Techy Stuff Help!

[Paul]

Right, I need help.
My son has reloaded Windows 7 for me and everything seems fine, but on TWF the quick reply box is a blue/grey colour and won't let me type in it, what have I done ??

 

[Wombat del combate]

Every time my wife opens a new tab on Firefox she gets a warning that the redirection is dodgy. The URL is http://homepage-web.com/?s=acer&m=tab and from further investigation it seems that this is a form of browser hijack from some malware. Thing is, she hasn't downloaded any software or similar - two document attachments is all, apparently - and having run a McAfee virus scan nothing is flagged up as amiss.

I've looked online at Avira and Norton for "homepage-web.com" and they return nothing either, however if you Google the partial URL there are a lot of forum-related instructions on how to remove it, mainly involving downloading some form of malware remover. This is what is troubling me - nothing on the 'name' websites yet lots of instructions to download and install something and it's left me wondering if these helpful links are in fact links which will result in acquiring more bad stuff? Anyone with any idea?

 

[Paul]

I had a similar problem with a site called terdir.com which was basically a pop up generator whenever you click on an icon or open a new page, our IT bloke told me to download malwarebytes, its free, safe and seems to have worked

 

[t3ch]

Every time my wife opens a new tab on Firefox she gets a warning that the redirection is dodgy. The URL is http://homepage-web.com/?s=acer&m=tab and from further investigation it seems that this is a form of browser hijack from some malware. Thing is, she hasn't downloaded any software or similar - two document attachments is all, apparently - and having run a McAfee virus scan nothing is flagged up as amiss.

I've looked online at Avira and Norton for "homepage-web.com" and they return nothing either, however if you Google the partial URL there are a lot of forum-related instructions on how to remove it, mainly involving downloading some form of malware remover. This is what is troubling me - nothing on the 'name' websites yet lots of instructions to download and install something and it's left me wondering if these helpful links are in fact links which will result in acquiring more bad stuff? Anyone with any idea?

pardon if you've already done this simple check, but...

normally when you see something like that it's as simple as changing your homepage. so for example since that's in firefox, you'd go to Options, then in the General tab set your Home Page to something like google.com. you may also want to check your add/remove programs to ensure there's not some kind of toolbar (or other program you don't recognize) that may be forcing your browser settings.

as far as malware protection, there are plenty of legitimate programs that will help you monitor, but never download one of those one-off "run this to remove xyz virus" applications. do the removal manually; any legitimate site will include instructions for what the steps actually are.

you could also just grab something like malwarebytes to use alongside your antivirus (which you should have installed anyway); could be it fixes everything automatically the first time around. you may also want to install the WOT and adblock plus plugins for your browser, just for a bit of future proofing.

 

[Boozad]

Every time my wife opens a new tab on Firefox she gets a warning that the redirection is dodgy. The URL is http://homepage-web.com/?s=acer&m=tab and from further investigation it seems that this is a form of browser hijack from some malware. Thing is, she hasn't downloaded any software or similar - two document attachments is all, apparently - and having run a McAfee virus scan nothing is flagged up as amiss.

I've looked online at Avira and Norton for "homepage-web.com" and they return nothing either, however if you Google the partial URL there are a lot of forum-related instructions on how to remove it, mainly involving downloading some form of malware remover. This is what is troubling me - nothing on the 'name' websites yet lots of instructions to download and install something and it's left me wondering if these helpful links are in fact links which will result in acquiring more bad stuff? Anyone with any idea?

Download MalwareBytes and run a scan, if it's malware it will root it out and get rid of it. I run scans with it every week, it's a great program and I'd recommend it for anybody's regular PC maintenance routine. When you install it make sure to uncheck the Enable Free Trial box in the window that opens following the installation (see the picture below).



It may also be worth installing and running SuperAntiSpyware and giving that a run. Once it's finished its scan make sure to close it down in the notification area and remove it from your Startup programs too. I only ever run it on demand and shut it down after use.

 

[broughtonwolf]

I also use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) in addition to my anti-virus program.

In fact I use three programs in total

AVG Internet Security (Paid version but free also available)
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (Freeware)
Spybot S & D Anti-Spyware (Freeware)

The AVG runs weekly automatically as well as real time protecting but I generally find that if I run MBAM and SPYBOT periodically one after the other after AVG has run they will find things the other hasn't as they are looking for different things so it is a belts and braces approach. I have been told that it is not advisable to run the programs simultaneously as they can conflict with each other.

 

[Freddeno]

yeah Malwarebytes is ace and the way to go, i use that and avast free anti-virus..

