Computer Hijacking

[Snake Pliskin]

Somehow my IE home page got changed. So, I changed it back. I close IE, then start it again, and it goes to my preferred home page. BUT, when I look at the internet options again, the home page is changed back to the undesired page!

So I change it back, delete all cookies, delete all temp files, and reboot my PC. SAME FRIGGIN THING HAPPENS!!! WTF!!!! It seems that when I start IE it loads my home page, but in the process of starting, it changes my Internet Options home page so the next time I start IE, I end up at their page instead of mine! I reset all options to default, but to no effect.

I find this very offensive, although the site I'm directed to seems fairly harmless. Internet terrorists are pissing me off today!!

Any anti-terrorists out there know what's going on?

 

[papasmerf]

REDIRECT
it is called redirect

Change to NETSCAPE and forget about all those crying MAC

 

[WhOiSyOdAdDy?]

is your virus scanner up to date??

 

[Average Joe]

Hijacking is not a virus and will not be corrected by a virus scanner.

Check out this recent thread: https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?&threadid=43369

 

[CyberGoth]

hmmmm activeX by spammers.... it wrote registry changes to your system that over ride whatever settings you put in Internet Exploder.

contemplate redhat linux, or netscape, or mozilla, also contemplate tools that block activeX.

and if yer using XP.... ick, sorry to hear that.
convert over to win2k pro SP4 with "file and print sharing services" removed entirely and the remote registry service DISABLED.

but thats just my oppinion.

spyware detectors are a good thing. one that came in the latest Maximum PC mag. is called "spybot Search&Destroy" by a fellow in germany.

 

[CyberGoth]

hmmm dual headed unix on delivery... easy like chinese order out food.

I rather like how the mac these days is basically a really nice commercial BSD unix implementation with NextStep.

waiting for a dual proc G5/1800 [4gigs ram, 2 big disks, dvdrw, dual head 128meg display feeding 2 18" nec LCD.

hmmmm sweeeeeeeeet.

I dont impress easily, last time I took an OS this seriously was OS/2 2.00SMP in 1992.

hmmmmm dually dual happy crunching unixy goodnesssss.

another friend of mine on terb likes dual proc PCs like abit VP6s and might appreciate this beast.

cheers.
now if Timmies would deliver to my door the way apple does... that would rock!

 

[CyberGoth]

the average uptime for my windows boxes is about six weeks, the average uptime for my unix boxes, is about 6 to 10 months. I've got a rather wide variety of systems here but windows boxes are quite manageable and stable IF you do it properly from the ground up. [still... icky patchy badness]

winXP just grosses me out.

ROTFLMAO at the problems the Windows people have.

"oh macs are no good, I would never buy a mac..."

Funny how you never hear us Mac people complaining about virus problems or open ports or security hole or having the computer hijacked.

 

[letsgoletsgo]

I so want a mac.

The automatic homepage changes may also be spyware type programs.

Give it a scrub with ad-aware or spybot. I think you can download ad-aware at download.com, probably won't hurt.

 

[CyberGoth]

yep yep tis all goodly.

 

[Peeping Tom]

That is terrible ... even with 98SE I managed typically three months, crunching distributed computing 24/7 on various overclocked boxes. Once I changed to w2kpro things improved greatly - I don't even have any data for downtime yet.

the average uptime for my windows boxes is about six weeks.

 

[CyberGoth]

yes, but I tend to take machines apart and change cooling fans and replace worn out power supplies on a regular basis so they dont melt.

I also include this workstation which runs win2k and has been up for 53 days since last reboot and will not reboot until a project is completed.

if i didnt tinker so damn much, then uptimes would be more.

the longest windows uptime i've had was about a year. that was a windows NT4SP5 box that served as a primary domain controller and shared a bit of disk and some printers. nothing major or complex.

in a production environment, you MAINTAIN YOUR SYSTEMS. so I take them down from time to time, one at a time, to do maintenance. hell, my laptop has been up for 6 days as of right now and I have to go undock it to go off to a client site for stuff I do.

at least thats how I look at it.
besides, its fun!

note: its mostly packed into 19" cabinets and sitting on very well conditioned power and so on and so forth.

i find that when i put a linux or BSD box up. it tends not to need tinkering nearly as much. it just runs and I ssh or ipsec my way into it. [hence since i dont mess with it much, it stays up for months and months at a time. I'm used to XP uptimes sometimes being measured in hours more often than days.

 

[shyguy2222]

Somehow my IE home page got changed. So, I changed it back. I close IE, then start it again, and it goes to my preferred home page. BUT, when I look at the internet options again, the home page is changed back to the undesired page!

So I change it back, delete all cookies, delete all temp files, and reboot my PC. SAME FRIGGIN THING HAPPENS!!! WTF!!!! It seems that when I start IE it loads my home page, but in the process of starting, it changes my Internet Options home page so the next time I start IE, I end up at their page instead of mine! I reset all options to default, but to no effect.

I find this very offensive, although the site I'm directed to seems fairly harmless. Internet terrorists are pissing me off today!!

Any anti-terrorists out there know what's going on?

Suggest spending some time at www.annoyances.org.

 

[Bone]

I've had the same issues since November.

My home page gets reset to www.search-space.com regularly.
Worse, after certain time periods, IE launches a bunch of malicious pop-ups (usually to porno sites) and tries prompting me to download software from a company called HALDEX.
Even after saying NO and fianlly closing tem all, I find that many of these sites have added themselves to My Favorites maliciously.

Norton AV does not do anything.
I started using Ad-Aware. I run a scan & clean several times a day.
It cleans the offendng sites & scripts, but it cannot seem to find/delete the malicious script which is the source of all this crap.\

what a frickin pain!

Bone

 

[geronimowh]

Browser Helper Objects

From what you describe you may have a BHO or Browser helper object installed.

Look at http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/bho/ or other similar references using Google. I use BHOCOP from PCMAGAZINE to rid my system of these annoyances. I dont know if its still available.

 

[great_times2]

yes, almost certain it's spyware........the web is starting to crawl with this junk.

Adaware is a great program and user friendly. Highly recommend running it on your system once a month or so.......plus its a free download

 

[Meesh]

I use a combination of Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy...between the two I've had zero problems.

Both free. One will occasionally pick up something the other misses.

 

[canucklehead]

hey Goth i am running a dual 2 gig G5 and loving it, same time i still love my 12 inch pb.
Redhat has also switched their Free unsupported version of RH to fedora Core, pretty much the same thing. I installed it on a machine at home to play with it, i still prefer slackware but hey.
Dude stop using IE and either download Mozilla or Firebird. Or just switch to linux if u cant afford a Mac.
if u r looking for linux look here.
www.linuxiso.org/

 

[WhOiSyOdAdDy?]

I have never had any luck installing Linux.. so I have stuck with XPpro for now

last time I tried Suse 8.1 and could not set up my cable internet

 

[canucklehead]

Suse has been good for me i have a laptop running 9. But i have been i love with Redhat since 9 came out and this Fedora Core seems great.
i would never give up my Mac though.
Oh and Winston the Mac has its hacks and Freakz u can do to take over someone's computer it just takes more work and know how.

 

[pico]

Don't Forget...

I use Ad-aware. It's the best program out there right now for getting rid of computer "parasites".

I have heard that Spy-bot is also really good.

Once you have installed the newest version of Ad-aware, DON'T FORGET to run the update tool frequently. Lavasoft has been very good with the updates recently.

For example, they updated on Jan. 1/04 and then again on Jan. 3/04

The spammer demons put new parasites out there every day, so make sure you update regulary, just as with AV software.

pico