HP932C Dials Modem When Printing

i suspect a software modem
try changing the modem to a hardware version like a rockwell

"Fred" wrote in message
m...
System: 4-Node network running Win98SE on all computers, printing to a
shared Hewlett-Packard HP932C DeskJet.

Problem: After changing Internet Options, Connections to "Dial
whenever a network connection is not present" (or "Always dial my
default connection") instead of "Never dial a connection", every time
I print to the shared network printer my modem dials my Internet
connection.

Details: If I set Internet Options, Connections to "Never dial a
connection" my printer works fine. However, I need to allow an
application unattended access to the Internet so this is not a
solution. It seems that the HP printer driver (v4.3) starts rpcss.exe
(Distributed Component Object Model aka DCOM) which shows up in Zone
Alarm as Distributed COM Services. This in turn starts rnaapp.exe
Dial-Up Networking which causes my modem to dial my Internet
connection. I tested with a different printer (an Epson) and this
problem did not occur.

Solution: I don't know why the HP printer driver is using DCOM.
However, according to http://www.grc.com/dcom/ DCOM is not needed and
I can safely disable it. GRC has a freeware application called
DCOMbobulator (see above link) which will disable DCOM. I tried it and
it works great. My network printer is working normally again.

If one of you experts would like to flesh this out a bit more, feel
free.

Fred