HIJACK! (No, not THAT kind!)

various | Today | Me

[Long Cut]

Do you have a link for the extensions?

I might just have to buy a mouse. This touchpad gives me grief in many ways. However, I'm not sure that it'll work, either.

[litehaus]

Go to mozilla.org and get firefox, you'll laugh out loud at the speed when u compare it to IE.....Been using mozilla and now firefox for some time and there is NO comparison..

[Long Cut]

I got it last night! It is indeed an vast improvememt. Aside from the scrolling issues, that is, and I'm working on those.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Do you have a link for the extensions?

You should have a link to the Extension area on your links bar...just above your tabs on the left. It's called "Firefox Help". On that page there is a link on the left about halfway down called "Extensions".

If not, here's a link:

Firefox extensions

[Don Joe]

If these types of attacks start appearing in the Linux world, they will be much easier to get rid of than the windows variants because of the way that Linux and X works. Unless you are a complete moron and run as root, then cleaning up after these attacks will be a matter of deleting a few lines from a few text files. Programs executed as a user simply can't attack in places that would be hard to get rid of unless they find some new local root exploits to do their dirty work.

This is the same philosophy that convinced passengers to board the "unsinkable" Titanic.

[Don Joe]

You don't know the half of it. The hosts file is searched BEFORE DNS, so a bad guy could easily insert an entry like www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com in your hosts file, which then sends you to an alternate "bad guy" site, and you could unknowingly enter your username and password.

Lock it.

Look at the "Locking the HOSTS File" section on this page at mvps.org, and download the two batch files to lock and unlock your hosts file. (You can just do it manually via command line, but the batch files make it easier.)

Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File</a

[Don Joe]

PS: the mvps.org site has a nice ready-to-roll HOSTS file you can download.

You can read about it (and download it) from here: http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Or, if you just want to grab it straightaway (and already know where it goes), it's here: http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt

[JoJo Gunn]

I was thinking the same thing. SpybotS&D, for instance, can make a protected hosts file (though it's not a default. You have to manually do it, and can delete it if there's a problem).

Here's a partial example:

# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy
127.0.0.1 coolwwwsearch.com
127.0.0.1 coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 hi.studioaperto.net
127.0.0.1 www.webbrowser.tv
127.0.0.1 www.wazzupnet.com
127.0.0.1 gueb.com
127.0.0.1 kabex.com
127.0.0.1 www.hityou.com
127.0.0.1 miosearch.com
127.0.0.1 wazzupnet.com
127.0.0.1 213.131.225.2....

# This list is Copyright 2000-2004 Patrick M. Kolla / Safer Networking Limited
# End of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy

[Long Cut]

Ping!!!!!!!!!!!

[zeugma]

I'm not sure quite what you mean. Is the scrollbar broken? I haven't had any trouble with scrolling in mozilla. I use a mouse with a scrollwheel at home and work, and it seems to work fine to me.

[Long Cut]

Nope, on my laptop there's an up/down button right between the lef/right click buttons. Also, it's supposed to scroll if you put your finger on the extreme right of the touchpad.

All of the above work fine in IE and on regular programs, but not in Firefox. I still can't figure it out.

[Long Cut]

Okay, I fixed the scroll problem...all I had to do was download the newest touchpad drivers from Synaptec's website, and no more troubles!

It's all set now, and it works great!

[mylife]

Great! Firefox is making me happy so far..some things have changed, but the benefits beat the drawbacks so far!

[Long Cut]

FIREFOX BTT!!!!!

[TheLion]

Thanks...was looking for something like this. If you don't block registry changes, it is a vicious circle!

I'll go find it.

[GBA]

Here's a "Thanks for the valuable info!" BUMP!

[Long Cut]

You're very welcome. It seems this thread has helped many with t5hese problems, certainly including myself.

[Long Cut]

Okay, time for an update to this thread...

On the advice of some trusty FReepers, I installed Mozilla's FIREFOX browser, and made it my default. This also required a trip to my touchpad's manufacturer's website to download their latest drivers, so the Synaptec touchpad will work properly with Firefox. All in all, about two hour's work with a dialup connection.

What a doll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surfing is now noticeably faster, as are downloads and graphics. There has been no trace of a popup OR a hijack for over a week now. And tabbed browsing is, in fact, a joy. Daily runs of ad-aware and Spybot have turned up NO SPYWARE, ADWARE, OR MALWARE at all for the past seven days, and that includes one evening when I actually TRIED (don't ask how) to get some! Going online has indeed become pleasant again.

However, a few iggies...

Internet Explorer still has access to the 'net after you download Firefox. A brief search found some stuff it had gotten on its lonesome, apparently. No sweat...I merely instructed my Zone Alarm to block all Internet access to that program. No more problems.

Moral? Even if you use Mozilla's excellent products, keep your firewalls and "guard" programs. Mozilla might be immune, but IE still provides backdoors to the bad guys. I did note that IE's homepage was changed by a BHO today (Browser Hijack Blaster kindly informed me whilst it tore the offender out by the roots), but had I not been notified, it's doubtful I'd have noticed. Thus, other things might have happened. If ZA doesn't seal it off, I'll simply delete IE.

Thanks again for all the advice and patience to us novices and nuggets here! I truly hope that as many have been helped as I was, and without the headaches.

[TankerKC]

I've been having a hell of a time with ebates.com MoeMoney maker. I'v ehad a nasty exchange of email with the freaks in their "customer service" area. If I they were in my city, I'd beat the hell out oe 'em.

[Long Cut]

Please, tell your story here. Give all the details, too...your experience may help another.