surferbar.com intrusion

[Neil Hall]

Using Windows 98 for 4 years on this computer. Had
Internet Explorer 5.0 at first. Upgraded to 5.5 from AOL
CD. Worked great for 3 years. Recieved dodgy spam email
through netzero. Now Internet Explorer has an extra row of
buttons each time it opens. The buttons are links to porn
and gambling sites. One of the icons is a pair of breasts.
Also the home page got changed to "surferbar.com". When I
go to Internet Options to change the home page to an
alternate site and apply, "surferbar" reloads itself as
the homepage. I have tried removing IE 5.5 from computer
and downloaded IE 6.0 from Microsoft. But after over an
hour of downloading and installing, "surferbar" loaded
itself into IE 6.0. While online, an IE 6.0 window will
open unprovoked and try to find "surferbar.com" (which I
have set as a blocked site). Have severe security settings
to stop this site. Need to rid my computer of this menace.
Please advice. Which file do I need to delete and reload?
Where is this menace hiding in my computer?

 

[Mike Burgess]

Neil,
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
[more info]
SuferBar Download.Aduent.Trojan
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/download.aduent.trojan.html
_______________________________________
Mike Burgess http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 9-03-03]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Using Windows 98 for 4 years on this computer. Had
Internet Explorer 5.0 at first. Upgraded to 5.5 from AOL
CD. Worked great for 3 years. Recieved dodgy spam email
through netzero. Now Internet Explorer has an extra row of
buttons each time it opens. The buttons are links to porn
and gambling sites. One of the icons is a pair of breasts.
Also the home page got changed to "surferbar.com". When I
go to Internet Options to change the home page to an
alternate site and apply, "surferbar" reloads itself as
the homepage. I have tried removing IE 5.5 from computer
and downloaded IE 6.0 from Microsoft. But after over an
hour of downloading and installing, "surferbar" loaded
itself into IE 6.0. While online, an IE 6.0 window will
open unprovoked and try to find "surferbar.com" (which I
have set as a blocked site). Have severe security settings
to stop this site. Need to rid my computer of this menace.
Please advice. Which file do I need to delete and reload?
Where is this menace hiding in my computer?

SurferBar: Info, removal tools and instructions:
http://ban.joh.cam.ac.uk/~sgf/surferbar.html

 

[siljaline]

Using Windows 98 for 4 years on this computer. Had
Internet Explorer 5.0 at first. Upgraded to 5.5 from AOL
CD. Worked great for 3 years. Recieved dodgy spam email
through netzero. Now Internet Explorer has an extra row of
buttons each time it opens. The buttons are links to porn
and gambling sites. One of the icons is a pair of breasts.
Also the home page got changed to "surferbar.com". When I
go to Internet Options to change the home page to an
alternate site and apply, "surferbar" reloads itself as
the homepage. I have tried removing IE 5.5 from computer
and downloaded IE 6.0 from Microsoft. But after over an
hour of downloading and installing, "surferbar" loaded
itself into IE 6.0. While online, an IE 6.0 window will
open unprovoked and try to find "surferbar.com" (which I
have set as a blocked site). Have severe security settings
to stop this site. Need to rid my computer of this menace.
Please advice. Which file do I need to delete and reload?
Where is this menace hiding in my computer?

Spyware Alert!

Go to:
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, HijackThis | Config [button] | Misc Tools [button]
Click: Generate StartupList log [button] (generates "startuplist.txt")

Next, go to the below location: Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11

Sign in, then copy and paste both files in your message.

HTH

--
siljaline

"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_

 

[Dave Mosby]

Neil,
I just spent the last day getting rid of the &*^% stuff.
Sound couselors advised me to download some more software -
but I was too stubborn. The following site gave me the
specific instructions I needed and they worked quite well.

http://www.pchell.com/support/surferbar.shtml

However, the guidance of the MVP's that watch this area is
worth considering. Like the following:

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm


Good luck,
Dave

 

[Mike Burgess]

Dave,
From experience, most of us have found that removing these parasites
manually is a hit-n-miss situation. Having the average user poking about
in the Registry can be dangerous. Using tools (Ad-Aware\SpyBot\HijackThis)
is best served and designed for these purposes and they all create backups
by default.

Remember: when there is one (parasite) there usually lurks more .....
_______________________________________
Mike Burgess http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 9-03-03]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid
--