Is "about:blank" always "bad"?

[chris b]

I've been using it as my "blank" I.E. home page, but
my "Ad-Aware" scan always picks it up as a "possible
browser hijacker" and "data miner". If I let "Ad-Aware"
remove it, I'm back to a "MSN" home page, as a manual
selecting of "blank" in the "Internet Options" always
produces "about:blank". I've downloaded and
run "CWShredder" but to no avail. If "about:blank" is
mining data, what does it do with it?
As I have a "ZoneAlarm" firewall, when I connect to the
internet, various notices appear on my screen informing
me that certain applications are seeking access to the
internet, or are wanting to accept connections from the
internet, and will I allow or deny access:

sychost.exe
services.exe
PCCClient.exe
WebTrap.EXE
Generic Host Process for Win 32 Services

What do they mean?

Thank You.

 

[Mike Bright MSP]

Not to alarm but did you mean to type "sychost.exe" and not "svchost.exe".
If you ment "sychost.exe", then my next question is Anti-Virus packages, do
you have one (and is it up-to-date)??? I believe WebTrap.exe &
PCCClient.exe is part of PC-cillin 2000 (you supposed Anti-Virus). However
the below Virus uses the "syvhost.exe" process name. Do a scan.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hllw.leox.b.html

Service.exe is the Windows Service Controller, so that should be there,
along with Generic Host Process, which is another valid Windows Process.
When you run ad-aware and remove it what actually happens, you post was a
little confusing?

Regards

Mike Bright MCP, MSP

e:[email protected]

 

[Nomad]

I've been using it as my "blank" I.E. home page, but
my "Ad-Aware" scan always picks it up as a "possible
browser hijacker" and "data miner". If I let "Ad-Aware"
remove it, I'm back to a "MSN" home page, as a manual
selecting of "blank" in the "Internet Options" always
produces "about:blank". I've downloaded and
run "CWShredder" but to no avail. If "about:blank" is
mining data, what does it do with it?

<snip>

If you've manually set your home page to about:blank, don't worry and just
tell Ad-Aware to ignore it. The home page itself is not a data miner, but
it is a symptom of a data miner running in the background. If you had your
home page set to something else and suddenly it is set to about:blank and
you have trouble changing it, then you need to run Ad-Aware, Spybot, or some
other scanner to clean out the system.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
Not to alarm but did you mean to type "sychost.exe" and not "svchost.exe".
If you ment "sychost.exe", then my next question is Anti- Virus packages, do
you have one (and is it up-to-date)??? I believe WebTrap.exe &
PCCClient.exe is part of PC-cillin 2000 (you supposed Anti-Virus). However
the below Virus uses the "syvhost.exe" process name. Do a scan.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w 32.hllw.leox.b.html

Service.exe is the Windows Service Controller, so that should be there,
along with Generic Host Process, which is another valid Windows Process.
When you run ad-aware and remove it what actually happens, you post was a
little confusing?

Regards

Mike Bright MCP, MSP

e:[email protected]


.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
Not to alarm but did you mean to type "sychost.exe" and not "svchost.exe".
If you ment "sychost.exe", then my next question is Anti- Virus packages, do
you have one (and is it up-to-date)??? I believe WebTrap.exe &
PCCClient.exe is part of PC-cillin 2000 (you supposed Anti-Virus). However
the below Virus uses the "syvhost.exe" process name. Do a scan.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w 32.hllw.leox.b.html

Service.exe is the Windows Service Controller, so that should be there,
along with Generic Host Process, which is another valid Windows Process.
When you run ad-aware and remove it what actually happens, you post was a
little confusing?

Regards

Mike Bright MCP, MSP

e:[email protected]

Hello, Mike Bright,

It is "sychost.exe", but does not show up on "Ad-Aware",
PCCillin, or CWShredder scans. Doing a file search, I
find a "sychost.EXE-2544429E.pf", located in
C:\windows\prefetch-folder. I could not open it so
deleted it.

Thanks...................................chris b.