Are we still really on-line?

[Jackie]

Having got aol 9 up and running on broadband here in Deux Sevres, only 128k but a lot faster than dial up, I have noticed the following. When off-line you, or rather having closed down aol, can open up Internet Explorer and click on a page that has been visited and it opens it. Likewise AVG will update without having to go through the giving of a password on the aol panel. Windows media player also seems to go on-line as soon as it is opened. Is this normal or a fault or finger trouble on our part? Don't like the idea of the computer connecting itself to the net without us telling it to!.......Jackie and John

[Pearly Spencer]

Hi Jackie,

    normally BroadBand is always connected, are you saying that before you shut your PC down you actually disconnect the BB conection? If you are and do not want it to auto connect then you may have to change some setting as it is most likely connecting again as soon as you restart the PC. Personally I would go through all your programs that require a connection for auto updating and disable 'auto update' and if you are not already running a firewall then get one and it will then always tell you when a program is trying to connect to the internet you will them have a choice to allow it or not, once all your rules are in place it should be OK, you may want to leave 'auto update' running on your anti-virus though!  Hope this is clear, good luck.

regards

Pearly

[Bob T]

I think that the modem router that you are using is on line all the time, You can connect through the AOL software or through a web browser, it does not really matter.

[Jackie]

Thanks for the replies folks. It seems strange that anyone can get on-line with this computer by just opening Internet Explorer and not having to go through the aol panel and giving a password. Could be a bit iffy from a security point of view! Will consider a firewall.....................J

[Clair]

[quote user="Jackie"]Thanks for the replies folks. It seems strange that anyone can get on-line with this computer by just opening Internet Explorer and not having to go through the aol panel and giving a password. Could be a bit iffy from a security point of view! Will consider a firewall.....................J[/quote]

Don't just consider a firewall, download this free one now:

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1025_update/zaSetup_en.exe

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Jackie"]Thanks for the replies folks. It seems strange that anyone can get on-line with this computer by just opening Internet Explorer and not having to go through the aol panel and giving a password. Could be a bit iffy from a security point of view! Will consider a firewall.....................J[/quote]

If it's anything like Orange, as said previously, the router is the thing that is permenanty connected to the internet and the password was executed in the setup of that. I cannot remember the last time I had to input a password to connect to my router, must be over a year ago now.

And it is secure.

[Bones]

Your new firewall will ask whether you would like a certain programe to access the internet.

Usually, your default internet portal (in your case the AOL interface) will be marked as an exception: you can do this with other progs as and when you like. Eg, a box will pop up asking whether you'd like media player to access the internet, with the option for your firewall to not ask this question again (to add it to your list of exceptions).

It's a good thing even from an auomatic update perspective, because these updates can be quite resource intensive and if you're in the middle of something you might not want the updates to take place at that time (to avoid freezing etc).