hi, i been advice that my IE might not work becuz of spyware infections. The problem with my IE 6 is that it won;t open any sites... it would alwayz say cannot find page.. and at the bottom it says DNS error.... this problem only applies to the IE 6 browser... i can browse the web just fine with my SBC YAHOO INTERNET BROWSER... anybody got ideas wat my problem might me???

* Run a full anti-virus scan, making sure that your anti-virus program is using the most current virus definition updates.

* Download and run Ad Aware and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

Follow these directions for configuring Ad Aware (directions courtesy of our member "crunchie"):

1. Download and Install Ad-Aware SE, keeping the default options. However, some of the settings will need to be changed before your first scan

2.Close ALL windows except Ad-Aware SE

3. Click on the‘world’ icon at the top right of the Ad-Aware SE window and let AdAware SE update the reference list for the adware and malware.

4. Once the update is finished click on the ‘Gear’ icon (second from the left at the top of the window) to access the preferences/settings window

1) In the ‘General’ window make sure the following are selected in green:
*Automatically save log-file
*Automatically quarantine objects prior to removal
*Safe Mode (always request confirmation)

Under Definitions:
*Prompt to udate outdated definitions - set the number of days


2) Click on the ‘Scanning’ button on the left and select in green :

Under Driver, Folders & Files:
*Scan Within Archives

Under Select drives & folders to scan -
*choose all hard drives

Under Memory & Registry: all green
*Scan Active Processes
*Scan Registry
*Deep Scan Registry
*Scan my IE favorites for banned URL’s
*Scan my Hosts file


3) Click on the ‘Advanced’ button on the left and select in green:

Under Shell Integration:
*Move deleted files to recycle bin

Under Logfile Detail Level: (all green)
*include addtional object information
*DESELECT - include negligible objects information
*include environment information

Under Alternate Data Streams:
*Don't log streams smaller than 0 bytes
*Don't log ADS with the following names: CA_INOCULATEIT


4) Click the ‘Tweak’ button and select in green:

Under the ‘Scanning Engine’:
*Unload recognized processes during scanning
*Scan registry for all users instead of current user only


Under the ‘Cleaning Engine’:
*Let Windows remove files in use at next reboot


Under the Log Files:
*Include basic Ad-aware SE settings in logfile
*Include additional Ad-aware SE settings in logfile
*Please do not check or make green: Include Module list in logfile


5. Click on ‘Proceed’ to save the settings.

6. Click ‘Start’

*Choose:'Perform Full System Scan'
*DESELECT "Search for negligible risk entries", as negligible risk entries (MRU's) are not considered to be a threat.

7. Click ‘Next’ and Ad-Aware SE will scan your hard drive(s) with the options you have selected and clean automatically.

8. If Ad-Aware SE finds bad entries, you will receive a list of what it found in the window

9. Save the log file when it asks and then click ‘finish’

10. REBOOT to complete the removal of what Ad-Aware SE found


* Run SpyBot.

When you first run SpyBot, it will walk you through a Wizard which will perform a few critical functions (making a registry backup, getting the latest updates, etc.).

1. Perform all of the Wizard's tasks.
2. Run the program. Once it completes, have it fix everything it finds.
3. Reboot.


* If you're still experiencing problems, download HijackThis.

1. Save and run HijackThis from its own folder; do no run it directly from your desktop, or from within any Temp, Temporary, or Temporary Internet Files folder. Saving HijackThis to a folder such as C:\hijackthis or C:\downloads\hijackthis will do just fine.

2. Close/quit all open programs, especially your web browser.

3. Open HJT and click the "Scan" button.

- When HJT has finished its scan, click the "Save log" button and save the log file in your HJT folder.

- Open the log file in Windows notepad, and cut-n-paste the entire contents of the log into a reply in this thread.

nice... i will try that too... heh looks a lil bit complicated tho

hmm... i donno if itz just me.... but i don;t see a world icon... but i did update the defintions.. and after that there waz no gear icon either.. mayb i have a dif version.. ?

altho i didn;t carry out those directions.. what i did was just do a scan.. and there is a file call DSO EXPLOIT.... the description of that item was somthing like allow others to change cofig. on your window IE ..... After i scanned and deleted w.e that it picked up... IE is up and running again... but some pages couldn't be displayed right.. so yea.. If you don;t alrdy know about DSO EXPLOIT you should check it out... seems really suspicious to me ... well your job of helping me fix IE is done for now thx thx for the effort u put out.....

The current version is Ad Aware SE Personal, build 1.05.

DSO= Data Source Object. Very basically, the "exploits" involve crafting data source objects (a chunk of XML code, for example) which contain maliciuous code, and then binding that code to an HTML page. Due to the nature of DSOs and security loopholes involving them, when a user views that page, the malicious code included with/in the page can perform unauthorized tasks on the users computer.

ooo i see.....hmm so do you dink DSO was my problem all along or was it something else the ad ware SE picked up?

A DSO exploit is not an infection or intrusion in and of itself, but rather a security hole/flaw/bug in a program (Internet Explorer in this case) which can allow a malicious Data Source Object to execute code on your computer.

When Ad Aware, SpyBot, and other detection/removal tools report a "DSO Exploit" in their scans, it indicates that a DSO-related security hole exists in your version of Internet Explorer, but it does not necessarilly mean that a malicious program has taken advantage of the hole yet. Using Microsoft's Windows Update function to make sure your system always has the latest critical fixes, patches, and program updates installed is the best way to ensure that your system contains as few of these types of flaws as possible.
(* Note that there has been a bug in SpyBot which causes it to always report a certain DSO exploit, even if you just fixed the problem in a previous SpyBot scan. Until the bug is fixed, that particular item can be ignored.)


Given the above, your particular problem seems to obviously been caused by something that Ad Aware removed, but without knowing exactly what Ad Aware did find, it's impossible for me to say whether any of the "nasties" infected your system by taking advantage of a DSO exploit.

oo.. well u taught me alot.. tx for the time u spend helping me on this.... If i have any other problems with IE 6 i will keep u posted.... tx once again .. Also if i got any other problems i will let you know in a new thread or somthing.. that's all ttyl

o yea how old are you? just wondering.. i am 16