When I go on the internet my homepage, MSN, no longer shows up. I can’t bring up MSN even when i try and type it in. I can’t go to yahoo either. Instead I keep getting linked to this web page about “premium searches”. In the address bar it reads yahoo or msn, but the web page is this premium searches garbage. Can anyone tell me how to get back to my original homepage and get rid of this automatic link? Thanks
Download SpyBot - Search and Destroy. That sounds like a spyware-type thing. D you run IE? If so, apparently it’s pretty easy for things to do that to IE.
What’s the name of that web page that shows up? You may be able to Google on it and find a cure.
It does sound like your HOSTS file has become corrupted, setting the Yahoo and MSN address to a different IP address. You may search the hosts file with Explorer (search for HOSTS.* on your C-drive). Open it with Notepad, and look for lines linking Yahoo and MSN to a different address. Removing those lines may help at least for now.
Warning: make a backup copy of the file, just to be sure.
Second warning: you may well have a trojan horse that will change your HOSTS file every time you start up. You will have to remove that with Spybot, Adaware or some other program.