I have two problems which have been bothering me for several weeks. Firstly, often when connecting to the internet my modem dials the 000 number for emergency services. What is causing this and how can I stop it? Secondly, lately when I open Internet Explorer my normal homepage has been replaced with an internet gambling site. Even though I have changed my homepage a number of times, the next time I log on I am greeted by the same gambling sites. Do you know how to stop this? I would appreciate any suggestions.

It is likely that the problem with your modem dialling 000 is on your end rather than your phone line or at the ISPs end. Firstly, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Programs’ > ‘Accessories’ > ‘Communications’ and click ‘Dial-Up Networking’. See if there are any dial-up connections there, apart from your ISPs (as your computer could have a dial-up setup with 000 as the phone number). If there is, then you can probably safely delete these listings (but make sure you don’t delete your ISPs dialup!). If the problem persists, open up the properties of your ISPs dial-up connection and make sure that 000 is not in the alternate phone number list (because if it is, then Dial-Up Networking will dial 000 if your primary number, your ISPs dial-up, is engaged). If the problem still persists, go into Internet Explorer and go to the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Internet Options’ and click the ‘Connections’ tab . In the list of Dial-Up connections, make sure that there is not one set to dial 000. If there is, remove it. As a last resort, note down all of your ISPs settings and settings for any other dial-up connections (eg. dial-up number, username, password, etc…), remove all of your dial-up connections, and then recreate the connections.

Now turning to your second question where your homepage appears as an internet gambling site. Usually. if a site you are visiting on the internet wants to change your default homepage, it will ask you via a dialogue box. However, as you are not being asked, it seems most likely that the problem is something to do with your computer. In any case, you can change your homepage manually, by going to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and open ‘regedit’. In the Registry Editor, make sure that you don’t change any other settings as that could have a bad affect upon your computer. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, under this expand ‘Software’, then ‘Microsoft’, then ‘Internet Explorer’, then ‘Main’ and find the key which is named ‘Start Page’. Double click on this key and in the window that appears, change the ‘Value data’ to the webpage you want as your homepage. I also suggest that you upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 which will ask you when a website wants to change your homepage so that changes are not made without your agreement. I am not sure if earlier versions of Internet Explorer have this feature.