Hi Apion - Sounds like you've been hijacked. You kinda need to know what
the parasite(s) is/are before you can do much about fixing them except to
apply some general tools like AdAware and/or SpyBot S&D (see below). If
they don't fix it then start here:
Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip (Always download a
new fresh copy of HijackThis [and CWShredder also] - It's UPDATED
frequently.)
Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click the
Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log which
will create Startuplist.txt
Then go to one of the following forums (Sypwareinfo and/or Tom Coyote may be
down currently due to a DoS attack):
Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11
or Net-Integration here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-...86d536d57b5f65b6e40c55365e;act=ST;f=27;t=6949
or Tom Coyote here:
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=495&s=2c6e92805e310b519b9fa61cc7098fba
Sign in, then copy and paste both files into a message asking for
assistance, Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal
of your parasite(s).
For the general hijack case, the best way to start is to get Ad-Aware 6.0,
Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/.
UPDATE and run this regularly to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on
your machine. If it has to fix things, be sure to re-boot and rerun
AdAware again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean scan. The reason
is that it may have to remove things which are currently "in use" before it
can then clean up others.
Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here:
http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After UPDATING and fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be
sure to re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a
clean "no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove
things which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.
Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm
Once you get things cleaned up, you might want to consider installing the
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard here to help prevent this kind of thing from
happening in the future:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (Prevents malware Active
X installs) (BTW, SpyWare Blaster is not memory resident ... no CPU or
memory load - but keep it updated) The latest version as of this writing
will prevent installation or prevent the malware from running if it is
already installed for 1170 parasites currently, and it provides information
and fixit-links for a variety of parasites.
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html (Monitors for attempts to
install malware) Both Very Highly Recommended.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
