When searching, redirected to other sites

Charles,
I ran Spybot Hosts file and itshows the same amount of Adware. Hundreds of files.

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

First a tutorial on Hosts file and what it does: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm note where its supposed to be:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc

You seem to have a custom Hosts file on your system - example http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt

You write "The last file is called Hosts and it has a ton of stuff in it. Looks like adware. All labeled 127.0.0.1 Could this be a problem?" If the entries start with 127.0.0.1, then those sites are blocked per the example of the mvp hosts file.

So, where is that hosts your referring to and did you download it or is there a security program thats running now or have you used one in the past to block malware in this fashion? An example of a program that loads a custom hosts file is Spybot - look in Spybot's Tools section and you'll see that option. If the answer is that you know nothing about doing anything like this, then post back and we'll re establish the standard one line HOSTS file in the etc folder and get rid of the others.

I'm not a big fan of using Hosts files to block bad sites, it pontentially creates other problems and I don't know if your situation is one of them.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Charles,
I again searched for my "C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc " and found it where it is supposed to be.

Isnt it good that all these ad sites are blocked?

I have Spybot and Adaware, Grisoft antivirus, and Zone Alarm firewall, but have never configured my Hosts file for set up like this. This is new to me.

Do you think this is the redirection problem?

Thanks
Dave

 

Hi Dave,

Don't know, but in order to find out, try the following:

I'm assuming since you found the etc folder that all the files that you posted are in there.

Copy the HOSTS out to a floppy (if less then a megabyte it'll fit), a flash drive if you have one, or a cd, and then open with Notepad and delete anything beyond the first 127.0.0.1 localhost entry and then re boot.

That'll tell us if the hosts is the cause, there may be entries in there that do not start with 127.0.0.1 - those that do not, if they exist, will be a re direct or something else wrong with it.

Regards - Charles