Every time I try to Image Search on Google it takes me to some alleged search site–non-google.
My AVG doesn’t detect; neither does Spybot.
Recently updated my Adobe stuff by going to the Firefox site & checking for update alerts there.
I also get this, sometimes, but not all the time–
When I try to use Bing, I get redirected, briefly to a web address, then on to a shopping site.
I can’t copy the transferring web address.
HELP PLEASE!
check to see if some virus has given you a proxy setting.
Something like tools - internet options - Connectoin tab - Lan settings
Unless you are on a weird setup, you should have no proxy setting.
Also Tools internet options - programs - manage add-ons : kill them all for ow.
OTOH, download MalwareBytes or Trend Housecall free scanners. If necessary, download the Malwarebytes loader from a different computer and put it on a USB stick to run it on your PC. Run a full scan. If you do have an active virus, it is likely to intercept attempts to download AV programs.
Often the only way to be sure is to save your data and reformat the PC.
md2000–I am on Firefox, & can’t find any of these things.
I just switched over.
OK, no proxy
killed add ons
Please give me links to the free scanners, as I doubt I can search for them.
BTW–I cannot use a work computer to copy programs to stick, & have no other good option.
Suggestion?
Going to bed.
Got to go to work at 5AM tomorrow.
killing add ons did not stop it.
Malwarebytes download:
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button
I think you could probably use Hijack This! but it takes a bit of experience to interpret the results and you could hose something if you’re not careful.
Run msconfig (just type it into the ‘Run’ box, or onto the command line). Look at the ‘Startup’ tab; this will show you all of the programs that run when your computer boots and when you log on.
Depending on what you have installed on your box, and your level of knowledge, the problem may be apparent, as something that doesn’t belong in this list. You can uncheck items from the list to stop them from auto-starting, and with some trial and error you might hit upon the offender.
Not a good solution; spyware hides itself from msconfig routinely. Same with hijackthis – it was a great tool five years ago, but malware knows how to hide from it.
The best bet is Malwarebytes, as indicated. Another solution is to try do to a system restore to a time before the problem occurred; malware these days doesn’t bother disabling this (though it used to).
Your ISP is most likely to blame. Basically, they want to make some extra money, so instead of directly directing you to www.google.com, they direct you to some intermediary shell (shill?) search company who skims some money off of google by pretending that they provided a service to google by referencing you to google (as if there was any chance I the world that you didn’t know of the existence of google, and they needed to act as a reference conduit to google) anyway, the whole scheme works with small time ISP copanies that can stay under the radar of these practices.
The solution is to change the DNS servers used by your computer. A DNS server is basically like a huge phone book, but for the Internet, such that when you type the address www.sdmb.com, it looks up the real IP address of the server computer hosting this site.
Long story short you have to change your DNS settings to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 . These two DNS servers belong to google (basically google’s version of the Internet phone book) which is very trustworthy.
Let us know if this fixes your problem.
My goodness!
Thanks for that tidbit, TNE.
I suspect The Niply Elder is correct, at least if you have an American ISP. A couple weeks ago a research project released its findings that there is widespread hijacking of search traffic by American ISPs. You can read a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the matter.
The Niply Elder is probably wrong!
As it sends me to a variety of different sites, including shopping sites.
Also, my problems started 24 hours after switching to Firefox, & my research suggests that large downloads cause this big time.
BTW–I have no idea how to change a DNS, or where to begin.