I've managed to infect myself with some type of Trojan Virus of sorts...

I believe that I've removed the best majority of it but, in turn, I've somehow managed to get a file that hijacks my homepage to a 'mult-search' of sorts that is, you guessed it, **** related. The bad thing is that I wasn't even surfing for ****... it was warez!

Here's what happens:

When I load IE, the home page pops up as an 'ABOUT:BLANK' page but displays a search that is generated from aifind.info.

I've tried:

--Clearing all temp IE files, history, etc... all of the obvious...
--Ad-aware
--Hijack This!
--McAfee Virus Scan
--Norton System Works
--Reinstalling SP1


Also, I should mention that I'm unable to determine the 'version' of my IE now (I know it's 6.0 after looking at the registry files) but, it doesn't show that it's version 6.0. In turn, I'm unable to reinstall my Google Toolbar as it detects the version that I'm running as less than 5.0.

So, in short, first, where can I find this file that is loading this crap? Secondly, how can I fix IE to show that it's 6.0?

HELP!!!!

RP

 

Is it WEBCOOLSEARCH? Download CWShredder. After you run that program, download and run Hijackthis. You can find the downloads here. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

 

That's what it started as and I have tried CWSHREDDER... didn't remove this portion.

I'm still not so sure that I didn't pick up two individual things...

Where does IE load information for the homepage from... what file? Is it editable?

RP

 

You can change your home page by clicking 'tools' then 'internet options'. If you have spybot, you should run it as often as you feel you may have gone somewhere questionable on the web. Like those rock fetish free sites you frequent.

 

Thanks Odin...

I've changed the homepage numerous times but it keeps changing itself back to this site once IE is closed.

I've even tried utilizing MS's Knowledge Base with little to no results... whatever I've got won't even let me perform this.

Please help...

 

You can try this.....

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/personal/

it used to be called Anti-Trojan.

You can also try this.....

http://www.kolumbus.fi/eero.muhonen/FS/Support.htm

It's a pop-up blocker that has a feature in it that locks your home page.

 

You may have a version of WEBCOOLSEARCH that doesn't have a fix for it right now it keeps changing. The site I gave you for CWShredder updates the software regularly in an attempt to keep up with it. You may want to wait a day or two and try downloading it again. Also, since I installed spybot, I haven't had to deal with this problem. I have also ran 'evidence eliminator', it's not free; but, it will scrub everything that has attached itself to your computor away. You'll have a faster operating computor when it's through, also. You'd be amazed at the list of crap I had on my new computer after only about 4 months.

 

I'll try to dig up something for you.

You should check out bittorrent instead of warez sites

 

I'm genuinely not sure what I did but, I just fixed it...

I re-ran Hijack This! and killed a few more files and then tried to reinstall IE6 using the directions mentioned in the link above (this)...

It worked.

Long story short, I believe I'm back to full capacity (two days later)...

Thanks guys!!!

RP

 

Well, for starters, what are you running?

If Win 98, try this:

From the Start menu , chose run: then type in msconfig, chose the last tab which is startup...these are all items starting up when booting. See anything in there that isn't needed or might be hijacking IE6? Might be a program reloading itself each time you start up...

Best place for computer help:

http://computing.net/


I've found a ton of answers there...

 

Thanks JD... I appreciate it... XP Home is what I'm running. I tried MSCONFIG and took everything out of startup... still didn't solve this one...

Like I said, I'm not sure what I did to remedy the problem but, it's not there anymore and it appears I have no problems now.

RP

 

I use this in addition to ad-aware. Spybot search and destroy. I will find stuff ad-aware wont plus it has a immunize feature to prevent some future infections

 

Got to stay off those **** site's RP

 

First restart your computer in safe mode and run your anti-spam programs. Once done find the trojan virus and delete it. I dunno why you are still using IE. You need Mozilla. 10x better. No pop ups or anything.

31C

 

Yeah yeah yeah... if I were only surfing for ****...

RP