In designengineering <
[email protected]> had this to
say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
When I use Internet Explorer, the default page keeps chaning to
http://www.makemesearch.com/?said=379. It is supposed to be
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...ase/lc_hf.isml&page=static/lc/vaio/index.isml
Within a few minutes of starting up Internet Explorer, sonystlye gets
kicked out and replaced by makemesearch.com wihtout my knowledge.
What can I do to keep my default page?
You've been the victim of a horrid malware hijacking. Hmm.... Maybe that
should be called Maljacking. Anyhow, assuming that kicking it doesn't work
here's a few URLs for some tools for you to start with, you'll want the
Spyware section though the other sections may be of value to you as well.
I'm sorry for the cookie cutter response but it's the best that I can do. If
these tools (you want the Spyware section probably) don't work for you then
you'll probably have to move up to something like Hijack This which I tend
to hand out only as a last resort as it's quite capable of removing legit
files that you probably wanted to keep.
In your case you can't use Microsoft's Anti-Spyware beta, your OS is too old
and it's not supported at this time. The two other tools will help you just
fine though. You'll want to download them, install them, and update them in
regular mode. Reboot, press the F8 key during boot, select safe mode without
networking, and then scan and quarantine or delete any baddies found. Before
you're probably going to want a handy tool such as LSPFix:
LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
Keep that on hand so that when you delete your malware you're able to repair
your internet connection should the removal of the malware cause you any
additional problems. Anyhow, once again I'm sorry for the cookie cutter
answer below but they're all free and effective and should help you out
quite a bit. After you've scanned and deleted you should boot back into
regular mode and scan again. If all is clean and your PC is functioning as
normal please feel free to continue on as normal but consider better
protection in the future. If your PC isn't working properly after this
please post back with any additional details you may have:
Firewalls:
www.agnitum.com - Outpost Personal Firewall
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm - Sygate Personal Firewall
www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html - Kerio Personal Firewall
Virus:
www.grisoft.com - AVG
www.antivir.com - AntiVir
www.clamwin.com - ClamWin¹
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/index.cfm - CA eTrust*
Spyware:
www.lavasoft.de - AdAware
http://security.kolla.de/ - Spybot
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx -
Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta
Trojan:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ - a²
http://swatit.org/
All of these are free for home use. All of them are acceptable solutions to
your security needs.
¹ Does not provide full real-time scanning engine.
*My understanding CA is available free for a limited time. Please note that
the page says this:
"Free software offer expires 2/1/05."
The number of times it has been given out as a viable option leads me to
believe that this has been extended. You should, of course, verify this on
your own.
9x eTrust software is only valid for the AntiVirus and not the entire suite
which includes a firewall as I've recently been informed.
Galen
