Virus/adware problem.. dunno what to do.

slash000

Hey guys,

So, I've been using my laptop lately, and recently let my friend use my desktop the other day. Now my desktop PC has some kind of virus or adware issue.

Basically what happens is it infects search engines. Whenever I do a search in google or yahoo or whatever, it'll take a noticeably long time to search, and when it brings up the google/yahoo/whatever results, I click the link, and it takes me to some other website, usually some kind of "finder" website; the urls of my search are supplanted by these long urls with many characters. It also makes my computer lag a big when using browsers. The search engine url-supplanting issue happens both with FireFox and Opera.




I've run a full system scan with fully updated virus definitions using norton.

I run a quick and a full system scan using a fully updated Ad-Aware.



The problem persists.. wtf do I do?

Anybody know what this is and how to remove it?



Thanks guys.

slash000

What I think has possibly happened is the adware rewrote my hosts file and is fucking up the DNS. That way, it doesn't matter what browser I use, google and yahoo searches (and maybe others) will be fucked over.




How do I fix my host file?

slash000

Shit. My hosts file seems normal. It's tricking my computer into thinking that www.google.com is something else. fuck

Desert_Eagle25

Try to get Spybot Search and Destroy installed, and make sure to activate TeaTime, that blocks out and protects your host files and processes. Here's th elink os you dont need to google: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

stigweard

Check your Internet connection settings (through internet options, not IE) and look for a proxy entry you didn't add yourself. The same goes for FF (tools -> options advanced and network tab, then settings button). There is a pretty good chance it is a type of malware that runs its own proxy hidden on the machine to send you to those ads. Super antispyware or spybot will easily get rid of it, but I've seen the proxy information remain behind, causing the browser to be slow or non responsive.

GrimReaper

Download hijackthis and post the log here (ideally as a text file to download).