Security alerts

VirusHeat

VirusHeat is a false or rogue anti-spyware program that installs itself on to your computer, without your knowledge nor permission, via a Trojan (such as Zlob). Once installed, it launches from a Windows startup process and floods the computer with false virus warning messages. MORE INFO
Common threats

Scam Emails Seek Donations to Help Chinese Earthquake Victims

The FBI is asking people to beware of emails claiming to be raising money to help the victims of the recent earthquake in China. MORE INFO
Security terms
MORE INFO

Frequently Asked Questions

I received a message from Bright House Networks about Internet abuse. What is this about? back

Bright House Networks received a complaint of unwanted activity that was tracked to your computer through the IP address assigned to your cable modem. READ the message, and follow the instructions. Most likely, depending upon what the abuse issue is, there is a Virus/Trojan on your computer system, and you will need to scan your computer with an Anti-Virus software. DO NOT disregard this message. If you do nothing about the message your account can be disabled until the problem is fixed.

I am infected, what do I do now?back

Visit our Clean Your PC Web page, and follow the instructions about cleaning and securing your PC.
If you are not comfortable attempting to clean and secure your computer, ask for help. Options include:
  • Contact the manufacturer for assistance and support.
  • Seek help from a local computer professional or computer repair store.
  • Check local listings to find one that suits your needs.
In rare instances, it may be necessary to clean your computer by formatting (erasing the contents) of your hard drive or by running the system recovery disk. The system recovery disk returns the computer to the original factory settings. Back up critical documents and email that you need before using a system recovery disk.
Keep in mind, when you are backing up your important documents, keep only the files you must as you may back up a virus and re-infect your PC.

I have done all that you have asked and I still do not find any viruses.back

Make sure that you have scanned all computers in the household. Include any computers that you bring home from work. Some people have multiple operating systems on one hard drive. Make sure you have a wireless network that it is properly secured. If you do not hear from our office, you may assume that your computer system is clean.

The removal tool did not find a virus. What do I do now?back

If the scanners did not report issues, it does not mean that your computer is not infected. It means that the scanner you need is not equipped to find the type of infection you have. Scanners are designed to find different viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. We recommend that you try several tools and methods to attempt to clean and secure your computer. Learn more about other scanners by visiting the Additional Tools page.

How do I know that this is a legitimate email from Bright House Networks?back

Scan all email attachments before opening them. Bright House Networks security and abuse never sends email with attachments. If you suspect that an email did not come from Bright House Networks,contact us.

So I have an abuse complaint against me? What will happen to me if I do nothing about it?back

To protect our network, other customers and Internet users and your privacy, we may determine that it is necessary to block your Internet services by way of restricting access or suspending your service until the matter is addressed. We appreciate this may cause our customer some inconvenience, but it is necessary action in order to ensure that the best possible service is available for all users.

How did this happen to me? Did you give me this virus or Trojan?back

Road Runner offers a free security product and does attempt to filter viruses send through our mail servers, but we have no control over what end users do when connected to our service. As the account holder, it is your responsibility to ensure all computer users in the household act responsibly and make sure that they scan all attachments that are downloaded to computer systems connected to our network.

This has been a nightmare ... How can I prevent my PC from becoming re-infected?back

Unfortunately, there is no way of guaranteeing that your machine will not become re-infected at some point in the future even if it is completely restored to factory settings. Make sure that you download and install the latest updates to your operating system, security software and other programs. Keeping your system up to date and avoiding Internet activities that may expose your computer to viruses or spyware are the best ways to minimize future problems.

I am not spamming ... I don't even know what spam is. Why am I receiving this abuse complaint?back

Most of these reports result from Viruses/Trojans on the computer system. We do recognize this, and we state in the abuse complaint that the spam sent from your computer likely came as the result of a Virus or Trojan and not you or anyone else in the household actually sending the email generating the complaint. Please also remember that if you are sending any form of bulk mail or even recipient email, the recipient still may not want to receive it.

I am a legitimate business sending emails from a verified list. Why are you telling me that I am spamming?back

Some Internet users will report email as spam even though they have signed up to receive your email. If you receive an abuse complaint from us about spam, please notify our office, and let us know your situation. Where possible, we will attempt to provide you with the email address that should be removed from your email list. However, if we continue to receive complaints about email you are sending, we will need to contact you again and verify that you are doing the proper things to avoid having your email considered spam.

