Let me explain why I think this is Zone Alarm. After it first happened (immediately after the upgrade) I checked my Zone Alarm settings and the option to "check for product updates" was set to Automatic (I had previously set this to Manual) so I know that Zone Alarm changed at least one of my settings without my consent. I changed it back to Manual but that didn't solve the problem. Following that I changed the settings for all my listed programs (in the ZA Control Center) so that each app was required to ask my permission before being allowed to connect. That didn't fix it either. My computer still dials out on every boot up. I then visited the Microsoft Knowledge Base and found an article about unauthorised auto-dials. I implemented all the Knowledge Base recommendations - but it still kept happening!
The Knowledge Base article suggested 2 x viruses which can be responsible for this problem - so I did a complete virus scan using Norton but nothing was detected. I then discovered that if I remove Zone Alarm from my Startup group (not a good idea, I know) the problem goes away. If I then start ZA manually the problem immediately reappears as soon as ZA is restarted. I'm also suspicious of Zone Lab's lack of response to my emails. If I find any solution, I'll post it here but for the meantime I'm just wondering about going back to my old version. I know from past experience that it's rarely a good idea to revert to a previous program version after an upgrade.
Sorry - to answer your question, I'm running Windows XP Home Edition.
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