Microsoft and Hotmail website blocker virus attack.   How to cure my computer??

All sites with anything to do with Microsoft, and quite a few other,
is since Friday 13, no longer accesable for some reason. I have run
Virus cheques, spyboot and adaware cheques and rinsed some spy files
out but the problem with opening a lot of different sites persist.
(Unfortunately I have been reciveing mail through a Hotmail account,
(with their spam filter on) which might have been a contributing
issue.
How to restore things back to normal???

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Clarification of Question by svenne-ga on 20 Aug 2004 14:38 PDT

Thanks a lot for your comments! 
But, unfortunately none of these works. I ahve been running MIE but it
is only that browser that has been corrupted as I am also running
Mozilla and Netscape and  I can't access any of the above sites
through these browsers either. I have asoe been trying to clean with
the latest updated versions of Grisoft's AVG and other anti virus
programes but to no avail so far. (A laptop on my network has also
been affected.) No new viruses found in my last scannings.
Maybe there is a solution in the new Microsoft service pack 2 that is
refered to, as a link, under updates on the Grisoft site but then
again I can't reach Microsoft through the link and download that
security upgrade part of the service pack that might have the answerto
my recent probs.
The only line in my host file (exept #comment lines) is  127.0.0.1     localhost
so that is not the problem either. 
Could anything have been affected in any directory file???
Greatfull for help.
Svenne

Hi svenne,
Firstly I assume you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer (MIE) for
Windows. It sounds like your browser has been crippled either by a
deliberate malicious virus or trojan, or by excessive plugin software
such as spyware. Either of these can be difficult to fix.

If it is the latter, I recommend that you try to remove any
unnecessary or unfamiliar software installed without your knowledge.
This is done by opening 'Add/Remove programs' from the Control Panel
(Start > Settings > Control Panel). Then select any suspicious entries
and click Remove.

In either case, if you can run a virus scanner and anti-spyware
software such as Ad-Aware make sure you update your virus/spyware
definition files first in order to scan for the latest malware
(probably click 'Update' from each scanner).

A temporary solution, (if MIE let's you access the site) is
downloading an alternative browser which is much less vulnerable to
viruses and spyware - Mozilla Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Click on the 'Download Now' button and when downloaded run the
installer. This should now let you access all websites, including
Microsoft/Hotmail. If you can't access the Mozilla site from your
computer, you could use another computer (in public library?) to order
a Firefox CD from the same link (click 'Get Firefox on CD'). A
downside is that some special sites that use ActiveX won't work in
Mozilla Firefox, such as Windows Update or some online virus scanners.

Another alternative browser is Netscape:
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/
Netscape does allow ActiveX and this means you could try an online
virus scanner such as trend micro's Housecall:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
You could also try Housecall with MIE first.

Good Luck!

I think your HOSTS file was modified, and you need to undo the
changes.  The file HOSTS is located in your /I386 folder of your boot
drive (normally drive C:).

Open this file with NOTEPAD.  For safety - select FILE then SAVE AS
and type a name such as OLD-HOSTS.  This will allow you to put it back
the way it is now, should it create problems - although, for most
cases, would be rare.

All of the lines that begin with the "#" cahracter are comments and
have no effect on Windows.  I am hooked up to a network and the only
line I have that is not a comment is :

                   127.0.0.1       localhost

I am not sure if ALL users would have that line, or if it is because I
am on a network that I have that line.  Anyway, delete anything that
is not similar to the above line.  You may be left with the same line
I have, or possibly nothing at all except comments.  I think all
systems will have this one line, but am not sure as I can only speak
for systems I have dealt with.

Finally, select FILE and SAVE AS, and enter the name HOSTS.  Reboot
your machine, and try to log onto the sites connected to Microsoft.  I
think you will find that you can do so at this time.

I agree that it's probably his hosts file, but it's not in the I386
folder.  It's always in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc.  Depending on
his OS and how it was installed  the Windows folder could be called
WIN95, WIN98, WINNT, etc.

Open this up and remove everything but the localhost line.

Thanks a lot for your comments! 
But, unfortunately none of these works. I ahve been running MIE but it
is only that browser that has been corrupted as I am also running
Mozilla and Netscape and  I can't access any of the above sites
through these browsers either. I have asoe been trying to clean with
the latest updated versions of Grisoft's AVG and other anti virus
programes but to no avail so far. (A laptop on my network has also
been affected.) No new viruses found in my last scannings.
Maybe there is a solution in the new Microsoft service pack 2 that is
refered to, as a link, under updates on the Grisoft site but then
again I can't reach Microsoft through the link and download that
security upgrade part of the service pack that might have the answerto
my recent probs.
The only line in my host file (exept #comment lines) is  127.0.0.1     localhost
so that is not the problem either. 
Could anything have been affected in any directory file???
Greatfull for help.
Svenne