MSN or IE6?

[Robert Suess]

I have been using a Windows 98SE operating system with IE6.
For at least 2 years I have been using www.msn.com as my home page with
no problems but on 10-24-03 (and since then) its webpage couldn't be found
even if I entered its address myself. I spoke to msn.com techsupport and
they first had me run a repair of IE6 and then said there should be no
problem reaching the site even though I mentioned that I had never, as far
as I remember , signed up for any services with MSN. So it is not clear
whether my IE6 browser or the msn site itself is at fault but something is
preventing me from reaching that website.
As far as I know, the browser is still set to MSN as my home page and
when I click on the IE icon as it initializes, the screen first shows the
the view of my desktop showing through on a portion of the white background
of the webpage of the browser and that is replaced with the entire webpage
being a white page but it just stalls there and won't display the MSN page.
If I change to a different address and click on the Go button the browser
then reaches whatever website is requested except the MSN one.
Can anyone explain this behavior and what I need to do to correct it?
Thank you.

Bob

 

[Kevin]

Have you run a virus scan? Also scan for adware or spyware.

 

[Robert Suess]

Yes, I'm sorry that I didn't mention that I had run my virus scan (with
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2003) and got no report of any virus. However, I
haven't otherwise scanned for adware or spyware (but don't really know how
to) but I will mention that I have not been getting (as far as I know) any
other ads showing up as I use the browser. I should also mention that I
have a firewall, ZoneAlarm Pro 4 in place.

 

[Kevin]

Zone Alarm should have caught any spyware or adware that tried to sneak on
to your system but it might be a good idea to download some software that
looks for and deletes adware and spyware as these programs can highjack your
homepage. I use Ad-aware and Pest Patrol. Do a Google search and you can
download these. Ad-aware and Pest Patrol both have free versions if I
remember correctly. Your anti-virus is a good application and it should be
able to see some of the kinds of sneaky software that can get into your
system. Good luck, post back with results.

 

[Robert Suess]

Kevin, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner but I did use
Ad-aware and it came up with 3 programs (one of which was Alexa) and
"thousands of cookies" (well, at least, many. I'd appreciate a little
advice.
Before I completely eliminate everything that Ad-aware came up with, I'd
like to know whether eliminating all of them is completely safe. By this I
mean, for example, that I'm aware that some of my Cookies hold useful
information that allows me to log on to my Bank site without the hassle of
searching for passwords, etc but I don't know whether any of the cookies
found by Ad-aware could be both spying and supplying useful information for
use of a website . Can eliminating all the cookies that Ad-aware found be
done without also losing some needed information?
Thank you.

Bob

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Kevin, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner but I did use
Ad-aware and it came up with 3 programs (one of which was Alexa) and
"thousands of cookies" (well, at least, many. I'd appreciate a little
advice.
Before I completely eliminate everything that Ad-aware came up
with, I'd like to know whether eliminating all of them is completely
safe. By this I mean, for example, that I'm aware that some of my
Cookies hold useful information that allows me to log on to my Bank
site without the hassle of searching for passwords, etc but I don't
know whether any of the cookies found by Ad-aware could be both
spying and supplying useful information for use of a website . Can
eliminating all the cookies that Ad-aware found be done without also
losing some needed information? Thank you.

Bob

If you use the Related button in IE, it won't be there after you let AdAware
remove the Alexa Registry key. This is not the Alexa spyware.