Modem hacking?

I fail to see how anyone can do anything via a modem that is not connected.
Even if you did have problems with your other connections, they still wouldn't be able to do anything useful with a modem.

Windows will always harass you, thats just its way. Just let it install - And then disable it, thats as good as you are going to get unless you physically remove the modem.

How is someone going to exploit your modem if it's not connected to anything?

Another question: on installation of Spybot S&D, I allowed spybot to edit the registry "for possible restore point in case of spyware attack." Was this the right thing to do?

Allowing S&D to back up the registry is completely safe to do plus it might save you some time down the line if you keep up with it. All it does is creates a copy of your Registry on instalation allowing you to revert to those if it ever became corrupt. I doubt that would be good on your installed applications, but it will let you back up yor stuff.

As for your modem, you should either install the drivers and disable it in Device Manager, or if you are really paranoid, take it out of your computer if you can. I reccomend the first choice as it is the easist. As for a modems software allowing the execution of malicious code, I am doubtful, but if you disable it in Device Manager, XP shouldn't have the drivers actually running IIRC.



There are many more ways into a computer other than the Device Drivers. I would not worry about it too much. You should make sure you are running up-to-date Antivirus, Firewall(Preferably Bi-directional), Antispyware, and do not run any suspecious program or download stuff off of P2P networks. Following these simple steps will eliminate ~90% of security threats compaired to makeing sure your Modem(name almost any obscure part/program here) drivers are safe(~0.001%).



Sorry about that, it is honestly to try to ease your mind. Unless you are using your computer to contain highly sensitive data or transactions, you really shouldn't worry if you follow common sense and keep those 3 programs up, running , and updated. Of course it goes without saying you should keep XP/2003/2000 up to date and/or upgrade from 95/98/ME as Microsoft have left those users out to dry.

yea, good call. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe its just another feature that allows you to roll back your system to that point incase there are major problems involving Spyware.