PC/Internet Explorer question

Hey DUers! I have a PC/IE question. Hopefully someone can help me.

A quick background story:
I am using a PC. I recently began working from home and am using the PC work gave me. I have a cable modem, it's really fast. Before I used an iMac, Netscape, and a dial-up connection and never had this problem.

The problem:
Everything was fine until my husband used the computer to do a little surfing, some guitar tab stuff, a little porn, no big whoop. Well now, since he did this, every once in a while when I open IE, the home page will be changed and in the favorites and history will be these porn pages.

To fix the problem, I
-go under Internet Options in Tools and change the home page back;
- delete the cookies;
- delete the history;
- delete the temporary Internet files; and
- delete the favorites list.

BUT
it still comes back. Not every time I open it, maybe every fifth time. It is driving me crazy! I looked through the Options tabs but couldn't find if anything was embedded anywhere. I would think deleting the cookies would do it, but it doesn't.

I don't want to install anything on this computer because it isn't mine and I need it for work. I use a lot of pdfs, open a lot of art files, use Word a lot. Our IS department has warned all of us telecommuters to not install anything that they haven't given us.

It's just maddening. I know PCs but not as well as I know Macs. I told my husband he can only look at porn on the iMac using the dial-up connection.

I also have Symantec Antivirus installed, if that helps.

Can anyone help me out? How do I stop this from happening?

I am going running and will be back in about an hour and a half to check out your responses.

Thanks a lot!
-ellie

Quote: "Before I used an iMac, Netscape, and a dial-up connection and never had this problem."

You switched.

ON EDIT -- Sorry...I didn't mean to leave it at that. The dog called for walkies.

I've never heard of that. Did you clear the history and cookies using IE preferences, or physically remove them from your HD? I know on the Mac version, IE is very sloppy about actually clearing the history and cookies even when you tell it to. Best bet would be to clear cookies, cache and history, then don't do anything until you've quit IE completely. Maybe even do a restart. I don't know what to offer beyond that.

Except the obvious! ;-)

since an acquaintance of mine just described the same problem. In his case, he says this happened to him after visiting the Greenpeace site!
The only bit of advice I could offer was to download Ad-Aware and run it.

#1 Download Ad-Aware and run it (www.lavasoft.de) This will take care of 90% of the problem when you scan.

#2 Go into control panel and click the add/remove software button. Find which applications are loaded that you don't recognize or show recent emdedding.

ZoneAlarm Pro or Kerio Personal Firewall. Highly recommend Spybot or Ad-aware. Also beware of porn sites. I made the mistake of not monitoring my buddy's teenage son one night who asked to used my laptop. Found him surfing porn and clicking away on "Your company is not protected!". Got him to stop but the damage was already installed. The laptop died the following week. Sadly learned my lesson. 1) don't let a 15 year old male surf, 2) always install a personal firewall to prevent pop-ups/pop-unders, and 3) run spyware programs.

Go to internet options, tools again like you are trying to delete cookies, click "settings" instead of delete cookies.

Then click on "view objects"

Select everything in that list and delete.

Those are activeX controls and it may be an activex control that is causing this.


If that fails, I would suggest installing (hear me out) Ad-Aware from www.lavasoftusa.com, updating it, have it scan your system for spyware, and then remove the Ad-Aware program when you are done.

Just curious. I run it once a week just as a precaution.

....on the system, so I would install it, run ad-aware, and then uninstall it.

Less chance there would be any questions about it at that point.

... do that. Some of those objects are probably things you want like codecs or flash or other benign stuff.

Rather than delete them en masse, I'd right click on each and look at their property page and if you don't like what you see, then delete it.

Install on demand will take care of it.

I have done it hundreds of times and I used to work for IE support for Microsoft so I can assure you the danger is minimal at best. Codecs are not in that folder btw.

... makes sense. But in my systems there were object labeled "codec". God knows what they are but there they were. :)

From security.kolla.de, the home of Spybot-S&D, the best privacy software available, download Spybot-S&D and run it. Program is mirrored in the USA at

http://www.safer-networking.org/

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download


From Lavasoft download Ad-aware 6 and run it.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/


From ALWIL download avast! 4 Home Edition - a virus/worm protection program.

http://www.avast.com/i_idt_171.html

And get permission to always run with a firewall like Zonealarm - which is also free.

a virus.

no really.

