Check the pref keyword.URL on the about:config page. You can modify the pref keyword.URL on the about:config page to use Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" or Google's "Browse By Name".

• Google "I'm Feeling Lucky": http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
• Google "Browse by Name": http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/keyword.URL
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Location_Bar_search

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

• Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
• Preferences that have been modified show as bold (user set).
• Preferences can be reset to the default via the right-click context menu if they are user set
• Preferences can be changed via the right-click context menu: Modify (String or Integer) or Toggle (Boolean)

I checked the keyword.URL thing, set it to google as you said, but it did not solve the problem. The problem still exists as it was. the following link still opens up : "http://search.sify.com/index5.php" & says Sorry, the website you were looking for is unavailable, as before. It is really very irritating when it happens. :( Thanks for the reply anyways :)...

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

• Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
• http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Started Firefox in the Safe Mode, as you suggested. But the problem still persists. Did a scan for viruses with MS Security Essentials & Norton Endpoint Protection. No malwares detected. Also uninstalled firefox completely, & re-installed it again by downloading it from firefox.com. But, the problem still persists!!!!! I am attaching a screenshot of the obnoxious page that shows up. For whatever keyword i enter in the address bar (or, the so called "awesome bar") & hit Enter , the result is that same @#$ page. Is there a way to block this address "http://search.sify.com/index5.php" so that it doesn't show up at all?

Do you remember installing any software before this started happening ??

Check in your Add/Remove programs in Control Panel and Uninstall any suspicious/unknown programs.

Nope.. nothing like that.. No unknown/suspicious programs in the Add/Remove programs Control Panel list...

Your Malware undetectable by most anti-malware programs (maybe because randomly named) is still present and has other hidden symptoms.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdoor_%28computing%29

If this Malware is a Rookit, try this free Kapersky's tool.

• http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208283363

Check and tell if its working.

Please check http://davinder.net/2012/01/solution-how-to-get-rid-of-google-chrome-search-pages-hijack-and-redirect-to-sify/ http://