IE & Google searches - being re-directed to porn site

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sadie

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In the recent few weeks, sometimes when I am doing a search in Google using Internet Explorer - when I get a list of search options and click one, it seems to re-direct me to different sites which have nothing to do with the shortcut I've clicked on. Occasionally these are explicit porn photo sites which are disturbing and unwelcome.
It even happens when I'm clicking on a shortcut that I know and use often. You can see that IE is taking ages to open the page and is re-directing to some other site.
(BTW I've also got BING installed as well and this seems to be much faster because Google seems really slow lately in general.)
Is this a virus on my computer or is can advertisers arrange with Google to re-direct to their sites??? So it is an IE problem, a Google problem or a Virus?
 
Have you tried using firefox instead to try to isolate it as just an IE problem? Having said that i'd be surprised if FF didnt exhibt the same problems as it sounds like a virus.

I use http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and find it very good.

How did you "install" Bing? Is it not just a search engine site ala google.com? Bing does seem faster alright but the results (IMO) are rubbish, similar to AltaVista etc.
 
Do many users have access to your PC?

This type of redirection is not an uncommon problem for occasional visitors to adult sites. It's also not uncommon for AV not to pick it up.
 
From the little I know about technology, it sounds like you might have malware or spyware. If you got to www.download.com, you can download some good, free malware removal software which will hopefully do the job.
 
sadie said:
In the recent few weeks, sometimes when I am doing a search in Google using Internet Explorer - when I get a list of search options and click one, it seems to re-direct me to different sites which have nothing to do with the shortcut I've clicked on. Occasionally these are explicit porn photo sites which are disturbing and unwelcome.
It even happens when I'm clicking on a shortcut that I know and use often. You can see that IE is taking ages to open the page and is re-directing to some other site.
(BTW I've also got BING installed as well and this seems to be much faster because Google seems really slow lately in general.)
Is this a virus on my computer or is can advertisers arrange with Google to re-direct to their sites??? So it is an IE problem, a Google problem or a Virus?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have some sort of adware on your PC Sadie. The best software I've used to protect myself from this kind of stuff is 'Spybot S&D' and 'Avira Anti-virus'. Both are FREE and available from www.download.com I would recommend downloading both and then doing a scan on your computer.

If that doesn't clear it I would suggest opening windows in 'Safe mode' (press F8 a few times when your computer is starting) and doing a scan also.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for advice. I went to downloads.com and installed malwarebytes antimalware. It found 3 trojans (they were actually named trojan in the file name). Trojan redirect something or other. And a couple of registery files in the Firewall software were also picked out. So I deleted the bad files.
I had to re-update my CA Antivirus afterwards. Maybe that was because the virus files had corrupted them?
All seems okay now.
I've pasted below some of the log for those of you interested:

Registry Data Items Infected:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\aux6 (Trojan.JSRedir.H) -> Bad: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\..\bkqq.jqj) Good: (wdmaud.drv) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\AntiVirusDisableNotify (Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\FirewallDisableNotify (Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
Folders Infected:
(No malicious items detected)
Files Infected:
C:\WINDOWS\bkqq.jqj (Trojan.JSRedir.H) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
C:\WINDOWS\system32\5QSTE256.exe.a_a (Trojan.Agent) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
 
sadie said:
Thanks for advice. I went to downloads.com and installed malwarebytes antimalware. It found 3 trojans (they were actually named trojan in the file name). Trojan redirect something or other. And a couple of registery files in the Firewall software were also picked out. So I deleted the bad files.
I had to re-update my CA Antivirus afterwards. Maybe that was because the virus files had corrupted them?
All seems okay now.
Click to expand...

Good to hear everything is okay Sadie. I would still recommend installing Spybot S&D though as it is recognised as the most effective any malware program out there and is completely free.

In any case I'm glad to hear the re-directs are gone.
 
Thanks KRM I will do. If I install that Spybot will it interfere with my existing Antivirus or do they work separately.
 
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