Member Avatar for kaninelupus

I believe he means the Operating System.

Yup - sorry if I didn't clarify sufficiently :-/ Now obviously this would be on a machine you could do without for a day or two, but would provide the most bullet-proof method of identify exactly when and where your search behaviour is being hijacked... would also prove once and for all as to whether is a plugin, application or your ISP which is responsible (if ISP should be present either immediately or shortly after first connection to internet, but seeing as has not happened to ALL machines at same point, am really not convinced this is the source).

The beauty of this is that it not only alert you as to what software NOT to install from here on in, but advises everyone else :)

Member Avatar for mauconline

Hi Crunchie & kaninelupus

This is just FYI:

I downloaded and installed Google Chrome and Opera web browsers on one of my 'infected machines' - a desktop pc.

The first thing I did in both browsers was to deliberately type in a URL that I knew was wrong. Guess what? Both of them took me to the same 'suspicious' Yahoo! search result page that you guys have been trying to help me sort out!... Very strange indeed!!

What I intend doing next is to try the clean install suggested on a very old desktop pc that was reformatted many months ago but I have not used same for a long time now. I'll keep you informed of the outcome.

Thanks for your patience and continued support.

Member Avatar for kaninelupus

Just a quick question. Is "very old PC" capable of installing and running ALL the software installed on effected machines? Needs to be or would be incapable of providing relevant stats. Just a tip :)

Member Avatar for mauconline

Thanks for the tip. I believe it should be able to handle it.

Member Avatar for mauconline

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your patient assistance thus far. Just for your information: those systems went bad and I got a new system about a month now and have not noticed the symptoms thus far. Thanks again.

Member Avatar for pazsion

what? solved?? not quite! nobody answered the poster's questions, and his pc failed...so this confirms it's a virus.

2nd method of confirmation: multiple pc's exhibit the same problems

3rd: my pc also has had issues, when it's allowed to function it will modify files,registries,host files and kill the pc's internet features.

Associated programs/files, possibly a curropt verion.
eectrl
norton eraser


Your isp doesn't hand out viruses/malware... it's an inherant risk of getting online "in the wild"

Your ISP will claim they are not responsible for the security of it's users, and has covered their butts legally. After 2001 most are atleast 80% owned by a security agency funded by HLS or otherwise infiltrated and abused the world over... It is very hard to find an independantly owned telecom anywhere. I continue to search.You should too!

Member Avatar for crunchie

18 months later I bet it's solved though.

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