OT: Google hacked?

D

David Nebenzahl

Guest
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?


--
Save the Planet
Kill Yourself

- motto of the Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
 
David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?
Click to expand...

Localhost is your computer. (Local + Host). If you are running
Windows, something has modified your hosts file. Either search for your
hosts file and wade through thousands of lines of text, or run a good
anti spyware program like Ad-Aware from Lavasoft, or Spybot Search &
Destroy from 'Safer Networking'.

--
And another motherboard bites the dust!
 
On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?
Click to expand...
Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/
 
On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/
Click to expand...
Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)


--
Save the Planet
Kill Yourself

- motto of the Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
 
David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)
Click to expand...
What AV do you use ? Do you have a firewall ?

Graham
 
On 4/10/2009 10:17 PM Eeyore spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is my
web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)

What AV do you use ? Do you have a firewall ?
Click to expand...
No AV (but I'm downloading PC Tools' free program now), and a free
firewall that works fine (Sygate).


--
Save the Planet
Kill Yourself

- motto of the Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
 
"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:49e03e31$0$2698$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...
On 4/10/2009 10:17 PM Eeyore spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is
my
web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)

What AV do you use ? Do you have a firewall ?

No AV (but I'm downloading PC Tools' free program now), and a free
firewall that works fine (Sygate).
Click to expand...

I used to use AVS and had for years, but the latest major revision has
become so top-heavy with unwanted 'features', that unless you have the
latest top-spec machine, it's use has become intrusive to the point of
making the machine run like a dog. Friend of mine who services and builds
computers for a living, put me onto Avast! which is another free one much in
the vein of the original AVS before they tried to get all clever with it. It
has full automatic daily updating of both the virus database *and* the
application, and just runs quietly and unobtrusively in the background. Has
a total of 7 operational 'modules' to monitor all the things that your
computer is involved in (web client, mail client, network client etc) Deals
with any virus detected with a large on-screen real-time warning, with all
the usual auto-heal and quarantining options, and it's 'advice' as to what
to do. A thoroughly good totally free program that I would heartily
recommend.

One slightly 'odd' thing is that it talks to you. If you have your sound on,
it will suddenly announce

"virus database has been updated"

And so on. Makes you jump the first time you hear it ... :)

Arfa
 
David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is
my web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)
Click to expand...
Here's an eye chart.
http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html

--
Adrian C
 
On 4/11/2009 2:34 AM Adrian C spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is
my web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)

Here's an eye chart.
http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html
Click to expand...
That's cute, and useful as well.

No, I didn't have any virii; PC Tools found one piece of "adware" which
it nuked. The not-being-able-to-reach-Google thing went away shortly
after I posted. All is well.


--
Save the Planet
Kill Yourself

- motto of the Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
 
On 4/11/2009 2:07 AM Arfa Daily spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:49e03e31$0$2698$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/10/2009 10:17 PM Eeyore spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 4/10/2009 7:46 PM Allodoxaphobia spake thus:

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:10:52 -0700, David Nebenzahl wrote:
When I try to reach Google, I get redirected to something called
http://localhost. Has someone hacked the mighty search engine, or is
my
web browser just going nuts?

Dave, meet Conficker.
Conficker, meat Dave. (sic) :-/

Hmmm; hope not, but better check anyhow. (Hey, at least I don't use
Internet Exploiter, with its big "INFECT ME!" sign.)

What AV do you use ? Do you have a firewall ?

No AV (but I'm downloading PC Tools' free program now), and a free
firewall that works fine (Sygate).

I used to use AVS and had for years, but the latest major revision has
become so top-heavy with unwanted 'features', that unless you have the
latest top-spec machine, it's use has become intrusive to the point of
making the machine run like a dog. Friend of mine who services and builds
computers for a living, put me onto Avast! which is another free one much in
the vein of the original AVS before they tried to get all clever with it. It
has full automatic daily updating of both the virus database *and* the
application, and just runs quietly and unobtrusively in the background. Has
a total of 7 operational 'modules' to monitor all the things that your
computer is involved in (web client, mail client, network client etc) Deals
with any virus detected with a large on-screen real-time warning, with all
the usual auto-heal and quarantining options, and it's 'advice' as to what
to do. A thoroughly good totally free program that I would heartily
recommend.

