Bizarre Internet Explorer problem--help!

[Buttercup]

Since this morning, around 6:00am eastern time, I have been unable to access www.google.com on my desktop machine. I have it set as my home page, so when it timed out, I figured Google was down.

Well, it isn't. Our laptop can get there just fine. I used it at work on and off all day. But on the machine I'm currently sitting at, I can't get there. Um, let me rephrase that. I *can* get there by going to Google News, then clicking Images, then clicking Web. But if I try to search Google, it times out.

I've tried deleting my cookies and my history. I don't know what else to do.

This isn't the first bizarre IE problem I've had with this machine. www.yahoo.com is still stuck on the page from Easter 2001. Nothing I have done will change it.

Anybody have a clue what's going on, or what I should do to fix it? I can't live without Google!

 

[Tsyr]

Run Ad-Aware and Spybot... Some spyware programs try to hijack google from Internet explorer, and if you got a piece of spyware that does that, but is rerouting it to a place that isn't valid, that could cause that.

 

[Buttercup]

Hmm. I've got Norton Internet Security running all the time, but maybe something slipped by it? I'll give that a try and report back. Thanks, Tsyr.

In the meantime, anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Buttercup]

Well Tsyr, I did that. Ad-Aware found and removed over 50 things. Spybot didn't find anything, which is good, since that program wouldn't actually remove the stuff without me paying them. If my computer is infested with spyware, the last thing I'd be willing to do is type in my credit card number.

Sadly, I still can't get to Google. Whenever I try, the bar at the bottom of the screen lists the location as an IP instead of the regular looking URL. My husband thinks we need to uninstall and reinstall IE. This sounds like a crazy idea to me.

Any more advice? Any more information I could give that would help diagnose the problem?

 

[Tsyr]

What IP does it list as trying to go to?

 

[gariig]

What IP address does it give you? You should get 216.239.39.99 if you don't then probably some Spyware messed with your hosts file. If so I or someone else here will tell you how to fix it or search the internet for fixing host file.

Gariig

 

[Buttercup]

Well, this won't be helpful. I was so frustrated that I reset my homepage to enworld.org. So now, when I try to go to Google, I don't get the numbers. Sometimes it times out, and sometimes I just get that stupid IE screen "We can't find the site you're looking for." Which, ironically, then directs me to Google. And naturally that link doesn't work either.

Edit: As I recall though, that was not the IP it was giving me.

 

[Tsyr]

That's what happened, then, I would guess... Some bit of spyware edited your system in such a way as to re-direct any attempt to go to "www.google.com" to their own page.

Try downloading and running this file:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/FixQhost.exe

It fixes this in certain situations.

*edit*

I'm also getting some indication from the Symantec website that this can be caused be certain Trojan Horse virii too... So if your antivirus isn't up to date, get it up to date and search anyways... It won't fix the problem, but if the virii is lingering, it might get rid of it.

Still try running that file, though.

Symantec's entry on the problem:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.bootconf.html

*edited again for general being a putz*

 

[Buttercup]

Well, I ran the Symantec program, and it didn't find anything. Also, our viris definitions are updated weekly, and we have the computer set to scan for virii weekly too. So I'm clean.

Any other ideas? And thanks very much for taking the time to help me, by the way.

 

[Tsyr]

Go here:

http://www.merijn.org/downloads.html

Download the program called "HiJackThis", and run it.

Post the logfile.