Internet Explorer will not let me set my home page.  Whenever I try to
change it, it immediately reverts to

http://213.159.117.134/index.php

This started a couple of days ago.  Norton antivirus does not find
anything wrong.    Operating system is XP.

How can I fix this--any ideas?

Thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 07 Oct 2004 11:29 PDT

It appears that your browser has been "hijacked" by CoolWebSearch.

There is a disinfecting tool specifically designed to fix this. Please
download and run CWShredder, and let us know whether your problem is
solved. You can download CWShredder here:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html#cwshredder

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Clarification of Question by citson-ga on 07 Oct 2004 12:34 PDT

Thanks pink, that page looked very promising.  But I downloaded and
ran CWShredder, it found and removed infected files, but didn't fix
the problem: I still can't change my home page.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 07 Oct 2004 12:59 PDT

Hi citson,

Follow one of these tutorials and let us know how you make out.

How to: Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

KRC Anti-Spyware Tutorial
http://www.greyknight17.com/spyware.htm

Good luck,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by citson-ga on 07 Oct 2004 16:16 PDT

AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!

I followed the instructions at greyknight17, downloaded and ran
ad-aware and spybot, and that didn't fix the problem.  I ran
Hijackthis, and got rid of some stuff, and now my network connection
doesn't work!  (obviously I'm on another computer now).  I don't even
care about the stupid browser hijack anymore--I'll be happy if someone
can help me get online again.  I'll double the question price to $20.

Please help, I am ready to go office space on my computer...

---

Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 07 Oct 2004 21:44 PDT

Hi!! 

You can try to use the restore feature of HijackThis:
Open HJT --> Click on Config button --> BackUps button

Then restart your computer and check if your network connection works
again. Then run Hijackthis again and post the log file here without
fixing anything, we will tell you what you must mark to fix.


Regards.
livioflores-ga

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Clarification of Question by citson-ga on 08 Oct 2004 00:09 PDT

Thanks very much to everyone for your help and advice.  I hired an IT
guy and he was able to fix things.  Whew!

Load this url and download the program HijackThis.

http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022-10307556.html?tag=lst-0-6

This program attacks the methods used by the programmers rather than
going after specific infections.  You have to be aware of what you are
doing, I.e., do not delete everything - look for what seems to be the
problem.

My nine year old daughter got my home computer so loaded up with
adware this was the only way I could fix it.

We had a recent problem with network connections being lost after
removing spyware and found that we needed to use LSPfix to fix the
connection.  Here's the link:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/lspfix.html
Good luck!

These websites have lots o finfo:

http://www.spywareinfo.net
http://www.cexx.org

Hijack this, Spybot S&D, and CWShredder are the best programs.
Sometimes you have to use Ad-aware too. Don't have hijack this erase
stuff until someone who knows what they're doing looks over your logs.

over and above all that, restoreing the computer, or reinstallnig
windows can sometimes be your only hope. Even if the spyware removers
work, it's often still better to freshly install the O/S.

After that, make sure you keep Norton antivirus and spybot S&D running
in the background to protect the system.

sparky4ca-ga