Win ME device manager dialing

**Marty** · December 30th, 2001, 05:57 PM

How do I stop device manager from dialing my internet connection? It is very annoying and seems to do nothing.

**Philip1952** · December 30th, 2001, 11:11 PM

Never heard of device mangler dialing before. Do you have auto updates turned on?

**HotRod9mm** · December 30th, 2001, 11:32 PM

Marty

Welcome to the forum!

I think by default "ME" has auto update checked as Philip1952 said.

Go to My Computer/control panel/automatic updates and check "Turn Off Updates" and see if that helps...

**Marty** · December 31st, 2001, 12:00 AM

Auto update is turned off,I am also useing zone alarm so I'll try disableing some programs that are set to enabled.

**Marty** · December 31st, 2001, 12:19 AM

sucatreg.exe is what is trying to connect. I can block it with zone alarm but I cant get it to stop dialing. Any suggestions?

**drojman** · December 31st, 2001, 12:32 AM

do you have a program that starts with that??? when i get something like that , I usually try to search the hd to see where the program is if I don't recognize it... then, if its to a program you know, you may recognize the folder name it's in... might be the registration program to a piece of software, even something like a driver for a soundcard or something like that.

Good Luck...

**BFlurie** · December 31st, 2001, 12:34 AM

Got IE? In it, go to Tools/ Internet Options/ Connections & make sure "Never dial a connection" is checked.

**Marty** · December 31st, 2001, 12:42 AM

It is part of ME and in Windows/System, I cant delete it because ME just puts it back. Its properties says Windows Catalog Registration. Was this a way to track or identify users? Is there another way to get the file off my system without ME putting it back?

**Philip1952** · December 31st, 2001, 10:49 AM

Go the the run box. Type in msconfig. Then turn off everything BUT system tray,scan reg, antivirus.
Also on the general tab. click on selective start up. Turn off the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files from loading. ME doesn't need anything in these files to run.
After all of this see if it still try's to dial out.

OOOPPPPSSS just did a google search. This isn't good. Read this. HERE you have a virus.

**Philip1952** · December 31st, 2001, 12:51 PM

Here is what Norton has to say about it.
Read This
You have caught a bad one. Hope it hasn't done to much damage so far.
Now on a side note. If your address book is like mine. the only people in it are friends. Call then and tell then to NOT open any e-mails from you. Or better yet. Tell them not to use Outlook to check the mail for a couple of days. Go to webmail.(whatever their isp is).net or com. Then delete all your mail from there. This is how you would check your mail if you weren't at home. It only shows the sender. It won't down load the mail that way.

**Marty** · December 31st, 2001, 09:55 PM

Please note that these files are often found on uninfected systems, so their mere presence on your computer is not necessarily an indication of infection by this virus.

Did a virus scan with updated files no virus. Also I have set one address in my address book to an illegal address so that if a virus sends out email to all it will return an error to me about the incorrect address. This was an Idea I read about that I implemented a few weeks ago,it is set to: Check for Virus*notanaddressatall
So if a virus tries to email from my system I should know it.

The only time it dials out is when I go to device manager,I found the name of the program from zone alarm,clicked it and it dials,scanned it and no virus found.

**Philip1952** · January 1st, 2002, 02:00 AM

I is a ME file. Your right about that. I just scaned a ME disk I have. It is located in CAB 17.
But win98 and win98SE do not have this file. So I wonder what service uses it and what it is wanting to call out about.
I installed the file on my win98 box. Then I went to my router logs and checked to see if anything accessed the internet after I installed. I didn't have anything listed as out going in that time span.
Go back into your system info section. Tools tab. Look for the line >error reporting. I wonder if your is turned on and it is trying to send a report home.

**storm2k** · January 1st, 2002, 02:07 AM

to be on the utter safe side (and i stress UTTER)... download one of the virus cleaner utilities that are seperate from your anti virus software and run it. see if it cleans te file off.

i have NEVER heard of anything from the mangler trying to dial no matter what windows os it is. i think you have caught a virus.

**Philip1952** · January 1st, 2002, 01:31 PM

I have used ME also with zone alarm. I didn't not have this file trying to dial the internet. You said you have denied it acccess. It can't send out any e-mails if you won't let it on line.
I would not trust your on board antivirus program. Go somewhere on line and get a scan done. A lot of virus's now disable your on board virus program.
Norton sould have a free virus scan somewhere on its site.
MaChaffe will to
www.pcpitstop.com does have an on line scan.
If you don't think it is a virus. Allow it internet access and see if it sends you back the bogus e-mail. I'm betting it does.

**PresterJohn** · January 1st, 2002, 01:59 PM

marty,

all the signs seem to indicate your pc is infected...your pc should not be attempting to dial-out like that. the fact that you have anti-virus already on the pc is immaterial since you probably caught the infection by not having the latest signature file. your system is already compromised.

i have never used one of the on-line scanners so i can't vouch to how complete they are, but a sure-fire way to clean your machine is to install a good anti-virus on another pc, update that pc with the latest signatures and either (1)burn the antivirus programs onto a cd and run it on the infected pc or (2)network the 2 systems together and run a virus-scan from the pristine system.

reinstalling the anti-virus from the original cd or even using a different anti-virus probably won't work because the signature files on the distribution copy will be already out of date and probably won't catch your infection...esp true if you have a mutated version.

note: option #1 may be a little complicated if the anti-virus install copies dll's to the windows system folders, you would need to know the same and duplicate that structure on the cd...a real headache. if at all possible, go w/opt #2

**MikelSim** · February 2nd, 2002, 09:42 AM

Hi all,

I have (had) the same problem with sucatreg.exe dialing out every time I open the device manager under ME.

I read a lot about the virus, but now I think the program behaves normal. It just wants to check the driver signings.

This is what I found somewhere else:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem: When I open msinfo32 Device Manager it tries to connect to the internet. It is sucatreg.exe (Windows catalogue registration) knocking on the door out. What is it trying to do and how do I stop it doing it ?

Possible Solution: Most likely you have an "unsigned" driver that sucatreg.exe is trying to update a driver for or you may have a damaged catalog. In Control Panel, double-click Internet Options, click on the TAB labeled Advanced, scroll down the list to the heading of Security, and Uncheck the option “Check for publisher’s certificate revocation.”, Then click OK. That should fix it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems to work.

Mikel