Is it pretty easy to get hacked into? Lately, a lot of things have been showing up on my hard drive that I didn't put there. They have mostly been erased, but show up in the file menu of the program they were run in (mainly windows media player). I even found the words from the files in my file search folder. The files no longer exist on my computer, but evidence is still there. Also, my settings keep changing - my history folder is set to hold 5 days worth of information, but never holds more than 1. And all of my cookies and temp. internet files are erased daily, but I don't have them set for that. It's very fishy and I was just wondering if I should be suspicious of other members of my household, or if someone could be hacking into my computer to look at stuff they don't want to get caught looking at.

We have AOL on dial-up which we are careful to log off when we are done, but do leave idle occasionally. Could we be hacked while we're online and not even know it??

It is possible, but from what I hear, AOL does have pretty strong Firewalls. I would ask everyone in your family and run a virus/spyware check before thinking of a hacker.

Sounds like someone in your household not doing a very good job of covering their tracks.

Originally posted by cemeinke
Sounds like someone in your household not doing a very good job of covering their tracks.

He's so right. You need to add a password to you computer so only you can log on. If that's not feasable, there are other options.

You could also create different user accounts for each person. They can only change their own settings that way-not yours.

From Personal Experience:

Usually, hacking into a Dial-Up connection, is not done. Why? It's so slow. Even if someone did want to grab that info, on a Dial-Up, it's not worth it. Also, the IP changes from connection to connection, so that deters them also. :)

Well, I'm 99.9% sure that it's not going on from here, unless someone is breaking in to my house and using my computer. It was only three files, and that could have feasibly happened in one day. Although, at one point, a program called "Hot Surprise" that was also installed - my husband said that a sign popped up saying that AOL was going to fix the computer and the mouse started going mad - opening and closing menu's and such, and then the program was on there. And it would not un-install - then magically disappeared one day. It was a program for Porn viewing - and if you ran it, it said it would dial a foriegn number and connect to porn.

Could it be that my computer being refurbished could have some old, undeleted files on it? I've found some weird files from time to time that are just strange - like AVON pdf files and stuff.

Anyway, we are going to watch things really closely and I'm looking into personal firewalls. I've also put parental controls on the other AOL accounts I have so that I can track all of their activity. So, we shall see.

95% of all men, given the chance, will view porn on the internet.

The other 5% are liars.

If there's a guy in your house with access to your computer, I think you've found your "hacker"

If you're using XP make sure that the Remote Assistance feature is disabled. I don't know much about the innerworkings of computers, but theres a small chance someone could be accessing your computer through Remote Assistance.

If you don't have XP then I concur that someone is deleating files, or attempting to without realizing the master settings say something different.

Edit: You may want to check your phone bill to make sure that program didn't dial any long distance numbers.

Originally posted by cemeinke
95% of all men, given the chance, will view porn on the internet.

The other 5% are liars.

If there's a guy in your house with access to your computer, I think you've found your "hacker"


Is that the smartest thing to say on a board where your wife also posts?

Originally posted by DisneyFan25863
Is that the smartest thing to say on a board where your wife also posts?

You've obviously never met his wife :~D She has 4 husbands ;)

Originally posted by HB Tigger Fan
You've obviously never met his wife :~D She has 4 husbands ;)


Well, I have met her, but not all of her husbands. Dosn't she also have like 8 kids flying around here somewhere? :fez:

HELLO!!!!!!!

I'm here. You can still talk about me. But, I WILL read.;) :p


And darling, I thought that statistic was about another male solo activity.:eek:


See. Having 4 husbands makes you really smart.:~D

Originally posted by Not Afraid
HELLO!!!!!!!

I'm here. You can still talk about me. But, I WILL read.;) :p






sushhhhhhhh! If we are quiet, she might not notice us...

Hot Surprise was never installed. The others were just video files and a kazaa file. I was just pointing out the Hot Surprise thing to say that I think someone could get into my computer.

I can understand all you doubts and thoughts, I would probably say the same thing if I didn't know the whole situation, I just really wanted to know if it's possible and if it's detectable.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

Some of the files could be residual from your hard drives last owner. I'd check the "created by" dates on the files you've found to see if they are old files of if you might recall what was going on at those times, if they are recent.

Thanks, Cemienke. I did try to do that, but the files themselves have been erased from the hard drive. It would be extrememly helpful if I could find out when they were downloaded. The only way I knew they were there was when I accidently opened the Windows Media Player and one of the files was on the playlist. If I pressed play, nothing played and it said the file could not be found. Then, I opened the file menu and it listed the last 6 or 8 files played and there were two more "mysterious" files. Have installed a spy-ware program and a generic key tracker just to observe, and institituted "parental controls" on all other screen names so I will be e-mailed with all activity. I just wished aol had a feature that logged all downloads, not just downloads from e-mails.

If you were using Windows Media Player, the files listed could have come from a CD as well. Or, they were deleted off the hard drive.

Any clues from the file names?

Well, I did figure out that they were all Kazaa files and I found a file marked "Forbidden Broadway" that I was witness to it's downloading - that turned out to be a quazi - nudie - video file. And - when I double clicked on it, it opened a xxx website on Internet Explorer automatically. Also, after playing through (it wasn't anything worse than a Victorias Secret ad) , it opened another file with a different name. So, I'm guessing that's what happened. Oh - and forbidden broadway is usually a group that does hilarious parodies of broadway musicals, just so ya'all know.

I'm still not sure how the files showed up on Windows media player, but a few of the files I had previously downloaded opened automatically and maybe they were there when my computer crashed - which it does quite frequently. I'm also still not sure how they got deleted from the harddrive, but I have downloaded files before that "expire" after a certain amount of time and delete themselves. Anyway, it's becoming less of a mystery now. And, seeing as how they were Kazaa files, they certainly were downloaded.

Still sounds like spyware to me.....

Originally posted by DisneyFan25863
Still sounds like spyware to me.....

I'm sure it was. I downloaded a spyware program and quarantined like 306 items. Of course, now my printer installs every time I log on to AOL and then it won't print. As much as I love technology, I get so annoyed by it.

The funny thing is - the spyware program I downloaded = ad=aware- disabled Kazaa. I won't be downloading Kazaa again.

Kazaa has more spyware programs than you can even think of.



Also, may I also suggest Spybot Search and Destroy (http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10194058.html?tag=lst-0-1)? In my tests, it seems it is better at erasing spyware :)