A friend of mine has an old computer with Windows 98 and dial-up broadband.

A start-up problem with the computer has now been fixed after I posted elsewhere in these forums (thanks, Tony!).

But now whenever the computer is turned on, a "Dial-up Options" box is displayed, asking if you want to connect to the internet.

Once you have pressed "Cancel", it appears again and you have to press "Cancel" again.

You have to click "Cancel" AT LEAST twice before it does what you want it to.

Previously, the box only appeared when you clicked on the Internet Explorer icon. How can it be stopped from appearing every time the computer is turned on?

BTW - Just to make things even harder, I'm now 200 miles away from the computer so I don't have access to it. I'm only able to send advice by e-mail.

well, you can try checking the startup.
start>run>msconfig>startup
look for something like dial-up check.
only check the ones with the check marks because those are the only ones that are set to start up when the computer boots.

Thanks, but I have already tried that.

There was nothing obvious in the list, although I suppose it could have been called something else?

This is just a guess but go to Control Panel>Internet Options and then click on the Connections tab. Make sure the "Never dial a connection" option is selected.

This still allows you to create a connection when you want to instead of automatically creating one when you start the PC or programs that may need Internet access.

Thanks, Mike.

That was the first thing I tried, and it did actually stop the box from appearing.

The only problem was, when the Internet Explorer link was clicked, it wouldn't then connect and you had to reverse the process in order to get the "Dial-up Ooptions" box to reappear.

In other words, it seems to be a choice between having the box annoyingly appear at start-up, or not being able to connect at all!

in msconfig, theres also a services tab.
it might be in here, just be careful of what you disable!

theres also a folder called startup in start>programs>startup.

No no no. You do not ever alter a service through the MSConfig utility. Never. Ever. If you need to alter a service, you need to go through the services.msc. The reason is because with MSConfig and Hardware Profiles, you can disable services that may be vital to boot your computer. With the management console (services.msc) you cannot. Also, when you uncheck a service in the Services tab, it disables the service; though as I said above, it also risks disabling a service that could very well be vital to the computer.

The "Disable All" button also worries me. It should not even be there as no reason exists to justify disabling "everything." Even if you choose to hide all the Microsoft services, it still shouldn't really be there because an inexperienced user may listen to another inexperienced user and end up disabling everything.

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Canary, it sounds to me like you have two applications that are wanting to connect to the Internet. It could be anything from Windows Automatic Updates, the Windows Time Server, or even other applications that you have installed that automatically check for updates.

OK - so is there an easy way of finding out what might be doing it?

Short answer: Not really.

Reason is because it could be the Microsoft services mentioned above, it could also be the software that is starting with the pc. You mentioned Tony's name so you must have posted a HijackThis log. I'll scan over it for any applications that want to connect to the Internet.

Okay, checked it.

Possible suspects:
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UpdateManager] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sonic\Update Manager\sgtray.exe" /r
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\jusched.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Arovax Shield] C:\Program Files\Arovax Shield\ArovaxShield.exe -tray
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender] "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe" -hide

The first two are Symantec Internet "Security".
UpdateManager is for Sonic CD/DVD burning software.
SunJavaUpdateSched is for Sun Java to check for updates.

Arovax and Windows Defender I also suspect as checking for updates.

You can stop Sun Java through the Control Panel. Also, you can probably disable Sonic checking for updates through the application itself.

Thanks for all yur feedback.

Much appreciated, as ever.

Those talking about services, updates and such need re-read the first line that was posted:

My guess would be some app is wanting to auto-update, e.g.; antivirus, antispyware, malware, etc. And the suggestion that Mike had about changing the connection in Internet Explorer is what I would've also suggested because it stops auto-updating apps from auto-dialing the modem.