One slightly 'odd' thing is that it talks to you. If you have your sound on,
it will suddenly announce

"virus database has been updated"

And so on. Makes you jump the first time you hear it ... :)
Click to expand...
Urk!@!

Thanks for the tip; I ended up getting PC Tools' free AV, which found 1
piece of malware ("adware").

I'm with you; I've turned off the AV's "IntelliGuard" protection, as I
really don't need it and don't want to be slowed down. (Let's put it
this way; I use a condom while browsing, emailing and posting to
Usenet.) The only hitch was that after downloading PC Tools AV, when I
went to install it it told me I had to have SP 4 (I'm using W2K Pro), so
it was a toss-up between downloading SP4 or downloading Avast!, which
itself might require SP4, so I went ahead and got the update from
Micro$oft. Everything's once again copacetic.


--
Save the Planet
Kill Yourself

- motto of the Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
 
On Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:07:07 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

I used to use AVS and had for years, but the latest major revision has
become so top-heavy with unwanted 'features', that unless you have the
latest top-spec machine, it's use has become intrusive to the point of
making the machine run like a dog. Friend of mine who services and builds
computers for a living, put me onto Avast!
Click to expand...
I tried switching from AVG to Avast and ran into problems. With AVG,
if you scan for malware and it finds something, it continues scanning
and reports its actions at the end of the scan. Avast just stops when
it finds something and asks you what to do next. That's fine if
you're sitting there watching the machine for hours, but not so fine
if you run it overnight. I didn't find Avast any less obtrusive than
AVG.

One reason AVG 8.x is a heavy weight is that they added anti-spyware
features which were not present in 7.5. AVG 7.5 worked just fine for
viruses, but if you wanted to deal with spyware issues, you needed
some other program in addition to AVG 7.5. The result was that
scanning time for AVG 8.5 increased dramatically, but is about the
same as all the others.

AVG 8.x did introduce a truely obnoxious feature called "Safe Search".
This results in a large delay in displaying web pages as it looks up
every URL on the page. As a plug-in, it can be removed from the
browser after installation, but really should be user selectable.

Incidentally, my favorite free cleaup utilites are MalwareBytes and
SuperAntiSpyware:
<http://www.superantispyware.com>
<http://www.malwarebytes.org>
One or both of these should be able to clean out the OP's computah
from whatever vermin he's caught.

One slightly 'odd' thing is that it talks to you. If you have your sound on,
it will suddenly announce
Click to expand...
Yep. It also took me a while to decode the "cool looking" Avast
console that's made to look like a car radio.

And so on. Makes you jump the first time you hear it ... :)
Click to expand...
Ummm... try turning down the volume.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:knm6u4h7rclcbf2t2sj90t292keotsvbgs@4ax.com...
On Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:07:07 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

I used to use AVS and had for years, but the latest major revision has
become so top-heavy with unwanted 'features', that unless you have the
latest top-spec machine, it's use has become intrusive to the point of
making the machine run like a dog. Friend of mine who services and builds
computers for a living, put me onto Avast!

I tried switching from AVG to Avast and ran into problems. With AVG,
if you scan for malware and it finds something, it continues scanning
and reports its actions at the end of the scan. Avast just stops when
it finds something and asks you what to do next. That's fine if
you're sitting there watching the machine for hours, but not so fine
if you run it overnight. I didn't find Avast any less obtrusive than
AVG.

