Re: Grrr... aargh! Scream! Cannot access sites I used to

From: Chris A. Kusmierz (a_at_b.com)
Date: 03/01/05 

Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 15:42:40 -0500

Maybe your hosts file was altered?

http://accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

HTH
Chris

"Lynda Jean Harlow" <lyndajean2003@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:jvg921pa7rksrroimf5ogetheebb6q694g@4ax.com...
> Running XP Pro on a 2.1GHz AMD PC with 512MB RAM, 120GB Drive, CD,
> CD-RW...
>
> PROBLEM: I used to go to several sites regularly and can no longer
> access them (browser says it found page, downloading page, then goes
> to a white screen and it says done). Thought maybe the site was down,
> but it pulled up fine on my Mac and another PC.
>
> This issue happened after being hit by several viruses (including
> haxdoor.k (shudder)) and my browser hijacked, and 35 ad/spyware
> installed (see issue below called VENT).
>
> It's not a firewall issue, because I can access the sites with Firefox
> (which I used to use all the time until I found it has java/javascript
> problems). The issue seems to be with IE .
>
> I've tried everything, including winsock fixes, but nothing seems to
> allow me to go to those pages.
>
> What to do?
>
> Jammer
>
> VENT:
> Last Wednesday, (2/23) I went to a site that was very bad to me. In a
> matter of seconds my MSAS (MS Antispyware) went crazy, Zone Alarm
> popped up and my system shut down. On restart, XP Pro ran like
> molasses and I got constant Zone Alarm and MSAS windows. I ran MSAS
> and the system rebooted (everytime!). The hijacked page goes to a site
> that downloads a file and executes it (discovered the downloading on a
> Mac, didn't see it happening on the PC).
>
> Ran TrendMicro Virus scanning and found 15 virii (clean on Monday
> previous). One, haxdoor.k, was the hardest to remove. It took two days
> to clean my system.
>
> Once haxdoor.k was discovered, I searched for how to remove it. Two
> days later it was gone (not the easiest to remove, but once you find
> all the files, remove them, edit the registry and keep trying it
> eventually goes away).
>
> Ran Windows updates all the way through SP2. Some programs now fail to
> run properly.
>
> I was glad to go home on Friday. Monday, 2/28, I ran MSAS and it's
> like it was the first time it was installed (going through the 4 or 5
> step setup process) and I was constantly getting notification
> (everytime I closed the message, denying the intrusion) that my
> internet security was being set to low.
>
> When I didn't run MSAS I never got those messages. I went into safe
> mode and manually removed MSAS from the Program Files, and ran
> RegMechanic to clean the registry. Rebooted and reinstalled MSAS and
> everything works okay except my programs and browsing issue.
>
> I have to now reinstall MS XP Office, Adobe CS... and several other
> packages.
>
>