I am trying to help a friend who has a braillenote and is experiencing
a rather serious problem. Before explaining the problem, I am running
into difficulties understanding how the braillenote works. Although I
am fairly competent when it comes to computers, not being a braille
reader I cannot rummage around to see how the braillenote system works.
So I joined this list a while back to first see if anyone had
experienced a similar problem (they haven't, thankfully) and to see
whether this was the right place to post questions of a more technical
nature (given the level of expertise this lists posters demonstrate I'm
sure this is a good a place as any to look for help).
My friend purchased a braillenote about nine months ago and connected to
her ISP using a regular telephone dial-up connection. Everything worked
very well, and still does. However, when she received her telephone
bill it was immediately clear that something was wrong. Her bill for
the first three months was in excess of £1,000 and subsequent quarterly
bills were of a similar level. Needless to say she has now closed this
line.
She was using a dedicated telephone line to access the internet, one
that had been used with her old computer with no problem and no one else
had physical access to that line. Looking at the bill it is clear that
the charges are due to the telephone line being used to make calls to
her ISP for long periods, over 24 hours in some cases.
We have been able to cross off a few obvious causes for these excessive
charges. First, user error. She religiously closes her dial up
connection and switches the unit off after use, so that's out. Second,
the telephone company have investigated to see whether there was a
problem with the line itself, no fault was found. Moreover, the pattern
of calls is inconsistent with such a fault.
Looking at the pattern of calls the excessive use causing the inflated
phone bill tends to be grouped together and, on several occasions, have
been made when she is not even in the country. What is more, they go on
for some considerable time (e.g. 24 hours) and, for a few, terminate but
seconds later a dial up connection is re-established and the line
remains in use for several more hours. To me this looks like someone is
maliciously using the braillenote's dial up connection to connect to her
ISP.
The other possibility seems to be that the braillenote itself is taking
it upon itself to connect to the internet.
Both of these explanations founder when we recall that the braillenote
is switched off after use. But it is switched off using the toggle
switch on the side of the unit, not unplugged. And I am utterly stumped
as to how this can be happening. As far as I can see the braillenote is
dialing out, this is the only explanation which fits with the
information I have available. But how and why?
So here are my questions:
1. does the braillenote have wireless connectivity and, if so, is it
protected by any sort of firewall or something similar?
2. when the braillenote is switched off is there any way for an external
device to force the braillenote to switch itself on?
3. is the braillenote programmed to contact the internet for any reason,
for example, to download upgrades?
4. is it at all plausible that someone can remotely hijack the
braillenote and maliciously use the dial up connection?
5. does the braillenote have any anti virus protection? Is it possible
that someone might have uploaded a trojan or other malicious software
which might be causing this?
If anyone here has any thoughts on the above questions or has any
insight into what might be causing the problem I would be very pleased
to hear from you. And sorry for such a long email to those of you
uninterested!
Kind regards
Simon Moore
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