1. I have received a message from you about Internet abuse. What is this about?
2. I am infected, what do I do now?
3. I have done all that you have asked and I still do not find any viruses. What do I do next?
4. The removal tool did not find the virus. What do I do now?
5. How do I know that this is a legitimate e-mail from Time Warner Cable?
6. So I have an abuse complaint against me? What will happen if I do nothing aboutit?
7. How did this happen to me? Did you give me this virus/Trojan?
8. This has been a nightmare...How can i prevent my PC from becoming re-infected?
9. I am not Spamming...I don't even know what Spam is. Why am I receiving this abuse complaint?
10. I am a legitimate business that is sending e-mails from a verified list. Why are you telling me that I am Spamming?
11. I have decided to start sending out bulk e-mail for my business or personal reasons. How do I avoid my e-mail becoming seen as Spam?
12. My cable modem has been disabled. What do I do now?
13. I have been asked to reformat my computer or run the System Recovery Disk, what does this mean?
14. What is Spyware? Could Spyware be responsible for this abuse complaint?
15. I receive tons of junk e-mail everyday. How do I prevent receiving this e-mail?
16. Does Road Runner offer an Anti-Virus/Firewall software solution?
17. My friend or family member keeps telling me the e-mail they send to me is bouncing back.
18. How many recipients does Road Runner allow in the To: field?
19. I am a Road Runner customer and e-mail I am trying to send is bouncing back with an error message. Is my Road Runner account being blocked?
20. I am a Road Runner customer and when I send an e-mail to a certain domain my e-mail is bounced back to me. Why is this happening?
21. I am downloading music or program files from a P2P program. Did I get infected from doing this or could I get infected?
22. My Road Runner was DISABLED without ANY notice. Why do you NOT notify your customers when you turn off or restrict their service?

This office received a complaint of unwanted activity that was tracked back to your computer through the IP address assigned to your cable modem. Please READ the entire message and follow the instructions given. 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. Please DO NOT disregard this message. If you do nothing about this message we may disable your Road Runner service until we are able to discuss the issue with you or the problem is fixed.

Assess your PC knowledge. Are you comfortable with going to Web sites, downloading, installing, and running new programs? If you are then please visit our Virus Fix Web page and follow the instructions on cleaning and securing your PC. If you do not feel comfortable attempting to clean and secure your computer, we would ask that you find someone that is more comfortable doing so. Other options include contacting the manufacturer for assistance and support or you may wish to seek help from a local computer professional or computer repair store. Please check local listings to find one that suits your needs.

It may be that the only method to guarantee that your computer is clean is by formatting (erasing the contents) of your PC's hard drive or by running the system recovery disk which essentially takes the computer back to the original factory settings. What you may wish to do is to backup only the critical documents and e-mail that you need before taking this course of action, to receive free tech support which they will help you reformat your hard drive. Keep in mind when you are backing up your important documents that you really keep it to the 'must keep' files as you may back up a virus and re-infect your PC all over again.

First, you need to make sure that you have scanned all computers in the household. This also includes any work computers that you may bring home from the office. Some people have multiple operating systems on one hard drive. Remember also to ensure that if you have a wireless network that it is properly secured. If you do not hear back from our office you may assume that your computer system is clean at this time.

If the scanners did not find anything it does not mean that your machine is still not infected. This probably means that the scanner you need is not equipped to find the type of infection you have. All scanners are designed to find different viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses. For this reason we recommend that you try multiple tools and methods to attempt to clean and secure your computer(s). To try additional scanners visit our Additional Tools page.

You should always scan all of your e-mail attachments before you open them as a good rule of safety. Our office will never send an e-mail with an attachment. If you suspect that an e-mail did not come from our office you may contact your local Time Warner office.

In order to protect our network, other customers and Internet users and your privacy, we may determine that it is necessary 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.

Roadrunner does offer a security product and does attempt to filter viruses send through our mail servers, but we have no control over what the end user does 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.

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 look for and download the latest updates to your operating system, security software and other programs and avoiding Internet activities that may be easy ways to pick up a virus or spyware are the best ways to minimize future problems.

