404 pages getting directed.

[paulhthomas]

Hi all, please help, it's driving me insane. I have always beaten every piece virus / adware/ malware I've come up against, but not this one.

I've run adaware, spybot, HijackThis, CWShredder, TrendMicro Anti Spyware trial, Microsoft's Windows Defender (anti-spyware), and I'm running Mcafee VirusScan 8.0i with the anti spyware plugin.

all of these have foudn they're own little things, but I am still left with the annoyance of when I mis type a URL; instead of getting the old 404 error, I get redirected to

http://searchportal.information.com

The only app that still finds omething is:

http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestscan/index.htm

but you have to buy it before it'll remove it.

It finds the SavingsHound adware.
I've followed the following document on how to remove it manually but still no joy as none of the files existed.

http://www.nuker.com/container/details/savings_hound.php

Please help!

Thanks

Paul

 

[paulhthomas]

BTW, I don't really want to post my JT log on here because it's my work laptop and some stuff on there is confidential.
The only entry that I can't account for is.

O20 - AppInit_DLLs: HookDLL.DLL

 

[smah]

For 1 more opinion, try Panda's Activescan as mentioned in faq760-3862. If you're using Windows Defender, I'm going to guess that you're using IE6 on XPSP2. So, have you carefully dug through IE's 'manage add-ons' area? - Internet Options, Programs, Manage Add-Ons. You can use trial & error to selectively disable IE's add-ons. With some testing, this might help you find the problem files.

 

[paulhthomas]

yeah, no add ones that I don't know about.will try panda now and let you knpow how I get on.

Cheers

 

[paulhthomas]

well,all that found was cookies. bugger!

 

[paulhthomas]

ok, I've come into work this morning and everything seems to be ok. hmmmm, weird.
Perhaps it just needed a efw reboots to clear all the stuff that all the above programs found?

 

[sggaunt]

paulhthomas:
If you dont want to show everything, you can get HJT to ignore stuff that you know is safe, use this feature to hide the private stuff. Or just edit the log.

Steve: Delphi a feersum engin indeed.

 

[paulhthomas]

well, I thought it had done, used the laptop all day and it's just start doing it again????

 

[smah]

Is there a proxy server involved? What are you IE search settings? - Internet Options, Advanced tab, When Searching...

 

[paulhthomas]

no proxy server, IE is set to Automatically Detect Settings

Ah, Under Advanced Settings, it's set to,
"Just Go To Most Likely Site"

Do you think that could be it??

I've tried mistyping a url this morning and got the 404 page; with that setting as above.

Thanks

Paul

 

[smah]

If you're not using a proxy server, you should remove the 'automatically detect settings' option - it tends to cause more problems than it solves. As for the searching from the address bar, it might be worth trying a different setting like 'Just display the results in the main window', that way if this is the condition that is happening, at least you'll know it.

 

[paulhthomas]

nah, hasn't worked. bu tit does to only be when I'm at home and not using it in work, weirdly!