When I open Internet Explorer browser window (version
6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633), go to "Hotmail.com" website to check
my e-mails, enter my login and password, and hit "Sign in", I get a
page with a title "Internet Optimizer" that says "Help/Navigation
Error-DNS Error". If I try to access my e-mails from another browser
(SBC Yahoo DSL, Product Version: 3.01.02.409), I get "The Page cannot
be displayed". The operating system on this computer is Windows XP
Home Edition. As far as I can tell, I am unable to view only those
websites where I am required to enter a password (secured websites).
Other examples of the pages I cannot view are "Travelocity" website
where I cannot purchase airline tickets and my university's website
where I need to enter my student ID to access information. I thought
that my "Security"/"Privacy" settings under "Internet Options" were
the culprit, but I can access all these secure websites on my second
computer (with operating system Windows ME), even though the browser
settings on that computer are the same. I read the solution for a
person who was unable to view certain pages on E-Bay: I checked my
"hosts" file and "Hotmail.com" is not listed there. I also looked at
Microsoft website for possible answers, but so far did not find a
solution that helped. I would be grateful for your input!

Hi uckopka,

You've picked up a parasite along the way - not to worry, you should
be able to get rid of it without too much trouble.

You can read about it here:
Internet Optimizer is an error page hijacker:
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/InternetOptimizer.html

What are parasites:
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/

Solution:

Run both of the following program - run them several times to be sure
you've gotten everything.

Adaware (update before running):
http://www.spychecker.com/program/adaware.html

Spybot (update before running):
http://www.safer-networking.org/

When you are finished, scan with HouseCall, a very thorough online virus scan:
HouseCall:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Additional Links:

Inside Spyware:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/

Spyware Removal Software:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/removal.html#scansoft

Spyware Prevention Software:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/preventsoft.html

Hopefully you'll be reading your email soon. If you have any
questions, please post a clarification request before closing/rating
my answer and I'll be happy to assist you.

Thank you - good luck,
hummer

Search Strategy: "Internet Optimizer"

---

Request for Answer Clarification by uckopka-ga on 12 May 2004 09:55 PDT

Dear hummer,

I ran the virus scanners you indicated and removed parasites from my
computer. Thank you for your help! However, I am still unable to
access those websites. I still get the same message: "The page cannot
be displayed". Please advise what may be the problem.

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 12 May 2004 10:18 PDT

Hi uckopka,

Oh, that's too bad. Ok, download HijackThis:

HijackThis (update before running):
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Post your HijackThis log on the following forum and the good folks
there will tell you what needs to be deleted on your system:
Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

Hopefully, that should do it.
hummer

Try accessing Hotmail.com by IP at http://64.4.32.7 and see if your
are able to do so.