Few days ago my computer was infected with some kind of browser hijack, when I used a search engine and tried to click the link for any of the results instead of it going to the site a new window would pop-up with an add, it also seems to block access to several site that might have fixes, it prevents system restores and seems to prevent spybot from being installed. I got rid of it with spysweeper but it has come back and spysweeper can't find it anymore, has anyone else experianced this and know anything about how to get rid of it and what site it might be coming from?

By your description only it's hard to guess what's the virus named, but I had a similar problem awhile ago.

Certain pages simply didn't load (especially search engines: google, and yahoo, iirc. Lycos worked 0_o...) and whenever I opened IE 6-7 message boxes advertising anti-spyware programs popped up. The virus was identified by AVG (can't remember its name though), but I got lazy and formatted.

Easiest sollution would be to just format, but if you don't want/can't do that try finding out the name (by scanning with AVG or something) and then look around the internet for sollutions. But I still reccommend formatting . It cleans up the entire comp, reduces lag and erases any older spywares that might still hide somewhere.

Oh, and if you can't load pages, try getting around with an online proxy (proxyget.com for example, it worked for me).

If you did temporarily get rid of it with spysweeper, then repeat the process and temporarily get rid of it again. If it's temporarily gone then you should be able to successfully do a system restore, and the problem should be permanently solved.

Also, have you tried installing spybot in safe mode?

I have the same problem, but i haven't fixed it because of a more vicious virus called Vundo that i have spent all my energy on removing.
I would do a safemode virus/trojan scan. The problem is that my safemode won't start anymore due to Service Pack 3 : <

Good luck man

The same exact thing happened to me a couple of years ago, and it basically ruined my life because YouTube and Google were amongst the sites that wouldn't come up unless I was using a proxy. And I reformatted it and everything worked fine.

I usually re format every couple of months, just because if I don't, the computer slows down horribly. With Vista, you don't even need to use a CD, you can clear the disk up to a certain date.


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So service pack 3 is to blame for not being able to load safemode, thats good to know, this evil thing can't be detected by spysweeper anymore what a pain.

I don't know if it's the same thing, but I've been infected with that stupid "XP antivirus 2008" thing 3 times now. Try Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, maybe it'll find and delete it for you. I know it got rid of my problem.

ugh, after letting my little sister borrow my labtop for two hours, I had that same thing happen to me on my IE (which fortunately is my secondary browser, since I tend to use Firefox.) But, during that time my Firefox had it's own problems, too...it was such a pain. The thing is though, all of the pop ups were for either virus protection or porn ads. Not fun at all.

I guess since I run virus scans so much, I must have gotten rid of it somewhere down the line, since it doesn't do that anymore. I believe that particular one came from MySpace, because after tracking my lil sister's history, it was on to her Yahoo mail (which I frequent and have never had problems with) and MySpace. Of course, before her labtop was working and she would sneak on mine in the morning to check her MySpace, virus would always be added, so I tend to blame that site for things like that.

When the new firewall update came through, it messed up my Firefox, only letting me get onto LiveJournal, but I managed to get around that esaily. I named my Firefox program Firefox1. Lol! A bit later though, my computer ate it, so I had to go and redownload it, and I haven't had problems since (I got the newest version at that time though, so that might have had something to do with it).

So, basically, I suggest try running a virus program (I use AVG) to see if something comes up. If not, you can always try renaming the program, uninstalling and reinstalling it, or, like the others have aforemetioned, format.

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~Sanzaki Kojika
(Project Kurai Ryu) - (Kojika's DA Page)

I used to get spyware and crap all the time that would always piss me off to no end.

Then I got a Mac. Don't have to do a damn thing, and never had a problem with anything like that since.

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Tree + Taco = Tree taco.

or instead of paying for an over-priced fashion accessory.... install a Linux distro.

agreed. if you're going to opt for a non windows OS, you might as well get one that, atleast on the surface, acts like something you're familiar with and doesn't crash.

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Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

With Hijack This I can find what I think it is but it always comes back

Is it all browsers? or just IE?

To get around the page re-direction you might try installing Privoxy and setting your browser to use it to connect to the net.
Download here
Go to proxy settings in w/e browser you are using an set it to use 127.0.0.1 port 8118 for http and https(ssl)

The default installation will block a lot of undesirable traffic... malware related sites, ads etc.

Privoxy manual for more info

It seems to have affected both IE and Firefox

Yeah.....the malware is corrupting your files.....Seems like you are in the deep......Better just format everything.....If you try to get rid of it, it might hide somewhere and pops up 2 weeks later. And by format, I mean format the whole hardrive and everything it touched. Delete everything and reinstall OS. Once something gets into your system, it is very hard to completely clean it. Pretty much the war is lost if firewall doesn't catch it.

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