Why is Scroogle the only search engine which doesn't either fail to load the chosen website or re-directs me to a site that I don't want?
If I use any search engine other than Scroogle (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), any choice from the resultant list of websites either refuses to load (Page cannot be displayed, 404, etc.) or re-directs me to a site which has nothing to do with my choice. If I use Scroogle, when I click on a link the page opens instantly and it is always the correct one. Also, each time I open Firefox, either to my home page or a tab, it displays a banner informing me that "Firefox prevented this page from automatically redirecting to another page".
All these problems have been recent, within the last week or so. I can't think of anything I've done or anywhere I've been web-wise that correlates with the start of the problem.
Any help will be appreciated.
All Replies (3)
Sounds like Malware or a RootKit infection.
Install, update, and run these programs in this order. (Not all programs detect the same Malware.) They are all free for personal use, but some have limited functionality in the "free mode" - but those are features you really don't need to find and remove the problem that you have.
Note: If your Malware infection is bad enough and you are mis-directed to URL's other than what is posted, you may have to use a different PC to download these programs and use a USB stick to transfer them to the afflicted PC.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
SuperAntispyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/
AdAware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
If these don't find it or can't clear it, post in one of these forums for specialized help:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/index.php
http://forum.aumha.org/
http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/
http://bleepingcomputer.com
Your browser has been hijacked. You can test it by going to any search site besides scroogle and looking up antivirus, malware removal, or any other term like that. It will show you the results but you wont be able to go to any of those pages. In my opinion this is the worst kind of virus because it is so hard to get rid of. You'll remove it and it will self replicate and you'll have it again. Scroogle works because it acts as a proxy between you and the search site google. Follow that guys directions who replied before me. When that doesn't work try to get a copy of Stopzilla antivirus. I had my browser hijacked once and that got rid of it. If that doesnt work, download the Comodo web browser. They give away a month of free Geekbuddy assistance with their browser. Use it. Chances are you will have to contact an IT proffesional of some sort anyway. But you'll never feel really clean again and you'll become paranoid about using the web and you'll get every popup blocker and java script stopper there is. But that still won't be enough and you'll dump windows altogether becuase there just are'nt that many viruses that work on Linux.... oh wait.. that was me...
Thanks for the help, folks. Shortly after I sent this message, I ran a full scan with Kaspersky (a seemingly interminable process) and the problem seems to have gone away. I found after the scan that Kaspersky had dumped a large number of files, but I'm not familiar enough with the bad stuff to tell you what it was. I should do it more often (run the scan, then cleaner and defrag) because everything is faster and there don't seem to be any more browser problems. I rarely use any search engine other than Scroogle, but my wife won't use it (???) and she hasn't had any problems with Google.
Again, thanks and keep up the good work.