OT - Defeating lop.com

[QuikSand]

I think I even posted about this here before...

I am a regular user of MS Internet Explorer (though that may be changing as we speak) and have had occasional problems with some sort of trojan-type program that redirects my browser to a site called lop.com from time to time.

I have used three or four different progams to try to remove it, with no complete success. For months, when this has cropped up, I have re-run SpyBot Search and Destroy, which routinely finds a variety of little cookies and things related to lop.com and other junk, deletes them all , and tells me I'm immunized against everything. Then, after a while, I start having problems again, and I have to re-run it, when it again tells me that I have a variety of little files, but everything should be okay now. Ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

If you aren't familiar, the lop.com site is designed to hijack your browser whenever you are trying to access a site that can't be found - so rather than getting a standard 404 page of some sort, you get re-sent to the lop.com page - whatever that's all about. I guess the point is that their page gets a lot of hits, and they sell ads based on that. All I know is that it's a major pain when I try to access a routine site (like this one) and get redirected...


At the moment, after running S&D for the third time today, things seem to have settled down. (For a while, I couldn't even get to refdesk, much less FOFC) But I'm still ticked off. A search for this thing gives scores of places offering advice -- but nothing seems to have really solved the problem.

One bit of advice I have received is to finally dump MSIE, and go to something like Mozilla Firefox. So, I downloaded that, and started it up. My first five minutes included getting sent to lop.com when I tried to go anywhere at all... a total mess. But it seems to be better now, for whatever reason.

Anyway, I'm in Firefox now... and enjoying it so far. But I still would like to kill this lop.com thing once and for all. Ideally, this would be free... and easy. But I'm not optimistic that I can get that particular combination in this case, so I think i'd accept either one of the two.


Any help from the vaunted FOFC knowledge base?

[JonInMiddleGA]

These links might help. Each contains variations of the same instructions, and the last even has a d'loadable that promises to do the trick. A word of warning: I haven't personally tried any of these, so use any/all at your own risk.

http://www.spysweeper.com/remove-lop-com.html
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/lop.html
http://www.free-web-browsers.com/remove-lop.shtml

I will say, however, that I fought for months with a similar hijacker (different site, same sort of thing) and finally managed to eliminate it once & for all only by finding a d'loadable freeware tool specifically designed for that particular bug.

[Cuckoo]

Pest Control has manual removal instructions, but I've never had this one so I'm not sure if they work.

You can post your HiJack This! log on Computer Cops.org. They can usually walk you through fixing it.

[Subby]

I did a few Google searches and a few of them pointed back to the actual lop.com web site Help section (including SARC.com, the Symantec Antivirus Research Center site).

From the Help section:

How do I uninstall one of your software products?

There are several methods available to you should you wish to uninstall any of our software products you had previously chosen to install:

- You can go to your Start Menu--Control Panel, then choose the 'Add / Remove Programs' option. Depending on which version of the software you have installed locate 'Lop.com' or 'LOP SEARCH' or 'Window Searching' or ‘'Window Active' or "Browser Enhancer" or "Ultimate Browser Enhancer" from the menu to run the uninstaller.

- Depending on your version You may also be able to locate a globe type icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen (near the clock), right click on it then click Menu. From the main menu you will see a help button on the top right hand corner. Click the help button then choose 'uninstall'.

- Additionally a separate universal uninstall program may be downloaded here

- If you are still having problems please email [email protected] for assistance.

[QuikSand]

I have heard that the "official" uninstall propgram from lop.com is a quagmire, not surprisingly. Sorry, I should have stated that.

My IT Guy has sent me something, in the meantime -- I'll report back with results.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

O have used thre or four different prorgams...

Three typos out of eight words? By QuikSand? Dear god, this lop.com thing is worse than we thought!

[QuikSand]

Itz gtnug oit of ctrl.

[Buzzbee]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Itz gtnug oit of ctrl.

Flashbacks of Ashe in "Alien"

[Daimyo]

If you're going to continue using IE I'd reccomend disabling ActiveX controls and Javascript at a minimum (although at that point you lose all IE features with none of the firefox extras).

[wade moore]

Quik - I posted this on IHOF, but figured I'd post it here too.. .This might help..

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=lo...l.co.uk&rnum=3