Hi Gardnervillian,
Your browser has been hijacked! Your problem is becoming more and more
common nowadays. There is unwanted software that runs in the
background of your system. Here are definitions of these unwanted
software:
What is a hijacker?
"A Hijacker is any software that resets your browser's settings to
point to other sites. Hijacks may reroute your info and address
requests through an unseen site, capturing that info. In such hijacks,
your browser may behave normally, but be slower."
http://www.pestpatrol.com/Support/HowTo/How_To_Clear_a_Hijack.asp#DisablingScripting
What is adware?
"while not necessarily malware, adware is considered to go beyond the
reasonable advertising that one might expect from freeware or
shareware. Typically a separate program that is installed at the same
time as a shareware or similar program, adware will usually continue
to generate advertising even when the user is not running the
originally desired program. See also cookies, spyware, and web bugs."
http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/secgloss.htm
What is malware?
"MALicious softWARE, including viruses, worms, Trojans, Denial of
Service and other such attacks. Sometimes referred to as rogue
programs."
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~netsec/gloss.html
What is spyware?
"A technology that assists in gathering information about a person or
organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, "spyware is
programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather
information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other
interested parties." As such, spyware is cause for public concern
about privacy on the Internet."
http://reach.ucf.edu/~coursdev/cdrom/html/help/glossary.html
To easily remove the problem and avoid similar problems in the future,
you need to download, install, update and run the following programs
one at a time:
Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.2
Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=mirrors
To update Spybot, click on Search for updates.
Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
To update Ad-Aware, click on the globe icon with a magnifying glass
called Open WebUpdate.
HijackThis
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
When you run HijackThis, it will show you a scan result with
checkboxes. Make sure to check only the entries with "greatsearch.biz"
then proceed to remove them.
Make sure to keep these programs updated and run them once or twice a
week. Also, make sure to have an antivirus program for further
protection.
Here are other methods of removal:
How To Clear a Hijack
http://www.pestpatrol.com/Support/HowTo/How_To_Clear_a_Hijack.asp#DisablingScripting
GET rid OF greatsearch.biz
http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://frischerfang.twoday.net/stories/196404/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dremove%2B%2522greatsearch.biz%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DG
Search strategy:
Personal knowledge + Google Web search on how to remove greatsearch.biz
I hope this helps you. Should you have any comments/questions, please
feel free to post your clarification before rating this and I'll
attend to you as soon as possible. Thanks for asking.
Best regards,
Feilong |
