Hemorrhoids

[VolatileAgent]

Need help with a virus/malicious program problem.

I can't connect to any search engines. Try to go to google for example and explorer just dumps me to page unavailable message. Same for Yahoo, etc. Everything else seems to be fine.

Norton antivirus came up clean but it's about a year old.

Is this a common problem that anyone recognizes.

Any help on this one?

Thx.

[SimonFF]

Try using this to scan your PC for a virus.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/hous...start_corp.asp

[Mr N8]

It sounds like there is a problem with your hosts file.

Go to C:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc

Open the hosts file with Wordpad.

Make sure that you don't have any entries in there that indicate any search engines. IE - www.google.com should have either no entry or something like this:

216.239.37.99 google.com


If it has 127.0.0.1 for the search engine addresses, then it is pointing everything back to your machine.

[VolatileAgent]

OK, thanks for the responses, here'e what I know so far.

I did the trendmicro virus scan and it said no virus detected.

Next I followed Mr N8's instructions.
This is what I got.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.127.127.127 elite
207.44.194.56 www.google.com
207.44.194.56 google.com
207.44.194.56 www.altavista.com
207.44.194.56 altavista.com
207.44.194.56 search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 uk.search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 ca.search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 jp.search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 au.search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 de.search.yahoo.com
207.44.194.56 search.yahoo.co.jp
207.44.194.56 www.lycos.de
207.44.194.56 www.lycos.ca
207.44.194.56 www.lycos.jp
207.44.194.56 www.lycos.co.jp
207.44.194.56 alltheweb.com
207.44.194.56 web.ask.com
207.44.194.56 ask.com
207.44.194.56 www.ask.com
207.44.194.56 www.teoma.com
207.44.194.56 search.aol.com
207.44.194.56 www.looksmart.com
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com
207.44.194.56 ca.search.msn.com
207.44.194.56 fr.ca.search.msn.com
207.44.194.56 search.fr.msn.be
207.44.194.56 search.fr.msn.ch
207.44.194.56 search.latam.yupimsn.com
207.44.194.56 search.msn.at
207.44.194.56 search.msn.be
207.44.194.56 search.msn.ch
207.44.194.56 search.msn.co.in
207.44.194.56 search.msn.co.jp
207.44.194.56 search.msn.co.kr
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com.br
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com.hk
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com.my
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com.sg
207.44.194.56 search.msn.com.tw
207.44.194.56 search.msn.co.za
207.44.194.56 search.msn.de
207.44.194.56 search.msn.dk
207.44.194.56 search.msn.es
207.44.194.56 search.msn.fi
207.44.194.56 search.msn.fr
207.44.194.56 search.msn.it
207.44.194.56 search.msn.nl
207.44.194.56 search.msn.no
207.44.194.56 search.msn.se
207.44.194.56 search.ninemsn.com.au
207.44.194.56 search.t1msn.com.mx
207.44.194.56 search.xtramsn.co.nz
207.44.194.56 search.yupimsn.com
207.44.194.56 uk.search.msn.com
207.44.194.56 search.lycos.com
207.44.194.56 www.lycos.com
207.44.194.56 www.google.ca
207.44.194.56 google.ca
207.44.194.56 www.google.uk
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.uk
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.au
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.jp
207.44.194.56 www.google.jp
207.44.194.56 www.google.at
207.44.194.56 www.google.be
207.44.194.56 www.google.ch
207.44.194.56 www.google.de
207.44.194.56 www.google.dk
207.44.194.56 www.google.fi
207.44.194.56 www.google.fr
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.gr
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.hk
207.44.194.56 www.google.ie
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.il
207.44.194.56 www.google.it
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.kr
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.mx
207.44.194.56 www.google.nl
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.nz
207.44.194.56 www.google.pl
207.44.194.56 www.google.pt
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.ru
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.sg
207.44.194.56 www.google.co.th
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.tr
207.44.194.56 www.google.com.tw
207.44.194.56 google.at
207.44.194.56 google.be
207.44.194.56 google.de
207.44.194.56 google.dk
207.44.194.56 google.fi
207.44.194.56 google.fr
207.44.194.56 google.com.hk
207.44.194.56 google.ie
207.44.194.56 google.co.il
207.44.194.56 google.it
207.44.194.56 google.co.kr
207.44.194.56 google.com.mx
207.44.194.56 google.nl
207.44.194.56 google.co.nz
207.44.194.56 google.pl
207.44.194.56 google.com.ru
207.44.194.56 google.com.sg
207.44.194.56 www.hotbot.com
207.44.194.56 hotbot.com

Every search engine has the same address.

Any thoughts on how this happened and how to correct it?

Thx

[SimonFF]

Looks a bit strange! If I was you I would just delete them all, keep the one at the top the local host, and make sure you put a few returns in after the local host address, it needs spaces after it for some reason!

[Mr N8]

Yes, just delete all of the entries for the search engines. Delete everything underneath the 127.0.0.1 localhost. The other entries were made by a spyware app, most likely.

Run a scan for spyware with either ad-aware or spybot search and destroy. Run both if you feel inclined to.

[VolatileAgent]

Success!!!

Thanks for the help.

Spybot cured the problem.

Regards!!

[Mr N8]

Good to hear.

If you ever come across weird occurances that seem to be internet related, just run spybot. I install it on all of the computers I build for friends and family, and most of them run it monthly just a as a maintenance step.