Hi, my brother's PC tries to dial up every time it is rebooted.....and sometimes while just playing on it....I haven't done the spybot part yet.....but it does have ad-aware installed and current....i guess my real question is...will ad-aware and spybot detect dialers? I also wonder if norton anti-virus isn't the culprit....their "subscription" to live-update expired and I'm not so sure it's not the program trying to dial to get an update......any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.....thanks in advance......

If they aren't going to renew their live update with Norton I recommend you tell them to uninstall it and use one of these free AV programs. AVG or Avast Antivirus software is only as good as the installed DAT files (updates). As you said it very well could be Norton trying to dialup to get updates. Have them uninstall it and see if the problem is resolved.

just a little more info and another question.....I disabled Norton auto-update...live-subscribe....whatever it's called in msconfig....it's still dialing up on reboot....AND...it resets the home page to About:Blank....so, that tells me there is something messing around in there.....my question is....what do you think about Webroot's SpySweeper....XoftSpy....and/or Spyware Blaster as additional ammunition to AdAware and Spybot?

Spyware Blaster is an excelent addition to Spybot & AdAware.

That & a good firewall should keep you pretty secure.

As to the about:blank

Please follow all of Owen's instructions HERE once you have completed that post your log on the Spyware, Adware and Viruses board.