I have decided to start sending out bulk email for my business or personal reasons. How do I avoid my email becoming seen as spam?back

When you decide to send out email in bulk, you need to make sure that everyone receiving emails from you has signed up for them.
Do not buy lists from online companies. Many lists that are being sold have email addresses that were gathered without the users' knowledge. If you buy a list and send out email, you will very likely receive a spam complaint. When sending out email, you should include an opt-out link or instructions somewhere in the email allowing people to request not to receive further email from you. If you receive opt-out notification from an individual and continue to send them email anyway, that will be considered spam. If you are paying for a residential account and decide to send out email for business reasons, you must upgrade to a Road Runner commercial account. Residential accounts are intended for entertainment purposes only.

Do not send email for a company that pays you to do so. Legitimate companies have their own domains and staff to send out commercial emails to clients. Companies that pay you to send email out for them most likely do not have legitimate email lists and are looking to place the responsibility for complaints on someone else.

If you have any further questions about sending out bulk email, please contact our office.

My cable modem has been DISABLED what do I do now?back

If you notice your cable modem has flashing lights and you can not connect to the Internet, call Bright House Networks at the number appearing on your bill. If they look up your account information and advise you that your Road Runner Service has been disabled for an abuse issue, one of our Security team members will assist in getting your Road Runner Service reinstated.

I have been asked to reformat my computer or run the System recovery disk. What does this mean?back

When you are asked to reformat you computer, this means you must erase all data from your hard drive and reinstall your operating system. You can come to this point when a virus/worm/Trojan horse has infected your computer beyond repair. We offer our customer suggestions of resources to rid computers of problems, however when these resources do not successfully clean your computer completely we may then ask that you reformat you hard drive to guarantee your computer is free and safe from virus/worm/Trojan horses. When you are asked to reformat your hard drive, your Road Runner service will remain offline until the task is complete. If you have a friend or relative that can assist you with this task, please feel free to utilize them. If you do not have a friend that can assist you with this, please check your local yellow pages under "computer Services" to find a retailer or service that can assist you with this process.

If your computer came with a system recovery disk, running that disk should take your computer back to the original factory settings. Either way, the problem that caused the issue should no longer be present and your computer 'should' now be safe to connect to the Internet. Remember to download all the updates for your operating system and security software immediately when you reconnect to the Internet.

What is spyware? Could spyware be responsible for this abuse complaint? back

Spyware is software that is placed on your computer to gain access, information, or control of the end users machine without their knowledge. Spyware can be easily installed on your computer without your knowledge and may result in identity theft, data corruption, personal profile viewing and more. Your computer can get spyware when you download files, view and unsolicited email, visit Web pages that activate a drive-by-download or via other means. Spyware cleaners are different from Anti-virus software and Firewalls and should not be confused about purpose. Anti-spyware software is becoming just as necessary as Anti-virus and Firewall software in protecting your personal information located on your computer. Because spyware is so intrusive it may very well be what actually caused the complaint against you. Spyware may contain viruses/worms/Trojan horses which can lead to an infection and gain access to your computer from outside sources. Our spyware Web page offers several anti-spyware programs for you to download. To visit this page click here.

I receive tons of junk email everyday. How can I prevent receiving this email?back

Installing a spyware cleaner is a very good first step. Some spyware is designed to gather your personal information such as your email address. Once your email address is captured you may receive what seems to be unending unwanted and undesirable email. Subscribing to websites is another way your email address can be obtained. Many websites will offer an opt-out paragraph, however if you do not opt-out paragraph, however if you do not opt-out you are giving them permission to sell your email address to other companies. Unsolicited emails are another good way to verify your email address to be valid. Many people try to unsubscribe to junk email believing it will stop the problem, when all they are really doing is verifying an email address to be valid and working. Even today there are several places of business that ask for your email address.

If you do not want to receive unsolicited email, it is important that you do not disclose this information to them. There is no certain way to prevent all unsolicited email. The junk senders are becoming smarter and smarter every day, creating new ways to send junk mail and avoid the filters. Road Runner does filter known spam sources, however we can not filter everything due to the fact one of those emails could be legitimate. You may see some of the junk email with the "To:" field with someone else's name. This is a method spammers use to ensure delivery of emails to a large number of people. You may also notice numbers and/or letter within the subject line. This is also another tactic used to ensure the mail filters do not pick up on them. So how do you prevent all of this unwanted email? The most common way is to set up what is called a filter. A filter allows you to specify the conditions to which each email is treated. Email clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Poco Mail offer filters that you can utilize. Refer to the Help Guide for your program. Another way you can protect yourself from unwanted email is by purchasing a spam guard program that you can setup to filter out email before it reaches you Inbox.