IE has security settings, but by default they're pretty useless. And a fast connection is perilous, because things take place so quickly. More than likely, the security settings allowing active scripting were set at a (ridiculously) low default setting. A script running on a site can do all kinds of outrageous things to IE.

A couple of things to look at: from your start menu highlight Run and then type msconfig in the box and click OK. This will bring up the system configuration utility. From the last tab on the panel, click "start up" and then look at the programs enabled at start up. Chances are your culprit is in there. ActiveX scripting is notorious for this kind of shit.

You can either just unclick the box next to the guilty party so it won't run at start up, or hunt it down and delete it. You do this through the Config.sys tab or the Autoexec.bat tab, but it's not something for the novice to experiment with. The start up tab is pretty safe, though, because anything you uncheck that is needed will automatically come back.

Get Zone Alarm! It's free, and it works. I would advise getting Mozilla as well. It is easy to set up and find all the plug-ins to make it work as good as IE, and there is no ActiveX scripting used in it.

Download it. Use it. Thanks me later.

Well now, since he did this, every once in a while when I open IE, the home page will be changed and in the favorites and history will be these porn pages.
AdAware and SpyBot should take care of it.
IIRC, one of them has a feature that protects IE from this sort of thing if you leave it running.

I suggest you download Firebird and use it instead of IE.
Popup blocking, fewer security issues, tabbed browsing.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/

Mojo

Keep your husband off the machine, go to Internet Options and put your homepage back to what you want it. I dont think its adware, I think your husband continues his lustful ways without your knowledge.

There was one site that just wouldn't go away. I went to the site and somewhere on the site was a button to not make it my home page. Mostly these creeps aren't that "nice". As far as I know, there is nothing to stop changing your home page but ethics and morals. It's not a virus, pop-up stoppers don't catch it.

Another time I had a problem, there is a way you can reload a previous version of IE. My ISP lead me through it, and I wish I could remember it.

Those sites are definately a pain. Good luck.

Download and run 'em all, especially spybot s&d. You'll get your system clean in no time.

You guys are really great! I will check out the start menu and then see about installing a firewall.

Thanks again!

On edit:
I am waffling about telling my IS department. I may just mention the problem without mentioning the porn and ask if I can install a firewall. If it was my computer I wouldn't hesitate, butit's not mine. Thanks again!

Almost every poster on this thread, except Fallow, is on the money.

It's spyware/malware. Download AdAware, it's free. Install it. On the first screen, have it check for updates, and install them. Then click start. Allow AdAware to delete eveything it finds. (It will be quarantined if for some reason you need to put it back.) Dont bother uninstalling AdAware - your IT dept wont mind. (I work in IT... I'd be happy if my users used AdAware of Spybot on their own, or even tried to protect their PCs.. I might get angry with you for letting hubby surf the web on it, but I also just might laugh it off... we geeks understand.) the only reason they would be upset is that it is licensed only for personal use, and yours is a corporate PC, but they wopnt be angry like they would if you installed, say, Kazaa.

There are some bits of MalWare that even these progs wont remove.. I ran into a very similar problem recently. I'd say there is a 95% chance these two apps will cure what ails ya.. but if they dont, let us know here. You may need something like CWShredder to get rid of it, but try AdAware and SpyBot first.

Honestly - thats the fix - I'd lay fat $$$ on the line on that.

but it disappeared after a while, I forgot if I did anything to fix it, im always screwing around with settings.

PS: Your hubbie surfs a little porn, and you don't mind?!? Sweet, tell him hes one lucky <...> ;)

Search for it. Often, it is a script dumped in there that determines your startup page.

Open it as a .txt file. Delete the nasty stuff. Close.

Right click, then select "Properties". Mark as "Read Only". This could do the trick.

Also go to this page for hijacker info:

http://217.115.153.73/parasite/

Otherwise, follow the previous posts. Good advice. These hijackers are nasty and tough to get rid of.