Firefox google links redirected

Finally, I find someone else who has the same problem as me.

Last week, my Google searches began taking me different links than what was in them and the first thing I did was try and do system restore, but all the restore points were gone. I then uninstalled my McAfee antivirus package and installed a 30-day trial version of Kaspersky and have run several scans, with no results. I even installed Firefox and started using it, assuming that IE was to blame for the malware let-in. Now, I'm just trying to find a viable solution to my problem, and I hope that this is where this post is headed.

I'll just hang here and observe, while keeping my fingers crossed that you can find a fix.

Hi budwiser,

Welcome to A2K. I haven't had a chance yet to try the mal ware sites that Robert suggested. I hope to do it later today.

I tried to think if there was anything that I installed or updated recently and the only thing that comes to mind is an update to Full Tilt Poker. I got a zone alarm warning at the time but I loaded it anyway because I had been using FTP for ages. Have you had any updates lately?

wow everything you are experiencing jpb is whats going down on my computer... it just started today too... cant figure out where it came from or what it is or anything so hopefully someone here can

This is popping up all over the internet with some hits on Macs as well. Several sites say it is a DNS server hijacker. If you pull up a command screen and type in "ipconfig /all", what do you get? Robert asked this a few posts back, but I didn't see the reply.

Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : mybox

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-8B-73-3D-1A

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : [would rather not post this]

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.10.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.10.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.10.1

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, June 29, 2009 12:45:59 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, July 06, 2009 12:45:59 PM

One easy way to tell if it is DNS or browser level is to disable javascript in Firefox and see if it still happens. The overlay file I mentioned earlier has onclick events for search engines, and with javascript disabled it should break it (of course, this is not a solution to the problem, just one way to get the symptom to stop).

found a solution that worked for me... i downloaded malwarebytes and ran the scan found a whole bunch of things and deleted them all so im not sure which one it was but i no longer have that issue after i deleted all the malware...

Nice, make sure to reboot to see if it missed anything. Often the main malware installation will be found, but there will be another that just checks for the existence of the malware on reboot and reinstalls it if it has been removed.

malwarebytes found nothing on my system. I'm moving on to some of the other one's on Rob's list.

I'm getting incredibly frustrated... found some adware cookies but removing them did nothing. I should also not that I started having some hard crash "blue screen" errors about the same time I noticed this problem.


How do I disable javascript?

Also, in the config file posted above the DNS configs are both empty. Is that normal?

I've never seen them remove any cookies that actually make you much more secure, they just tend to target all the ad network cookies so that they can show more "hits" than competing software. Makes em look better but really doesn't fix anything, so you can feel free to ignore any cookie-based threats they say they find.

Edit: also make sure to update the anti-malware programs before scanning, this may be a recent piece of malware so you might need new malware definitions to find them.



This reminds me, are you running the scans in safe mode? If not, they sometimes won't work well if the malware is smart enough to target the security software.

If the removal of the malware proves too frustrating there's also a clean install as an option, which can often be easier as long as you have backups and all your installed programs available to reinstall.



Tools > Options > Content > Uncheck "Enable Javascript"

well whatever i removed didnt completely solve the problem but made it better... now when i search i only get redirected every once in a while...

combofix fixed it for me so far.

Ironically, I noticed this problem the very next day after my wife used my computer (which she doesn't normally do) to search for and download free clipart graphics. Now, I'm not saying it was her that did this, but... LOL! could have just as easily been me accidentally clicking on something on a website, I suppose.

same here.

combo fix is available from Major Geeks.

Mind you I had some trouble getting into the Major geeks site as i kept getting redirected.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

I suggest you run their "read and run me first" thread
It seems quite involved but that is mostly to idiot proof their explanations.

SUCCESS!!!

Thanks, everyone. I'd already run the first couple programs in their list from Robert's suggestions but I reran them following their "quite involved" (you can say that again) directions to the letter. Combofix was the winner here too but from the sounds of their warnings, I wouldn't run it without their procedures.

I just spent another three days trying to sort out a malware program called "System Security 2009" What A Pain In The Ass!!!

It completely took over my pc resulting in blue screens about 80% of the time at bootup (100% in safe mode), disallowed any programs from running including internet access and applications on my system, and took over my desk top and flashed full screen warnings that they were distributing my personal info and wouldn't stop until I bought their product. There is no product. In researching this bastid (using my daughter's mac), I discovered stories where people actually paid the $59.99 requested in an attempt to buy their way free. Unfortunately, they gave up their cc info to a scam and still had the problem.

I just want to say that I got tremendous free support at geekpolice.com and would recommend them to anyone who runs into virus/malware problems.

The Major Geeks site linked above also has good one-on-one support but the geekpolice folks seem to be much more patient with those who are less technical and knowledgeable.

edit to above... it's geekpolice.net not .com

Hi all

For what ever reason my Firefox Google searches always got redirected to a Google search result for HP (Hewlard Packard). Funny thing is I could go one page back and find the search results I was looking for. It's as if Google had performed 2 searches...

I ran several anti-virus scans and malware scans in safe-mode but came up clean.

I then figured it had something to do with Firefox updating to 3.5.2 since Yahoo searches didn't have this problem and IE8 didn't either.

So I started up Firefox in safemode and tried a Google search.
The result page was exactly what I typed in. No more HP!

So I restarted Firefox again in safemode and disabled all addons.

I then started to enable the addons 1 by 1 and after each time I checked to make sure Google searches weren't being redirected in any way.

I have all my addons enabled and Google searches work fine now. No more redirects.

If you don't hear from me again, it means my Google searches are fine and it had to be some sort of addon mishap (I hope).

Some malware attacked my Google searches last week. I tried a couple programs to root it out but failed. Then I read Robert's post on Mozilla add-ons. I dumped the Google tool bar and presto! Problem gone.
Tip O' The Hat