Thanks for taking your time to read this.. I am really feeling helpless. A few months ago whilst I was surfing on the net my dial up modem disconnected so I connected again, only to find that the dialtone had become muted. Normally I can hear the distinctive connection tone (beep bop beep beep whatever), but since then I couldn't hear anything. It still connects to the internet though. Before I click on 'connect' the number displayed for calling is the correct one. I ran Pestpatrol today and it detected a Trojan Dialer and a Trojan Downloader- one 'originated' in June, the other, February. I just deleted them. Interestingly the PestPatrol didn’t detect them at previous times when I ran it. I also ran Spybot Search and Destroy today- at the bottom left corner it has the names of files I think- there are many with names that end/begin in 'Dialer'. Like 'DialerX' or something like that. Why isn't Spybot destroying these for me? The dialtone is still muted btw. How exactly would they be able to charge phonebills? Through the local phone bill? When would they do so? Cos the first couple of bills since then haven't showed anything strange. What could be wrong? Thanks so much for your help!

The file names you see in the bottom left hand corner is Spybot informing you what spyware it is actually searching for, these are not files that are residing on your PC, tyhe ones that concern you are the ones that are left in the main viewing window once spybot has finished it's scan. Click the fix selected problems and they should be removed. Also you might want to download, update and run Adaware SE Personal and fix any results that finds. Hijack This 1.98 is worth downloading and running, once you have ran it post the log here: http://www.hijackthis.de/index.php?langselect=english As far as your modem goes look in it's properties and check the volume for dialing. M

'The file names you see in the bottom left hand corner is Spybot informing you what spyware it is actually searching for, these are not files that are residing on your PC,' Thank you SO much- I'm very relieved to hear this! I thought I was plagued with viruses... Oh yes, I have Pest Patrol also and it doesn't come up with anything. I've checked the modem settings and everything is ok but still no sound... I just found it to be a strange coincidence when it disconnected, and had lost it's dialtone when I attempted to reconnect... Anyway I'll download the newer versions of Adaware etc and if I encounter any more problems I'll refer back to this post. Again, thanks for your help!