[bc2hander]

Hi, It's great to find a site like g2go to help those of us where everything other than pushing the power button is a mystery. Thanks to all at g2go for helping us!

So I have a problem similar to

http://www.geekstogo...ct-t222951.html

where some malware is hijacking search engine urls like so

http://seocash.us/r....=29&b=1&q=flash button objects&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fsupport%2Fflash%2Faction_scripts%2Factionscript_dictionary%2Factionscript_dictionary079.html&s=google

Now the funny thing is that when i save a search page using file > save as, the urls are correct when i open the saved page in a browser. For instance, the above hijacked url should be

http://www.adobe.com...tionary079.html

Ohh and before i forget, this problem occurs in both ie 6 and firefox 3

The person who started the above thread solved the problem by booting the system from a boot disk and found these files

chkdisk.dll
autochk.dll
protect.dll

So I figure I'll try the same but I don't know how to make an xp home boot disk or if I use my xp cd. But I would also like to know how they determined these were the files. I used xp search files and none of these showed up. I don't know if they are hidden and thus search won't find them or if there are other files on my computer. I also searched for the files greyknight17 suggested and found nothing.

Now, I just reformatted my hard drive and installed a fresh copy of XP over the weekend. I didn't have the time to spend 1/2 hour getting xp activated so i couldn't update from sp2. I just reconnected to the internet after over a year away and I read that sp3 can cause some problem so I opted not to install sp3 when i reconnected to the net. Any advice on this?

I'll reformat and reinstall xp if I can't solve my problem using a boot disk. No big deal just 3 hours I'll never get back hehe. I have my master drive partitioned. about 9 gb for OS and apps and the rest of the 120 gb for my files and work i do with my apps. So not much to back up, just favorites really.

Now I'd like to offer some help if I can to this community. So if I reformat, what info, ie logs ect, shall I get before and after reformat so someone with the expertise can look them over and see what may have been the problem so they could help others? Should I get the after reformat info with the same apps I have installed or after xp is installed? Will activating xp after reformat and before getting info be ok? In other words, shall I have my computer exactly the way it is atm when i get the after reformat info?

I have comcast internet and they offer McAfee security suite and it found nothing. I called McAfee and that was usless ltalking to someone who hasn't a good grasp of the english language talking thru a tin can connected with a string, and that's not a humorus exageration! 10 minutes to find he was asking for my email addy! enuf for that rant even though i didn't scratch the surface.

One more thing, I read a thread where a g2go guru informed a person after they posted a log about using p2p. I use p2p and know about the risks. However, I just visit 3 sites that legally allow bootleg music tracked on their trackers. And all 3 have strict rules of the file types allowed in a torrent. However I suppose there's the posibility of a security breach thru the p2p app that's not dependant on the torrent and the files it contains. I use μtorrent


thanks!

Edited by bc2hander, 12 January 2009 - 10:30 PM.

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Hello bc2hander,

I recommend that you proceed to the malware removal forum.

Follow the link below and follow the steps first.

After completing an expert from that forum will assist you in the cleaning of your system.

http://www.geekstogo...-Log-t2852.html

Please follow the steps listed in the thread as you may be able to clear most or all of your problem.

If your are still having problem after running the various steps and scans then you will be able to post a

log for one of the experts to examine. Once following the steps and posting the logs please

be patient as that is a busy forum.

[makinu1der2]

Hello bc2hander,

I recommend that you proceed to the malware removal forum.

Follow the link below and follow the steps first.

After completing an expert from that forum will assist you in the cleaning of your system.

http://www.geekstogo...-Log-t2852.html

Please follow the steps listed in the thread as you may be able to clear most or all of your problem.

If your are still having problem after running the various steps and scans then you will be able to post a

log for one of the experts to examine. Once following the steps and posting the logs please

be patient as that is a busy forum.

[bc2hander]

Thanks for the reply makinu1der2. I read that page you linked to before I posted in this forum. It states:

Because of this, we'll require you to do install critical updates before providing assistance in our forums. If not, we're both just wasting our time.

I agree wasting time isn't prudent and I wouldn't want to waste a volunteer's time when they could be helping someone else. And thus I decided to try the boot disk method done in the thread I linked to in my previous post. So, I need to know how they determined the suspect files by booting from disk. If the boot disk method didn't work I plan to just reformat because it would be much faster.

I suppose maybe my post should have gone in that forum since I wanted to know how to determine the infecting files by booting from a boot disk. But my desire was to first find out how to boot from a boot disk and thus the reason for posting in this forum.

I'm going to reformat and just ask in the malware forum if they want me to gather info before and after reformat in case someone else comes around with this problem and the info might be helpful.

thanks for helping all us who can only push the power button

Cheers
d