hijacked?

[Guest]

I ran Spybot recently and one of the problems listed was
Common hijacker - redirect host sitefinder - verisign: 216.93.168.16

My question is where can I find the identity of this cert

Sorry if I appear ignorant, I am new in the world of computer despite my great age

Thanks for your help

 

[Drew Cooper [MSFT]]

I'm not sure what certificates have to do with this. If your spyware
checker found garbage on your machine, it's probably a good idea to remove
it.

 

[Rick]

One method that unethical advertisers redirect your search requests to their
sites for the 'click' counts. Say you have set Google or MSN as your
default Seach Page. Host file redirection would take any searches you tried
to make to Google and instead send them to Verisign's Sitefinder (in your
example). The setting is made in a file that resides on your computer
called HOSTS (with no extension) at C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/Etc. It is
a plain text file that can be easily viewed with Notepad (right-click over
the file and select Open With). The settings in this file override any DNS
lookups on the web and are an effective way to redirect traffic. It is also
a great way to get rid of banner ads from those advertisers you know the
address of . . . just redirect their requests to nowhere.

I assume you had SpyBot fix this problem

Rick

 

[Guest]

Thanks Rick
Yes Spybot fixed the problem