redirected to flashlightsearch only on 404 redirects

[Jon]

This seems to be different than the qhosts trojan that
everyone keeps mentioning. On my website we deliberately
code redirects on 404 errors... this is to allow people to
use a nice concise link to profiles on the site instead of
typing in a longer, cumbersome URL (the actual URL).

This worked until recently and still works on one of my
machines but not on another machine. When I click on a
link that uses the shorter form of the URL or if I type in
the shorter form of the URL directly, when the 404
redirect code kicks in I get redirected to
www.flashlightsearch.com/search4U.html. I can go to
google.com and other search engines successfully and my
home page has not been hijacked or anything like that.

An example of this behavior would be a link to my profile
on the site... http://profiles.urnotalone.com/jon, which
deliberately uses 404 redirection to redirect to a longer,
underlying URL (http://www.urnotalone.com/profiles.php?2).
When the 404 redirection code kicks in it appears to get
intercepted and I'll wind up at
http://www.flashlightsearch.com/search4U.html everytime.
If I then hit the back button on the browser it will
sometimes, successfully go where the 404 redirect intended
for it to go.

Any ideas on what would be causing this? Thanks in advance,

Jon

 

[Tom]

Three thoughts - you may have already thought of.

One - did you check your hosts file? This is a known way
of redirecting, though if "back" fixes it, then I would
STRONGLY doubt this redirect.

Two, have you checked your options for automatically
searching in IE? IE has a switch in the advanced options
to search for a site automatically when it runs into a
loss. I turn this option off, because I hate being sent
to a search engine. I'd rather see the error.

Last, have you checked for the latest
bugs/viruses/whatever they are? I'd not be surprised to
find a tool out there that can detect 404's and
automatically redirect your browser. In fact, I'd be
surprised if someone has NOT tried that yet.

Good luck!

Tom

 

[Mike Burgess]

Jon,
Go to: http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/
Download "Hijack This!" [freeware] or download direct (below):
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip

Unzip, double-click "HijackThis.exe" and Press "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log"
button.
Click: "Save Log" (generates: "hijackthis.log")

Next, go to the below location:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

Sign in, go to the "Spyware and Hijackware Removal" section.
Press "New Topic", copy and paste hijackthis.log into your new message.
____________________________________________________________
Mike Burgess [MVP Windows Shell\User] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 10-10-03]
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