Hi all. I have a problem, when I try to go to alta Vista, my page is redirected to a page that says “Free Search Online”, which has a bunch of poker ads. I just ran avast, it did not detect anything. Has nay one heard of this? I tried google, but can’t find any coherent info. Running windows 98 SE.

thnx

Xiaodind

thats not a virus, is prob spyware

if you look on www.download.com u can download spybot search and destroy

that shud get rid of ne spyware uve got

also try spyware blaster form the same site, another gr8 program, both are free too!

There are a couple of other good ones.I have links to them on my site.
-max

Thnx, I’ll try that, Adaware was no good. I found some files on my system and deleted them…inetwiz.exe, npp*, ras*, event*.*, inatjoy.dll. Then I did a reg search for “outhost”, found it in the prefix key for IE, and deleted that value. Found no keys with “hacker”. But none of these were the source code, I still got it after that. I’m in this for the challenge, I want to know how this thing works. Thank God I got a system backup from a month ago.

You might need to use HijackThis to get rid of it. I think it is one of the most useful tools.As zero said, used correctly,spybot along with spyware guard can lock your home and search page and some other things as well and they scan with a resident running all the time.I recommend a script blocker also.
You are smart to use this as a learning experience.
-max 8)

Click on the link in my signature and follow the instructions there to completely clean your system.

Go to this link for hijacking answers.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1090658454

Annoyances.org deals with hijacks. This site deals more with avast! issues. (Not that people here can’t deal with those issues also :))

This forum has a special section for HijackThis :
http://v1ru5help.org/phpBB2/index.php

(problems/questions/analyses)

Thnx all for the help. I wound up doing a wipe and restore, I couldn’t find much info on what files to look for.

While I am grateful to Avast for providing their software for free, I have to say I am dissapointed. It just didn’t work. It seems a lot of the scanners just don’t work nowadays. As a user, I don’t give a hoot if it’s a virus, or a hijack, or a trojan, I just want it off! The hackers are definetly winning the race now, it seems to me.

I don’t see how any virus scanner can work without booting in DOS mode first, making a list of files on the system, and then comparing that to the list of files when the OS is running. That would spot rootkits right away. Even beter booting in Linux.

But, keep trying, it’s a process.

thnx,

Xiaoding

Xiaoding

I have to say I am dissapointed. It just didn't work. It seems a lot of the scanners just don't work nowadays.

I think your trying to eat an apple and expecvt it to taste like an orange??????? If your infected with spyware and trojans, then don't blame a virus program for not finding them. Now a days, you need the right tools to do the job. For a virus use Avast. For Spyware and AdWare, Use AdAware and Spysweeper and a hole lot of other programs. You can get all them from here: [url=http://www.security-ops.tk/]http://www.security-ops.tk/ [/url] Hope that helps :)

My point is that users don’t care about arbitrary definitions of what is or is not a “virus”. They just want it fixed.

Perhaps virus scanner companies need to redifine their core mission: instead of scanning for “viruses”, defne the mission as eleminating all hostile code from a PC. Don’t even use the word virus.

I know that if I spend hard earned money on a scanner, and it does not work, and all I get is “oh, we don’t do hijackers, we do “viruses””, the first thought that occurs to me as a user is “geez, this is worse than the car dealers”. It is percieved as a weasel dodge on the part of the scanner company. I’m sure they don’t intend it as such…but I define virus as “any code that I did not put on the computer, that does things I don’t want”, period.

This is the reason I have not yet bought a virus scanner yet, I have no confidence in any of them. They just don’t work, and the companies seem to be stuck on these useless definitions.

thnx,

Xiaoding.

It is not the fault of creators of anti virus software that users don’t know the difference between viruses, browser hijackers, worms, trojans, spyware, adware and other software that is/can be harmfull to the proper functioning of a system.

There is no way that one application can handle them all. It is just technically, economicly and practicaly impossible to create one.

And the scanners do work. You are just expecting from them they are not made for. That is not the fault of the scanners. It is your lack of knowledge (no offense) that make you react that way. But point to yourself and not to something that can’t help it.

If people don’t care what it is called, they have no interest in the tool (computer) they are using. If so, they better use another tool before they get theirselfs into more trouble, get high blood pressure, a fight with their partner etc

If I get a ticket for speeding in my car, I will blame you. Since it doesn’t matter (according to you) if I know something (I am not allowed to drive to fast) or not.

