browser re-direct from Yahoo??

[John Pierce]

Has anybody run across a spyware that won't allow you to open certain
sites, and redirects? Friend of mine was telling me that he could not get to
yahoo.com. I visited his house and realized that he had been hi-jacked. But
instead of just resetting his home page, this bug seemed to redirect some of
his URLs. When he wanted to go to yahoo he was being redirected to a site
that looked like an official "Can not find server...." but it also had links
to search, shop, and play games. Dummy me I didn't try to figure out the URL
he was being sent to I just downloaded and ran the latest version of ad ware
and it recognized 208 pieces of junk, which I removed. Now instead of
getting redirected it just won't allow him to open certain sites like
Microsoft, and Yahoo, he now gets the "server down, try home page / refresh"
error. I am going to have him reset his browser settings and see what that
does. I tried to get him to update IE to version 6.0 but like I said, he
can't even get onto MS sites. Any suggestions?

thanks in advance

jp

[YK]

John Pierce wrote:
> Has anybody run across a spyware that won't allow you to open
> certain sites, and redirects? Friend of mine was telling me that he
> could not get to yahoo.com. I visited his house and realized that he
> had been hi-jacked. But instead of just resetting his home page, this
> bug seemed to redirect some of his URLs. When he wanted to go to
> yahoo he was being redirected to a site that looked like an official
> "Can not find server...." but it also had links to search, shop, and
> play games. Dummy me I didn't try to figure out the URL he was being
> sent to I just downloaded and ran the latest version of ad ware and
> it recognized 208 pieces of junk, which I removed. Now instead of
> getting redirected it just won't allow him to open certain sites like
> Microsoft, and Yahoo, he now gets the "server down, try home page /
> refresh" error. I am going to have him reset his browser settings and
> see what that does. I tried to get him to update IE to version 6.0
> but like I said, he can't even get onto MS sites. Any suggestions?
>
> thanks in advance

Some nasties modify the HOSTS file. Nowadays the HOSTS file is used for
ad blocking.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

[John Pierce]

YK You hit it on button;
He had two different hosts files. Exact same addresses in both. One was
called WinMEhosts. Any idea what program did this? It had every think
blocked from yahoo, to sears.com. My buddy is more of a Novice than I am,
I'm just hoping the Adware got the culprit. I just renamed them both with a
weird extension, but I'm worried that some app is still on his PC and will
recreate.

Thanks again, fastest reply I've ever got from a newsgroup.
jp

"YK" <YKnot@home.invalid> wrote in message
news:1YCKa.18443$H9q1.7816@news04.bloor.is.net.cab le.rogers.com...
> John Pierce wrote:
> > Has anybody run across a spyware that won't allow you to open
> > certain sites, and redirects? Friend of mine was telling me that he
> > could not get to yahoo.com. I visited his house and realized that he
> > had been hi-jacked. But instead of just resetting his home page, this
> > bug seemed to redirect some of his URLs. When he wanted to go to
> > yahoo he was being redirected to a site that looked like an official
> > "Can not find server...." but it also had links to search, shop, and
> > play games. Dummy me I didn't try to figure out the URL he was being
> > sent to I just downloaded and ran the latest version of ad ware and
> > it recognized 208 pieces of junk, which I removed. Now instead of
> > getting redirected it just won't allow him to open certain sites like
> > Microsoft, and Yahoo, he now gets the "server down, try home page /
> > refresh" error. I am going to have him reset his browser settings and
> > see what that does. I tried to get him to update IE to version 6.0
> > but like I said, he can't even get onto MS sites. Any suggestions?
> >
> > thanks in advance
>
> Some nasties modify the HOSTS file. Nowadays the HOSTS file is used for
> ad blocking.
> http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
>

[Robin T Cox]

"John Pierce" <jpierce_golden@csi.com> wrote in
news:bdesld$ngl$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com:

> Has anybody run across a spyware that won't allow you to open
> certain
> sites, and redirects? Friend of mine was telling me that he could not
> get to yahoo.com. I visited his house and realized that he had been
> hi-jacked. But instead of just resetting his home page, this bug
> seemed to redirect some of his URLs. When he wanted to go to yahoo he
> was being redirected to a site that looked like an official "Can not
> find server...." but it also had links to search, shop, and play
> games. Dummy me I didn't try to figure out the URL he was being sent
> to I just downloaded and ran the latest version of ad ware and it
> recognized 208 pieces of junk, which I removed. Now instead of getting
> redirected it just won't allow him to open certain sites like
> Microsoft, and Yahoo, he now gets the "server down, try home page /
> refresh" error. I am going to have him reset his browser settings and
> see what that does. I tried to get him to update IE to version 6.0 but
> like I said, he can't even get onto MS sites. Any suggestions?
>
> thanks in advance
>
> jp
>
>

Unfortunately browser hijacking is becoming all too common. See:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/