Did you know there are programs available to help with spam? The spam control section offers many solutions for spam, and the laws that govern it.

Does Road Runner offer an Anti-virus/Firewall software solution?back

Yes. Bright House Networks and Road Runner now offer a firewall and antivirus software solution for Road Runner customers called Computer Associates Internet Security Suite (CA ISS). This product is currently free to Road Runner customers to use for personal use. If you currently have installed Norton Anti-virus or McAfee Anti-virus, you will need to uninstall these products in order to use CA ISS. If you are currently infected with a virus or Trojan horse this product may not protect your system. You must clean your system before installing this product. To download this product click here.

My friend or family member keeps telling me the email they send to me is bouncing back.back

If you are not receiving email is a high possibility that Road Runner is blocking another ISP (Internet Service Provider), or in this case, blocking your friend/family member that is trying to send you the email. If this is the case they should have instructions in the bounce message on who to contact about the block. All Non-MAPS or non-Spamhaus related SMTP error messages, sent back to the original sender by Road Runner, will be in the following format:

ERROR:5.7.1:550 Mail Refused: Domain/IP: See
http://security.rr.com/mail_blocks.htm#REASON
ERROR:4.7.1:450 Mail Temporarily Refused: Domain/IP: See
http://security.rr.com/mail_blocks.htm#REASON

Blocked parties may visit http://security.rr.com/mail_blocks.htm for information about specific blocks, our mail filtering policies and general information about mail blocking.

How many recipients does Road Runner allow in the TO: field?back

The maximum number of email recipients that can be placed in the TO: field is 99. If you tried to send to more than 99 you will receive an error message notifying you that you exceeded the allowed number of addresses. The same rule applies for other fields i.e. the CC and BCC fields.

I am a Road Runner customer and email I am trying to send is bouncing back with an error message. Is my RR account being blocked?back

Road Runner has a limit of 1,000 email addresses attempted per IP address within 24 hour period for residential users. If you see the error message on the bounce back listed below then you have been blocked for 24 hours.

ERROR:5.7.1:550 Outbound Mail Refused - YOUR_IP_ADDRESS See http://help.rr.com/outbound_email.html - DATE_OF_BLOCK

Once you have been blocked it can not be lifted until the 24 hour period has expired. If you believe you did not mail to this number of recipients, there are two reasons that may explain this.

  • If you hit the "Send" button more than once on the same email message, this counts as email addresses attempting to connect to the mail server and goes toward the 1,000 limit. For example, if you have 99 recipients in on email and you hit the send button and the email does not disappear, and you hit the send button again and then again, that is 297 email addresses that attempted to connect to our mail server even though you were only trying to send 99.
  • Your computer is infected with a virus, worm, Trojan horse that is allowing someone on the Internet to gain access to your computer system to send junk email through it. We have seen customers in the past that were infected manage to send out more than 100,000 emails within a few hours! If this is possibly that case we invite you to scan your computer with some free tools and remove any/all viruses/worms/Trojan horses. To access these tools visit Clean your PC.

I am a Road Runner customer and when I send an email to a certain domain my email is bounced back to me. Why is this happening?back

If your email is being bounced back from a certain domain when sending email and you are sure the email address is spelled correctly and is valid, then it is very possible that the domain is blocking Road Runner in some shape or form. This block may be specific to your IP address or it may affect all Road Runner users. Please contact us via your local office and be ready to provide the error message you are getting.

I am downloading music or program files from a P2P program. Did I get infected from doing this or could I get infected?back

Not only are downloads across P2P programs the most common way to pick up viruses, spyware and Trojan horses, by downloading any song, movie, and software without the consent of the owner of that copyrighted work you may be breaking the law. For more information on P2P dangers we invite you to visit our P2P page.

My Road Runner was disabled or quarantined without any notice. Why do you not notify your customers when you turn off or restrict their service?back

We take steps to notify our customers about ongoing 'abuse' issues relating to their account but unfortunately we may not be able to call and/or provide advanced warning. Please be advised that disabling the cable modem is usually a last resort and we would in most cases use our modem quarantine process to both alert our customers and to limit the damage that the infected or compromised PC may be doing.


See other FAQs at http://help.rr.com

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