For others who may have problems with IE not assuming www or http prefixes

[systemtool]

I had posted previously to these news groups about a problem I'd had
with IE 6. I was attributing it to spyware, but it turns out that I
was wrong.

In simple terms, if I typed some web locations into the IE location
bar without a prefix of www or http://, one of two bad unwanted things
would happen:

1. Sometimes, if I'd type, for example:

----> placeiwanttobrowseto.com

I would wind up having IE take me instead to

----> http://placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html

2. But let's say I *did* want to go to
placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html and typed exactly that
into the location bar. Then, I'd get an immediate Windows message
saying "Windows cannot find
placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html. Check the spelling
and try again, or try searching for the item by clicking the Start
button and then clicking Search"

Just for giggles, I did a Start menu "find files or folders" search
for placeiwanttobrowseto. Darned if there wasn't an IE "favorite"
with that name. AND, the favorite was actually set to point to
http://placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html

Now I never remember setting up a favorite like that. Perhaps some
spyware altered an existing favorite. But when I deleted the
favorite, the problem went away and IE 6 resumed working flawlessly.

I'm posting this because I'd seen a lot of people posting questions
about why their browser would do odd things if they omitted the www or
the http:// prefix, but I never saw a fix that worked for me. Well, I
had the problem, and so I'm hoping at least one other person out there
might see this and have my fix help.

 

[SaltPeter]

I had posted previously to these news groups about a problem I'd had
with IE 6. I was attributing it to spyware, but it turns out that I
was wrong.

In simple terms, if I typed some web locations into the IE location
bar without a prefix of www or http://, one of two bad unwanted things
would happen:

1. Sometimes, if I'd type, for example:

----> placeiwanttobrowseto.com

I would wind up having IE take me instead to

----> http://placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html

2. But let's say I *did* want to go to
placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html and typed exactly that
into the location bar. Then, I'd get an immediate Windows message
saying "Windows cannot find
placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html. Check the spelling
and try again, or try searching for the item by clicking the Start
button and then clicking Search"

Just for giggles, I did a Start menu "find files or folders" search
for placeiwanttobrowseto. Darned if there wasn't an IE "favorite"
with that name. AND, the favorite was actually set to point to
http://placeiwanttobrowseto.com/unwanteddirectory.html

Now I never remember setting up a favorite like that. Perhaps some
spyware altered an existing favorite. But when I deleted the
favorite, the problem went away and IE 6 resumed working flawlessly.

I'm posting this because I'd seen a lot of people posting questions
about why their browser would do odd things if they omitted the www or
the http:// prefix, but I never saw a fix that worked for me. Well, I
had the problem, and so I'm hoping at least one other person out there
might see this and have my fix help.

Try this, type "placeiwanttobrowseto" in address bar and CTRL + Enter.

 

[H Leboeuf]

You were hacked by some parasites.

Look at your security setting and issues on this page.

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm