Google Virus?

[NYFAN]

Ok, I don't know what's up with this, I figured maybe it was a virus, but I decided to come here to see what you guys know about it... Everytime I do a google search, it searchs properly, and lists it, and then a little less than a second later it goes to a new page that lists all of these "Click here to find ____ at ____" crappy search spam stuff. What is going on, does anyone know?

[Tekneek]

Spyware? Might grab one of those anti-spyware programs and do a scan...

[korme]

google seems to be working fine on my end

[NYFAN]

I just updated my ad-aware and it picked up some new stuff, but none of it solved the problem... it's very odd, it shows the correct results for about a second, and then goes to a spam search basically.

[Tekneek]

Try looking at your hosts file, perhaps. I had an issue like this on one computer, and finally looked into the hosts file and it was absolutely full of junk that had been added over time by different programs. Wiping out all the crappy "search" sites solved that problem (when combined with some spyware/adware catchers).

[Sweed]

Sounds like your browser has been highjacked. Might want to go to computercops.biz and grab "highjack this". I posted on their board when I had a similar problem. Never got an answer from any of their experts but was able to fix my problem with a little reading of the info on their board. Hope that helps.

[NYFAN]

Tekneek, how do I access these hosts files? I am not familiar with what you're talking about, at least I don't think I am.

[Tekneek]

Just search for a file named "hosts" on your drive. If you do not have a "hosts" file, then disregard completely. "Hosts.sam" is a sample of a hosts file and is not what I am talking about.

What OS are you running? I just assumed a Microsoft Windows one.

[RPI-Fan]

How do I edit it if I find a hosts file? Notepad?

[Tekneek]

How do I edit it if I find a hosts file? Notepad?

Yeah, you can use Notepad. Any text editor will work.

[FBPro]

Yep, it's a hijack issue.

[NYFAN]

I went to that hijack site and got absolutely lost... Can you walk me through what I need to do?

[Ben E Lou]

Try looking at your hosts file, perhaps. I had an issue like this on one computer, and finally looked into the hosts file and it was absolutely full of junk that had been added over time by different programs. Wiping out all the crappy "search" sites solved that problem (when combined with some spyware/adware catchers).What is *supposed* to be in this file?

[NYFAN]

I found the hosts files and changed them, but it doesn't seem to have done anything.

[Tekneek]

What is *supposed* to be in this file?

Unless you have specified something, you should probably have nothing in there.

I have private IPs from my LAN associated with names there, instead of running a DNS server on my LAN. Essentially, a hosts file takes a machine name and matches it to an IP address.

For instance, if you had this in your hosts file :

127.0.0.1 dynamic2.gamespy.com

Each time you would try to go to dynamic2.gamespy.com in your web browser, your computer would try to connect to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) instead.

One of our computers had all kinds of strange entries in there. I pretty much know it was from an install of Kazaa.

[Poli]

Use Spybot. I had this problem before. The latest and greatest 1.3 should take care of this problem.

AE

[NYFAN]

I downloaded it and ran it, and it got rid of a bunch of stuff, but I still have the issue.

[sovereignstar]

The best solution here might be to find some sort of spyware/hijack forum run by trained professionals. More than likely they'll ask you to run some sort of a log and then tell you how to proceed.

I wouldn't doubt that something is hidden deep inside your registry.

Jeff

[JonInMiddleGA]

I downloaded it and ran it, and it got rid of a bunch of stuff, but I still have the issue.
Go toward the bottom of the page & download/try the little utility called CWShredder. See if that fixes your problem.

http://www.net-integration.net/tools/hijackthis.html

After months of putting up with a search engine redirect, a couple of minutes with CWShredder tonight & it appears to be fixed. And I'm a happy camper about that :)

(If it reappears on my next reboot, I'll try hijackthis in companion & see if that provides a permanent solution as a couple of bulletin boards I've seen suggested might be the case)

Good luck

[NYFAN]

that didn't work, guess i'll try that hijack forum, see if i can figure it out

[Sweed]

that didn't work, guess i'll try that hijack forum, see if i can figure it out

Sorry, didn't get back to you yet. I'm not a computer expert by any means.
I went to computercops with absolutly no knowledge of what to do. If you invest the time you'll get through it.

First register and post your problem on the board. If you're lucky one of their experts will help you. I wasn't that lucky and had to hack my way through it myself. If you don't get a reply try to find posts with similar trouble to what you are having, that's what I had to do. Then d'load hijackthis and read through the help section on how to read the log it produces. I spent the better part of half a day doing this but I think a computer guy would probably do it in an hour or so:)

It will make a log of things running on your computer. The help section will show you what things should and should not be running. From here you can select what you want hijackthis to fix. The thing is though before you fix something you need to make sure it is something that shouldn't be there.
Take your time and you'll get your problem fixed. It was frustrating for me but with a little time invested I got things back to normal. Good luck.