General Chat

My Homepage keeps getting redirected to something called HOT-SEARCH part of something called Joker.com. I've installed Ad-aware, Spybot, AND have Norton Antivirus and Zone-alarm firewall installed on my system (not at all paraniod...but I know they are watching me!!) No matter what i do to change my6 homepage back to NTHELL sorry NTL, It keeps changing back roughly every 24 hours. It is now starting to get on nerves. Any suggestion welcome (clean ones no swearing cussing or taking the lords name in vain please) Darren

darren try asking judy lots of help from her on tips board was a lot of help to me tracey

Have you gone into Tools, Internet Options, General Tab and checked that your homepage is set to the one you want? Mine had changed once, no idea how!

i've had this problem before, and have always managed to sort it my self but this one seems to be clinging to me like my ex-wife asking for more money! Darren

lol I can tell you what's doing this and its not your zonealarm or norton..... its AdAware. Every time you "scan and remove" it will take all your tracker cookies off your pc. That's fine except when I did this myself just now to check, it removes those of your home page. Mine is always set to msn.co.uk but once I run AdAware it returns it to my ISP home page. Hope that helps.

First, the problem is NOT Adaware. Adaware does not change homepages no matter what it finds and removes. There is a spyware program that is installed on your PC.....a homepage hijacker.....more than likely the program is hidden inside several layers. In order to remove it, we need to find the name of the .exe file. First try running Adaware and make note, before quarantining, of anything it finds that contains an .exe file. If you hold your mouse over each individual result that Adaware finds, it should reveal the full name and location of what its found. If you would, e-mail me the file path which would look something like: C:/Programs/FileName/Cache/Spyware.exe (Just used the above as an example so you have an idea of what I am looking for) Once the offending program is found there are several ways to attempt to remove it, a process of elimanation on how to remove it. First attempt to remove, once you know where the program is, is to use your PC's ADD/REMOVE feature. If the program can't be found and uninstalled that way, the file path is followed and the program should have an uninstall feature of it's own. It may take several attempts, using different methods, but we can eventually remove it.....first step is to find the nasty bugger and advise me what it's file path is. Also, as long as your searching, if you could list me the names of the programs you have listed in your PROGRAMS file, I may be able to find it, along with other programs that have installed themselves, that you aren't aware of. Do this: 1. Click on START 2. Click on MY COMPUTER 3 Click on LOCAL DRIVE C 4. Click open the yellow file folder labeled PROGRAMS and list me all the programs in this file. Judy

Thanks Judy, I'm at work at the moment for the next couple of days so i'll email the info to you as soon as possible. I've usually managed to correct this myself but this one seem to be a crafty little bugger. Thanks again Darren( really hard at work this time cos theres management lurking about) :-(

Judy (Pardon me for interrupting, Darren) Would it be easier to list the files under "processes" in "Task Manager" first? When I had a similar problem that's where I found the blighter. Bob

There are a number of programmes available that can be downloaded free. these will search for adware and spyware programmes and inform you of where they are. They won't clear them unless you subscribe, but once you know wehere they are, it's a fairly simple task to delete them. The biggest problem, is the ones with registry entries. They CAN be deleted, but you need to know what you are doing, as playing with the reistry can have disastrous consequences. Another thing that might help, is to put zonealarm to maximum security, so that everyting that needs access to the internet has to "ask" for permission. Those programmes you know are safe, you allow, anything you are unsure of you can track. Hope this helps.

Hi Bob....Feel free to interupt anytime....your a wealth of information (which we all appreciate!) Finding the problem in Task Manager is one way to go if you know what you are looking for.....everything there is listed as an .exe so it may be difficult for some to pick out which ones should be there and which ones shouldn't. The file path isn't revealed there either and with many of these spyware programs, the file path is needed in order to get rid of it. Anthony: Many members on GC already have Adaware installed for locating and removing spyware....which can be downloaded for free - www(.)lavasoft(.)com....remove the ( ) from the address. Adaware also cleans out the registry without having people have to play in that area of the computer....disasterous, as you mentioned, if you don;t know what you are doing. It also advises you of the files path of all it finds. Many of the installed .exe spyware programs are not so easy to remove.....some come with stealth features that when the program is deleted, it promptly comes back.....installed .exe needs to be uninstalled.....which is why Darren needs to find the file path. Judy

You are right of course Judy. It's just that when I look at my program folder there are an awful lot of files, not all of them put there by me. For anyone interested "Task manager" is what you get when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL. If you click on the "Processes" tab then you get a list of most of the processes that your computer is running. Most of them have obscure names like dragdiag.exe or ccapp.exe but some are obvious like explorer.exe. If you want to find out what they do just type the full name into google. If you find a nasty then google will probably lead you to a program to get rid of it. Incidentaly if you highlight one and click "end process" that only stops it running for that session (you can use this to solve problems running "defrag" - stop anything that will let you except explorer) They will be back when you re-start. There are two things to be wary of: 1. Nasties often use names very like good progs:- lsass.exe (good) looks very much like Isass.exe (bad). 2. Some new nasties have been spread as progs to get rid of old nasties. So be sure that any prog that you run is clean in itself. Unfortunately there is no way of printing the list of programs from Task Manager so I have made a list the hard way so that I can easily spot any new ones. Bob Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get me

Bob To print task manager lists maximise screen, press alt+print screen then open wordpad and paste. You may need to do it twice to get all programs. (ie scroll to bottom then repeat) Bob

Darren You might want to look here http://www.spywareinfo(.)com/articles/hijacked/ Gives advice on removal/ prevention Bob

Thanks everyone.. I'll try everything.. I've re-ran adaware and it found was 16 items called Malware and 7 dataminers. I now installed a program called browser hijack blaster but all that does is stop it from changing internet setting and does not get rid of my problem. but not sure if this will add to my probs or not. Daz

Hullo all, the problem with printing the task manager list is, that is not constant, ie programs start and stop, as needed. However once you Have a list, if you goto WWW.answersthatwork(.)com you will find a website that lists most of the programs you are likely to find in task manager. And gives info, on which program they belong to, what they do, and also some that you should NOT have..... hope this helps, Bob

Blimey... Three Bobs on one thread. This could get confusing. Answersthatwork is an excellent site and I have it in my favourites. Has anyone paid for The Ultimate Troubleshooter? If so was it worthwhile? It is true that the programs listed vary from time to time but when anyone asks me to help with problems, especially slow running, this is one of the first places I go. As a general rule (with only one user open) there should only be 20 odd programs running. There is often lots of stuff running in the background that is quite legitimate but unnecessary. Bob