Most of these reports result from Viruses/Trojans on the computer system. We do recognize this, and this is stated in the abuse complaint that we it is likely to have been the result of a Virus/Trojan and not you or anyone else in the household actually sending the e-mail that generated the complaint. Please also remember that if you are sending any form of bulk mail or even recipient email, this may still be considered unwanted by the recipient.

Some Internet users will report e-mail as spam even though they have signed up to receive your e-mail. If you receive an abuse complaint from us regarding 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 e-mail list. However, if we continue to receive complaints regarding complaints regarding e-mail you are sending, we will need to revisit with you and verify that you are doing the proper things to avoid having your e-mail considered spam.

When you decide to send out e-mail in bulk you need to make sure that everyone that is on the list to receive an e-mail from you has signed up to receive an e-mail from you. Do not buy lists from online companies. Many lists that are being sold have e-mail addresses that were gathered without the users' knowledge. If you buy a list and send out e-mail do not be surprised if you receive a spam complaint from our office. When sending out e-mail you should have an opt-out link/instructions somewhere in the e-mail that allows people to request not to receive further e-mail 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 e-mail for business reasons, you must upgrade to a Road Runner commercial account. Residential accounts are intended for entertainment purposes only.

Do not send e-mail for a company that pays you to do so. Legitimate companies will have their own domain and staff to send out commercial e-mails to their clients. Companies that pay you to send e-mail out for them most likely do not have legitimate e-mail lists and are looking to place the responsibility on someone else for their e-mails that are being sent.

If you have any further questions about sending out bulk e-mail please contact our office.

If you notice your cable modem has flashing lights and you can not connect to the Internet, call you local Time Warner Office. If they look up you account information and advise you that your Road Runner Service has been disabled for an abuse issue, you will need to contact our office to get you Road Runner Service re-instated.

When you are asked to reformat you computer this means you must erase all data from your hard drive and start over. 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 clean their computers, 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 be back on the Internet. Remember to download all the updates for your operating system and security software immediately when you reconnect to the Internet.

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 e-mail, 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 as to their 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.

Installing a Spyware cleaner is a very good first step. Some Spyware is designed to gather your personal information such as your e-mail address. Once your e-mail address is captured you may receive what seems to be unending unwanted and undesirable e-mail. Subscribing to Web sites is another way your e-mail address can be solicited. Many Web sites 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 e-mail address to other companies. Unsolicited e-mails are another good way to verify your e-mail address to be valid. Many people try to unsubscribe to junk e-mail thinking that will solve their problem, when all they are really doing is verifying their e-mail address to be valid and working. Even today there are several places of business that ask for your e-mail address.

If you do not want to receive unsolicited e-mail, it is important that you do not disclose this information to them. There is no certain way to prevent all unsolicited e-mail. The junk senders are becoming smarter and smarter every day, creating new ways to send their 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 e-mails could be legitimate. You may see some of the junk e-mail with the To: field with someone else's name. This is a method used by spammers to ensure they get their e-mails to a large amount 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 e-mail? The most common way is to set up what is called a filter. A filter allows you to specify the conditions to which each e-mail is treated. E-mail 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 e-mail is by purchasing a spam guard program that you can setup to filter out e-mail before it reaches you Inbox.

Did you know there are programs available to help with Spam? Our Spam Control Web page offers many solutions for spam, and the laws that govern it.

Yes. Time Warner Cable now offers a firewall/anti-virus software solution for their Road Runner customers called EZ Armor. 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 EZ Armor. 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.

If you are not receiving e-mail 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 e-mail. If this is the case they should have instructions in the bounce message on who to get in contact with regarding 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

The maximum number of e-mail 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 are over the allowed amount of addresses. The same rule applies for other fields i.e. the CC and BCC fields.

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 receipients, there are two reasons that may explain this.

If your e-mail is being bounced back from a certain domain when sending e-mail and you are sure the e-mail 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.

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.

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.


Further FAQ's may be found at www.help.rr.com

Neither Time Warner Cable nor Road Runner has affiliation to or liability for these Web sites or their products. If you encounter problems with or have questions about these Web sites, please contact the respective Webmasters for further assistance.