Help, I'm under attack! (non-boaty)

snowleopard

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Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

i've recently been attacked by several web sites thet have tried to hijack internet explorer, inserting spurious sites into my favourites and changing my homepage. those i dealt with easily but the latest one has changed my default search to a US site and resists all attempts to change it.

i know lots of you out there are experts in this area so-

a) how can i change back to a uk-based search?
b) any recommendations on a good uk-only search?
c) how can i stop the b******s interfering with me in future?

thanks.

p.s. i've been in the IT business for 35 years and i still hate the damn things!

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StephenSails

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

I am no expert, but you could try deleting your cookies and temporary internet files, maybe do this off-line.

The best UK search engine IMHO is www.google.co.uk

I have bought a copy of Zonealarm which does all sorts of great things including a pretty good firewall, halts attachements that look dodgy and prompt you to think before opening them, stops pop-ups (great on this website!) and much more...do a search on google for it, I think there is a free copy to try from the website as well.

Cheers

Stephen

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MainlySteam

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

I am normally one of the last to suggest virus's as possibilities, but your symptoms do sound familiar.

Q-Hosts1 is a new trojan exploiting Internet Explorer from end September and changes your home page - and also redirects you to advertising sites. It also implicates a search site - was Google, maybe different now.

Perhaps you have picked it up off some site. It has a low profiled risk though - but Microsoft issued the patch, unusually quickly, at the end of last week. The usual sites give the getting rid of info (McAfee, etc) - I would have thought all the main virus scans would have it in their databases by now and would identify it if it is what you have got.

John

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kilkerr1

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

Sort your Microsoft patches out ASAP, scan for viruses etc. The you need to block advertising nasties. I've found <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.safer-networking.org>Spybot Search & Destroy</A> excellent for blocking various of these beasties, which aren't viruses (they're little programs which ensure you get bombarded by advertising) so anti-virus software doesn't pick up on 'em. It scans your machine for the lurking b**gers, deletes them and then blocks them. I came under a concerted attack some months back - hundreds of pop-ups, things changing my home page, you name it - but since using Spybot all is calm. So far. There are never any guarantees with these things as tech evolves constantly.

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

There are various freeware Spyware engines out there ...... but ADAWARE is about the best in my book.

The other thying is have a good firewall up - Tiny or Mcafee is highly recc'd.


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Guest

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The trick that really gets me !

The one that gets me angry is the trick of switching off AV programs.

Many of today's virus / Trojans switch off your virus checker and its only later that you notice your icon is a different colour or missing !!!! It doesn't seem to matter which AV program either .......... in my office we have Kaspersky, Mcafee, Norton, F-Virus .... plus a few others ! But they all seem to lose one here and there and usually all different !!!! The one I have considered removing as it seems to be the poorest is the Nortons !!!! but the guy who uses the machine likes it !!! No accounting for taste !!!!

We run Pop-Up Stopper - freeware and Very Very Good
+ Adaware + another program that is designed for purely Trojans only ........ Anti-Trojan.

Seems the HDD gets more full of security stuff than actual work now !!!!


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oldsaltoz

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

G'day Chris,

Sounds like you have been contaminated. check the following in the order listed.

Panda, will scan and tell you what is causing the problem and it's location

http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm&subj=dlpage&tag=button

I assume you have anti virus, if not try AVG from Grisoft (Free)

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php>http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php</A>

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Rich_F

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Re: Help, I\'m under attack! (non-boaty)

I've had a similar problem, but (I believe) caused by my ISP insisting that I run its "Loader" program to connect to the internet. I can't connect without running the program, which I think also updates my home page.

Once I've changed my ISP (ADSL arrives in 2 weeks!) I'll be ceremonially consigning the Loader to the recycle bin.

Rich

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snowleopard

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Thaks everyone

Tried deleting cookies & temp files, tracked down some changed configuration files with references to the offender (itseasy.us). i deleted those and reloaded IE from the CD but it was still there. installing the Google search toolbar finally killed it.

I will go through all your suggestions for protection software. incidentally norton triggered a virus alert when it happened but a subsequent disk scan showed nothing.

thanks all

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DeeGee

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Re: Thaks everyone

Google search toolbar and this site are incompatible, as you will find.

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pugwash

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Google toolbar is ok

If you mean "this" website as Scuttlebutt then I don't have any trouble yet my Google toolbar is up all the time. Moreover, it blocks advert pop-ups.

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