What is...?

[punkin8tor]

I had something hijack my internet explorer and I don't know how to get rid of it.
What is "treestomper.net"? Everytime I try to get online through my profile, the above tries to make msn go there instead of the where it should go. I told it no and now I can't use the internet from my screen.
What do I do?

[Spock]

On our Links\Freeware\Security page there is a link to Merijn's HijackThis program.

If you download it, run it, and send the resulting file I can try to tell you what to do with the information and how to remove the hijacking programs.

There is another forum, PC Answers that has an entire forum set aside to answer HijackThis questions. It might be faster to go there. [;)]

[punkin8tor]

thanks. I'll try one or both of those. The problem is: Since I can't even get onto the net from my screen I don't know how well it will work. I'll try though.

[Spock]

Have Steve DL them at work and bring them home on a CD?

[punkin8tor]

Um. Sure, if he has time. He will be training for a new position soon. (Yay) [:D]
Thanks.

[Spock]

He could always DL them at home, on his partition, and transfer them to your partition for you to run ...

[Tarmithius]

I would like to recommend Microsoft's Spyware Software (beta). Currently it is in beta form but already it detects most malware, spyware, adware out there. It also gives you the option to reset your browser back to its original state if you've been hijacked.

Another good thing about it is that you can have it reside in your system's tray and catch stuff realtime.

[Spock]

My personal preference is never to recommend anything that is still in it's testing phase (which is what a beta product is) as there are too many things that could go wrong that a new and/or novice user would not know how to fix. Microsoft's Spyware Software may end up being the best of the best but I am going to wait to see how it performs before I recommend it to others, especially my students. [:O]

Since it is currently a free download, you could always get your own copy and test it yourself but if you have no experience with other such packages to compare it to you may be at a disadvantage in determining if it is really doing as good a job as MS says it is. I have found that none of the programs are perfect, so tend to run multiple layers of protection, something I talk about in the Internet Security portion of the class.

[Tarmithius]

The original company that MS bought released the software under a different name, which was not a beta. When MS bought them they added a few new features therefore the beta status.

[Luke]

I have to agree with Spock, I thought the basic purpose of Beta releases is for companies to work through bugs in the software, through large scale testing done by general use. Therefore I would not recommend beta releases of any software to inexperienced users, especially for something as crucial as internet security. I have not tried the new spyware beta, but have used beta versions of several other microsoft products, and in all cases I have had problems, if I didn't know how to sort them it wouldn't have been a big issue as I could live without the software, but it would be unwise for inexperienced users to rely on a beta release in this instance.

[Tarmithius]

I also think about betas in the same way until I read quite a few reviews by respectable sites stating that it is a fairly good program.

Here are a few sites that I have read the reveiw at:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1715
http://www.download.com/Microsoft-Windo ... 53596.html

Personally you can make your own judgement, but I have not had a single issue running this program on my pc. I run Win XP Pro SP2. I also use Ad-aware and spybot search and destroy in conjunction with the MS product. You can never be too careful these days.

[Icy]

I had something hijack my internet explorer and I don't know how to get rid of it.

I've had my computer hijacked several times over the years. One time it took me 10 hrs to get my system back to normal. Another time I had to restore my computer. Sorry I don't have any spyware protection I can really say works great. Currently I use the yahoo anti spyware they provide for free on their tool bar (no problems so far). Good luck getting rid of it. Let us know how it goes.

[Tarmithius]

The best thing about the MS tool is it does what other spyware removal programs seem not to do. It restores your internet explorer to its default settings. I have had to use it on several occasions on some coworkers PCs and then told them to stay away from IE.

I am a diehard Firefox user, and recommend it highly.

[Spock]

... I am a diehard Firefox user, and recommend it highly.

In that case, why not give us a positive review of Firefox over in our PCTalk Internet\Browsers forum? I feel it is much better to give a positive review of something you like than a negative review of something you don't ... though I have been known to spout off against certain things at times ... [roll]

If familiar with multiple browsers, you could even give us a point for point comparison or bring up the strong points of Firefox and someone who likes IE (Walts?) could comment on those same points for IE and add his/her own points for further comparison.

I feel the more diverse information we offer to our users the better prepared they will be to make their own, informed decisions.

[Ben Last]

I have used Firefox at my college, and don't mind it. I would consider using it at home but haven't had any problems with IE so will save the HDD space! (Until something does that is!)

I've never tried beta software, although I would consider trying it. But would try it on an old pc first if I could, and wouldn't try any beta software I hadnt been reccommended.

I try not to install much software anyway, as it fills up disk space, and trials never uninstall properly etc...

[Tarmithius]

I have used Firefox at my college, and don't mind it. I would consider using it at home but haven't had any problems with IE so will save the HDD space! (Until something does that is!)

I've never tried beta software, although I would consider trying it. But would try it on an old pc first if I could, and wouldn't try any beta software I hadnt been reccommended.

I try not to install much software anyway, as it fills up disk space, and trials never uninstall properly etc...

I am quite the opposite in that I like to try different software, beit beta or not. I am pretty good at maintaining my system so I have no worries about it.

I owuld like to add that because the MS software states it is beta does not necessarily mean it is not a complete software package.