Blaming the users will not make the bottom line any fatter. The user has a need…meet it, and succeed. Blame them, and they will go elsewhere.

have a nice day,

Xiaoding

Obviously you enjoy disagreements. Obviously you don’t like facts unles they bring out your point of view.
In this case you are wrong. Or, you have never done a full system scan for Adware, Trojans and Spyware. On a large system, that can take an hour or longer. I for one don’t have that kind of time to waist for each program I access or download waiting for a scanner that does all things for all people. If you are interested in Bloatware, I’d be more than happy to direct you to some sites where it’s available.

There are many specialist companies out there who do an excellent job at what they specialise in.

The phrase jack of all trades master of none comes to mind here.

A number of companies have tried and (in my opinion) failed to combine complex functions.

I think what Artras was trying to say the user is responsible for their own actions and doesn’t blame the car maker when they get a speeding ticket.

It’s your computer and to all intents and purposes your responsibility to learn about it and how to protect it.

If you are waiting for a single program to block spyware, adware, trogans, worms, hijackers and viruses, you are in for a long wait. Life is about compromises, do you not install anything untill the magic bullet protection program comes along and you will remain vulnerable for a long, long time.

Just take a look at my signature to get an idea of the programs I run for protection, there are others (these are the main ones), but insufficient space to mention them all.

David

A few people have mailed me to ask how I got rid of this thing, here is my reply to them, in the hope of helping others:

I never did get rid of it, I did a system restore from a month back.

Try erasing your hosts file, that’s one thing I didn’t try. I found some
hidden files on my drive by looking in DOS mode, that means I had a
rootkit…don’t know if the rootkit causes this or not. Avast did not detect the rootkit.

 I have come to the conclusion that virus scanners, adware scanners,

etc, are useless. Every year the scanners get “better
and
better”, and every year there are more and more viruses and infections
and hijackers, etc. Clearly, the “better and better” scanners suck. They
are simply wrong headed in their entire approach. Being able to identify six million viruses is not very helpful to someone who has the six millionth and first. In addition, I have found only one scanner capable of detecting rootkit viruses…and it’s not for beginners.

I would suggest doing a complete re-install, wipe your OS partition clean.
Then get Winpatrol and Winsonar. They don’t look for viruses that are
already on your system, they stop any malware from installing itself to
begin with. That’s the future of EFFECTIVE anti-virus software. It
would be nice if some AV company adopted this approach, not to mention in their best interest.

Oh, and use a firewall.

Xin

Xin

Xiaoding

I never did get rid of it, I did a system restore from a month back

If what you had was any good, a Systen Restore will not get rid of it. System restore doesn't delete every thing on your computer and put it back the way it was 1 month ago. That's not the way System Restore works. Now if you had told me that you had an Image of your system from a month ago and knew that last month your system was clean of any infection and you then said I formatted my harddrive and installed the Image, then maybe you would have made sense. The only good advice you mentioned was the fact of needing a Firewall.

So you never read THIS PAGE. If you did and followed the steps there, you would have been able to completely clear your system from all malware. It was your lack of knowledge who prevented you from getting rit of it. Be a sports and don’t blame it on the applications.

So you never read THIS PAGE http://members.home.nl/edeijl/acred/cleaning.htm. If you did and followed the steps there, you would have been able to completely clear your system from all malware. It was your lack of knowledge who prevented you from getting rit of it. Be a sports and don’t blame it on the applications.

No, I read that page, tried most of it. It was a dead end, at least it semed so to me. Safe mode had no effect on any of the scans. Two other people as well can’t get rid of this thing following that pages directions, which, incidently, makes no mention of this problem. I find the claim that it removes ALL malware specious in the least.

 As for blaming the application...I quote:

“The file system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the computer. It offers a wide range of settings - e.g. it is possible to specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning will include files with given set of extensions only.”

This from Avast. I fail to see how scanning incoming files will prevent virus infection, since it is, and always will be, impossibe to know all virus’s present on the Earth. It is an approach doomed to failure from the start. I don’t mean to crtisize Avast, they all do it.

If what you had was any good, a Systen Restore will not get rid of it.
System restore doesn’t delete every thing on your computer and put it back the way it was 1 month ago. That’s not the way System Restore works.
Now if you had told me that you had an Image of your system from a month ago and knew that last month your system was clean of any infection and you then said I formatted my harddrive and installed the Image, then maybe you would have made sense.
The only good advice you mentioned was the fact of needing a Firewall.

Ah, that’s what I did, an image of a month ago. I am not familiar with system Restore, and I don’t trust it.

Thanks, all, for your help. This is my last word on the subject.

ps: except for this one.

There is a lesson to be learned from this post!
If the person who asks for help already has all the answers and already knows how to fix every thing, then we get to excersise our fingers for our own amusement just as the person making the post exersided his fingers for his own amusement.
This can sometimes also be called and excersise in futility. ;D ;D ;D