OT, but important: http://diystompboxes.com

[NaBo]

I just typed "diystompboxes.com" into my address bar, and IE was doing its thing and going through possible prefixes.  It tries adding "http://" first, and to my surprise it brought me to a blank webpage that attempted to give me some trojan horses...  :?

For the record, "http://www.diystompboxes.com" brings you to Aron's frontpage/intro...

Then, I noticed the address of this forum works without the "www." (eg http://diystompboxes.com/forums/stompboxforum brings you here)

So what's going on???  Hacked again or something?  Or is this some malicious imposter site?  WHY?

[ibanezts808]

what you have my friend is a bad case of spyware.  I've had those ones before too.  lol, I'm a comp nerd too.  To remedy most of them go to downloads.com and download adaware and spybot search and destroy.  I use both of those programs.  they are really good.  spyware has become a huge epidemic, the most annoying one for me changes the results in google to a bunch of their ads.  but good luck.  It is quite a nuisance, I spend about 3 hours a month cleaning spyware off my comp.    :evil:

[niftydog]

http://diystompboxes.com/ takes me to Arons Flash intro screen.

[travissk]

As it should. Definitely grab free tools like ad-aware and spybot (and possibly some lower-level specialty stuff like HijackThis if you have a good idea about what processes should be running).

Essentially, what's happening is that there is some malware in your system that is changing the way IE attempts to find alternate URL's... it does attempt to just add http://, but at some point you're redirected.

My guess is that your problem lies in your "hosts" file which helps windows handle some of this stuff. You can find that file somewhere off your windows directory (depends which version you're running) and open it up in notepad.

If, however, you have spyware, clearing the bad stuff out of that file and saving will be good for about 10 seconds before the spyware swoops back in and saves its own version. Definitely run ad-aware and spybot and see what they uncover.

Good luck!

[travissk]

update - I got redirected to that page as well on a computer here in lab. I can't duplicate it, either on the lab computer or on my account (logged into my own machine using remote desktop)

I think these get re-imaged automatically every night, so perhaps the problem isn't just spyware. In any case, it's best to keep up-to-date against the malware out there.

[radio]

same like niftydog

flash screen each time with every browser

Greetings JMErnzer

[NaBo]

:roll:  Figures.  It's my parent's computer...

To my credit, I DID try typing in a few other sites like that before posting, but they all brought me to the right place.  Weird to say the least, but if thats what spyware would do (never had much experience with it on my own computer ), it must be the case.

[The Tone God]

1. Use Firefox instead of that boarderline useless P.O.S. IE.

2. Don't use Outlook for mail. Thunderbird is an excellent replacement.

Don't trust anything from MS. Viva la open source.

Andrew

[nelson]

1. Use Firefox instead of that boarderline useless P.O.S. IE.

2. Don't use Outlook for mail. Thunderbird is an excellent replacement.

Don't trust anything from MS. Viva la open source.

Andrew

AMEN

[ibanezts808]

1. Use Firefox instead of that boarderline useless P.O.S. IE.

2. Don't use Outlook for mail. Thunderbird is an excellent replacement.

Don't trust anything from MS. Viva la open source.

Andrew

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

[soundcollage]

get a mac

[puretube]

1. Use Firefox instead of that boarderline useless P.O.S. IE.

2. Don't use Outlook for mail. Thunderbird is an excellent replacement.

Don't trust anything from MS. Viva la open source.

Andrew

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=32820

[Ed G.]

A browser hijacker can be a very persistent and aggravating thing. If you get a good spyware software program, the best thing to do is to restart your computer in safe mode and run the program. Otherwise, it might be unable to totally remove everything. Better yet, use system restore.

[Dai H.]

try this one too. Seems pretty good even though it's from MS.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

[Hal]

weird, some web sites do that.

upenn.edu gives you nothing
www.upenn.edu works.

[The Tone God]

That MS spyware "product" was something that MS aquire through a buyout so they didn't create it in house. They could just solve the problem with their software but thats not what they are about (and alot of other companies too.) Knowing MS they will go ahead and screw it up. I've already heard that they were going to give it and the updates away for free but now it sounds like they are going to charge for the updates. I smell a rotting corporate corpse. Beware.

The missing "www" or even missing "http://" behavour is something I've seen in IE only. I think sometimes IE wants everything spelt out for as it seems to be too stupied to figure it out or even attempt to follow published standards which is something IE has historically be lacking and will continue to from the report on IE7 which BTW will not be availible to anyone using anything less then 2000. :::sniff, sniff::: Corpse.

Andrew

[Dai H.]

maybe another browser would be good. Mozilla firefox seemed easy to transition to (similar look), least for me.

[vanhansen]

weird, some web sites do that.

upenn.edu gives you nothing
www.upenn.edu works.

Not weird, normal.  It all depends on how the owner of the domain name registered it.  Just because www.domain.com works doesn't mean domain.com will go to the same place.

[B Tremblay]

Whether the absence of www works or not is not affected by registration, but rather the configuration of the server that hosts the site.

[ibanezts808]

1. Use Firefox instead of that boarderline useless P.O.S. IE.

2. Don't use Outlook for mail. Thunderbird is an excellent replacement.

Don't trust anything from MS. Viva la open source.

Andrew

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=32820

was that really all that important?  If so, I can simply apologize, I'm sorry.  Hate to ruin someones day.