 

[t3ch]

yeah Malwarebytes is ace and the way to go, i use that and avast free anti-virus..

:nod:

 

[Freddeno]

:nod:

read your post above, im currently using adblock add-on but havent tried WOT, will try it out now

 

[Wombat del combate]

Yeah, I've got Malwarebytes and Spybot in addition to Avira AV and a Comodo firewall on my box. I'll grab the first two and have a go at sorting the good lady's out this afternoon. Still no idea where it's come from though - she only uses it for Facebook, e-mail and writing timetables/invoices.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I have a bit of an issue which is causing me to scratch my head (not nits).

Got some new games at Christmas, installed them all, tidied other stuff up, left around 36GB or so on my hard drive. Then mysteriously mid way through January I was down to 19GB - nothing new installed, save games are hardly going to be responsible. Got rid of some more stuff last week to get back to 27GB. Was still showing as that last night (I know as I looked at the C drive for something). Windows updated itself overnight - free space now 12GB.

I've had to pop out now but ran Ccleaner and Malwarebytes before I went out and neither flagged anything. Avast and McAfee are always running so nothing should really get through. It's not the hibernate file as I have that disabled.

Any ideas? I mean I could get rid of some other stuff, buy a flash drive etc but I'd rather not. Either something is causing the drive to report free space incorrectly or something somewhere has eaten over 30GB in the last six weeks, and I'd like to find the big fat greedy cunt.

 

[t3ch]

You could very well have several gigs worth of saves.

You may also want to check the update folders in your games. Not all applications delete their installation packages once downloaded, so you may have not only a bunch of patches installed, but a bunch of patch installs just sitting there. If a quick look isn't showing anything, a space analyzer can really help to see where your space is going.

http://lifehacker.com/5835082/five-best-hard-drive-space-analyzers

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Cheers mate. I will check the size of the save files later but of the new games I got, The Golf Club is all hosted online as far as I know and don't think F1/Grid Autosport will be taking up much. Also I'd started games on them all when the 36GB size was reported. And that doesn't explain 15GB going last night!

 

[t3ch]

read your post above, im currently using adblock add-on but havent tried WOT, will try it out now

WOT is a great little extra bit of protection. If you go to a poorly rated site it'll pop up and warn you for whatever reason. I've actually had it save me from a phishing site or two when I wasn't paying attention (normally when mistyping an address that gets redirected), and I'm not exactly unsavvy. Those are two plugins I always install for people at work after having to fix their virus problems.

Had a call last month where a coworker asked, "I'm trying to download firefox, so is the right address www.totallyfakefirefox.com or www.thisisavirusnotfirefoxlolol.net??" I obviously don't remember the exact addresses, but they were DEFINITELY blatant malware installations. WOT would've saved me some trouble with her! "Warning, fake downloads site, blah blah"

 

[t3ch]

Cheers mate. I will check the size of the save files later but of the new games I got, The Golf Club is all hosted online as far as I know and don't think F1/Grid Autosport will be taking up much. Also I'd started games on them all when the 36GB size was reported. And that doesn't explain 15GB going last night!

15gb overnight is a bit much, not sure how to explain that one away off the top of my head... :smashpc:

 

[Wombat del combate]

Scanned the laptop with Malwarebytes and Spybot and the former pulled up what appears to be a (the) browser hijack. Nothing on Spybot which I ran after though. Opening a new tab in Firefox still goes to the URL though although no warning from McAfee?

 

[t3ch]

did you check what I'd mentioned? it really could be as simple as just needing to adjust your homepage setting. malwarebytes, etc. will not fix your browser settings even if it successfully removes that stuff.

 

[Wombat del combate]

Yeah. The homepage is a blank Firefox page and the default search engine is Google. There is no option that I can see which enables one to choose a different search engine when opening a new tab nor does there seem to be any option on what a tab should do when opened. I haven't gone through the software aspect yet though.

It kind of reminds me of an issue I had when I updated Comodo and it set my searches to Yahoo, so perhaps something bundled in an Acer update pack has done the same.

 

[Wombat del combate]

Damned warning came back. This after I shut the machine down having thought I'd nearly cracked it. So, after some more searching for both add-ons (none) and rogue programs (also none), it seems that refreshing Firefox - which seems a bit like a not-quite-full-factory-reset - has done the trick, however I'll wait until turning it off and on again before declaring it a total success.

 

[SSB]

Windows has decided to update on my computer and now the fonts all look a little weird. Looks like it's a known issue with rendering. Cheers Microsoft.