Help! Might be under attack from Spyware. (1 Viewer)

[Frank@N]

I keep my PC very clean and protected by virus scanning / firewall.

I don't load any plug-ins or Gator-type crap.

But somehow, something got thru...

At random intervals, my IE homepage is hijacked and my browser is re-directed to default-homepage-network.com

This insidious site then jams my PC with a fullscreen browser window that requires arcane keystrokes to close and taunts me by opening my CD drawer for effect.

THEN, they want to sell me software to stop all this nonsense!

I put the site on my Security blocklist, which traps the process, but I still have to change my homepage back after the attack.

Do I need to dl a Spyware remover or is this something that needs to be removed manually?

 

[Frank@N]

Good god, now we need spyware removers to remove the spyware removers!

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/sec...9146150,00.htm

Not sure how to fix this yet, but I did remove a suspicious program file from within IE.

 

[Frank@N]

OK, kept looking into this...

Found some freeware call Hijackthis1977.

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/

It runs a scan of various Startup locations.

Spotted an entry for the offending site that was hiding in my IE settings in the Registry (Current User Key).

Tools lets you easily remove various entries, we'll see...

 

[Jon B NY]

adaware 6 - lavasoft.de and spybot search & destroy - safer-networking.com are two very good FREE spyware hunters.

 

[Dustin Harrison]

I'll second that.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

third

i never really bothered to use a program like either of these until I saw that my university offers free licenses. I'm not sure if they're shareware or what without the license but give them a download, i'm almost positive it'll solve your problem.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

And at the risk of becoming downright repetitive and boring - consider switching to another browser that isn't as susceptible and/or attractive as a target.

http://www.opera.com
http://www.mozilla.org - either full Mozilla or the rather sleek and spiffy Firefox.

 

[Bob_Bo]

There is no realistic way to stop all the crap adware/spyware, etc. from infesting your machine. . . especially using I.E.

Your best bet is to adopt a vigilant maintenance routine that includes physically emptying your temp Internet folder, running a good virus program and using a spyware scanner such as adaware.

I was recently hit with a similar bug, Frank. Downloader.ramex.c got into one of my restore files and the only way I could rid myself of it was to delete the file. I've subsequently disabled the restore services.

 

[Jon B NY]

I agree with Kimmo's reccomendation to change your browser. I use Mozilla and I love it more than IE features wise alone. It's so much more stable and safe too! It has tabbed browsing for cryin' out loud! TABBED BROWSING!!!!!!!!!!!



Between that and the free spyware hunters I reccomended (and everyone agreed with) you'll be a step above the rest!

 

[Max Leung]

As a stop-gap solution, in Windows XP (and Windows 98?) you can run msconfig.exe from the command-line and disable all startup programs. Reboot, see if the problem goes away. If so, slowly re-enable the startup items, one program at a time, until you find the culprit.

I find adaware ineffective against random browser popup programs. I had one on my machine that I had disabled because it looked suspicious...adaware never found it even after a year of updates! Stupid adaware.