Then I got several more of those phone calls...I can hear someone in the background....then they hang up as soon as they can. Here's what Zone Alarm said happened (while it was basically impossible to connect, this was going on): Ports attacked: 80 (1 times); 1213 (4 times); 1219 (4 times); 1220 (1 x); 1221 (6 x); 1222 (6 x); 1224 (6 x); 1225 (1 x); 1226 (1 x); 1228 (5 x); 1229 (5 x); 1230 (4 x); 1231 (1 x); 1233 (4 x); ping from IP 172.141.40.74 (102 x); ping from 206.134.161.153 (13 x); as I type this, another scan to 80. As I've been on the internet again, another hang up call. Now, there's got to be something to this. Thoughts anybody?

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172.141.40.74 traces back to AOL in Arlington Va as: ac8d284aipt.aol.com on AOL network 206.134.161.153 traces to Sprint network as: aol.ar.007cogjunp044.dialsprint.net

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Thanks Neotrace. I'll print those out for future. The rest of evening I wasn't on, so nothing new to report except I got another hang up call.

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You could have the phone company trace the calls. Is your Firewall new? I ask this because if it is, then maybe someone has been hacking you until now and they got your phone number from your PC and are now calling you as a joke/prank, maybe in retaliation of "blocking" them. Crazy idea but who knows. As many times as its happened to you and when it occurs, it can't be coincidental. With dialup, they can't call you when you are on the Web, so the soonest and most irritating time for them to call you would be immediately after you hang up, making me think they can monitor your phone use somehow. Could be be someone on a cell, who knows you, who can see you ON or OFF the Web?

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Yes, EC, the firewall's is new. I think just about three weeks, maybe. It was around the same time I also got AOL. I got the computer in Feb. of 2001---and have been online pretty much ever since, so they'd have had over year to be able to hack my computer and find out lots of stuff----terrific. No, no one can really see me on the computer....unless, of course, they standing in a particular area, directly in front of the house--but I'd see. That would make sense though about the phone calls, right after I hang up. (And it doesn't happen every day.....and it didn't happen yesterday (a weekend).....makes me think it's even, possibly, some kind of business (not necessarily local).....(even in the business of hacking). You are probably right, and the thought is alarming. I was probably hacked before I got the firewall. Creepy thoughts. Okay...now what? I have never noticed any unauthorized purchasing off my credit cards (yes, I pay a couple bills on line). (So I don't want to sound paranoid to the credit card company changing cards).

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Be certain your firewall is configured properly. Go to www.grc.com (shields test and port scan) and go to www.pcflank.com and thest your PC/Firewall there also. Make certain they correctly determine your IP address, as it can sometimes be wrong, and then the security scan data will be incorrect/not for your PC.

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Thanks, EC. I've already done shields test, but hadn't heard of pcflank---I'll go there. Yesterday, got scanned a lot again (but not at all like I previously posted) compared to all quiet Sat. Also, this was weird: I kept being pinged by: 208.184.102.201 and 208.184.102.202. So, I disconneted from the internet to get a new IP address. Within 5 min, I got pinged again by 208.184.102.202 and 208.184.102.178. That seems more than a little coincidental. Almost like they were/he/she was letting me know that I got off line and they knew my new IP address. After that, they left me alone (under those kind of 208#s).

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EC...all went well at pcflank. That's a great site. I took several tests, in addition to the port scanner....passed with flying colors which makes me feel more at ease. My only "failed" test was the browser test. Zone Alarm doesn't have any settings to keep info. private. As far as the cookie thing, I just keep that to "prompt" because it seemed to slow down my connection considerably otherwise. I just hit deny usually. Some places, obviously, I don't care. I am concerned about the "referrer" info., however. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

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The web site www.analogx.com has a very nice Cookie Wall, which I use and found it to be very effective. I have it set to block ALL cookies. Moreover, it does. As a matter of personal choice, I just do not visit sites that require cookies, including my favorite newspaper the NY Times, so I just read the NY Daily News online instead. A small sacrifice to me. Glad you did well at www.pcflank I remember when I first installed ZA, I wanted to see all the activity of who, what, when, where etc as related to being hit, but then after a while, I realized I was safe and shut the ZA pop ups off. I still am hit every so often, but not too often, daily. And I know I'll never know who these folks are, most likely. You phone calls are odd and intriguing. Honestly, it may even be someone at AOL, either malicious or not. You could try an experiment: After getting OFFLINE, immediately, manually take the phone OFF the hook and just leave it there for a while, under a pillow, to mask the OFF hook warning tones. Have known people who get crank calls to do this and it seemed to help them after a short time, the caller just gave up. Remember, these people do not want to work too hard at bugging you, so make it hard for them. When they call you, BUSY signal, so they think you are still on the WEB, and then watch your PC then and see if there are any BIG scan increases. What is your deal with the referrer info? As long as you are safe IN and OUT of PC with ZA, then I would not worry. The phone calls are another issue. For dialup users, Accelerate 2000 is a great program from www.webroot.com You can try it for FREE and then it costs $20, if you decide to register. It is a very nice program I still use on one PC of mine. It WILL speed up your connection. My increase was near 150% after install. Have to play with the settings and over a short time you can learn what works best. I started with every setting MAXED and moved down incrementally.

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Thanks, EC, I'll check that out (analogx and will look into Accelerate). Your suggestion made me almost laugh. I, at lunch, came home and took the phone off the hook. There was a busy signal from 2:00 until 4:00, at least. I figured, maybe, hoping, they'd try that today and get a busy signal. I thought I'd try doing this more often and see what happens. What's that saying? . . . . great minds, lol. Thanks on all counts. I keep you posted.

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It's funny because this idea came from me to a friend a few years ago. He had an extra phone line, that used to be use, but was still live. Anyway, he would always get wrong numbers during the day. He would answer, politely tell them wrong number and hang up. Well, kept wasting his time. I observed him doing this and said to just unplug the phone, since he never used it for anything at all. He had never thought of that. The phone stopped ringing!! If you keep this up long enough, your problem will end , as I KNOW they will just give up. Pranksters and bad people don't want to work too hard. Make them work by calling you a million times only to get busy signal/endless phone ringing with no answer. They'll soon give up. The endless phone ringing they'll hear could be accomplished by just unplugging your phone from wall jack. But I think the busy signal is a better decoy, as it makes them think you are online, whereas the the endless "waiting for you to answer" they may think you are just not home. Either way, no fun at all for them. Besides, just plug in your phone when you want to use it, then immediately UNPLUG it again when finished with the call. They can't catch you!

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Update: I reformatted my hard drive on 4/25, the hang ups continued; I believe I had a trojan....cannot confirm this, but there's too many things that have happened that cannot be a coincidence. Some of those are the attacks and the hang up calls. Today I got a $1,646 cell phone bill...these calls began 4/18.....within days of putting up a fire wall. And during the past couple of weeks, the hang ups have noticeably decreased. AT&T said the cell phone had been cloned. I paid my bill (online) on 4/22......I changed all passwords at another computer....I think tomorrow I'll have to call my credit cards, make sure no one is using them. I've learned my lesson about fire walls, that's for sure.

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