One reason AVG 8.x is a heavy weight is that they added anti-spyware
features which were not present in 7.5. AVG 7.5 worked just fine for
viruses, but if you wanted to deal with spyware issues, you needed
some other program in addition to AVG 7.5. The result was that
scanning time for AVG 8.5 increased dramatically, but is about the
same as all the others.

AVG 8.x did introduce a truely obnoxious feature called "Safe Search".
This results in a large delay in displaying web pages as it looks up
every URL on the page. As a plug-in, it can be removed from the
browser after installation, but really should be user selectable.

Incidentally, my favorite free cleaup utilites are MalwareBytes and
SuperAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com
http://www.malwarebytes.org
One or both of these should be able to clean out the OP's computah
from whatever vermin he's caught.

One slightly 'odd' thing is that it talks to you. If you have your sound
on,
it will suddenly announce

Yep. It also took me a while to decode the "cool looking" Avast
console that's made to look like a car radio.

And so on. Makes you jump the first time you hear it ... :)

Ummm... try turning down the volume.
Click to expand...
I had always used AVG in conjunction with AdAware, and that had not posed
any problem to my machine at all. As far as I was concerned, AVG was for
virus detection and cure. That was what it was originally produced for, and
in that capacity, it worked very well. Then came the dire warnings that the
last "7" version was no longer going to be supported, and an upgrade to v 8.
was needed. I wish that I had realised that this wasn't actually going to
happen for a long time. The on-screen warnings made it seem imminent.
Upgrading to v 8. was the worst thing I ever did with it, and judging by the
many many negative comments that appeared on the forums in this regard, an
awful lot of other people felt this to be the case also.

When I did the initial installation scan under v 8. , I gave up and aborted
it at 13 hours. Also, the update and scan timing is no longer properly valid
in the freeware version, such that it goes into update or scan mode, pretty
much when it feels like it within a couple of hours either way of the
assigned time. This played absolute havoc with my auto backup software,
which runs every night at a fixed time. If AVG started a scan or update at
the same time, it crashed the backup.

Apart from all of this, the machine started running like a dog in general.
When I spoke to my friend who has a computer shop, and used to put AVG on
all machines that he built, as standard, he told me that he no longer did
so, because of all of the problems in v 8. and was now putting Avast! on
them all instead. I immediately removed AVG from my system, and put Avast!
on in its place. The machine's speed returned immediately to normal, and I
have had no further problems with the backups crashing. Over the few months
that I have been using it, it has trapped maybe three malicious incomings,
and successfully removed them for me.

As far as it talking to me, I don't have any problem with it doing that,
which requires turning down the volume, now I know that it does it, but
initially, I had no idea that it talked to you, so the first time it did it,
when I was sitting in front of the machine, it took me by surprise, and made
me jump ... !

Arfa
 
I, too, was very disappointed with AVG. I have used them for years.
Trying to open email was painfully slow. I finally removed all features
except the core and now it seems to be much better behaved.
I hope they have learned their lesson on this. Making a program too top
heavy is not conducive to sales or happy customers....remember Vista??

cv
 
On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:46:18 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

I had always used AVG in conjunction with AdAware, and that had not posed
any problem to my machine at all.
Click to expand...
I prefered Spybot S&D instead of Ad-Aware.

Then came the dire warnings that the
last "7" version was no longer going to be supported, and an upgrade to v 8.
Click to expand...
Yep. I still have customers using AVG 7.5 without incident. Machines
that are running slow get downgraded to 7.5. It's really hard
complaining about a free product.

When I did the initial installation scan under v 8. , I gave up and aborted
it at 13 hours.
Click to expand...
There's a slide bar on the bottom of the scan whole computer page.
Change it from "Automatic Scan" to "Fast Scan". It's much quicker.

Also, the update and scan timing is no longer properly valid
in the freeware version, such that it goes into update or scan mode, pretty
much when it feels like it within a couple of hours either way of the
assigned time.
Click to expand...
Yep. I noticed. Worse, there's no indication on the screen that it's
doing something in the background. I like to leave the task manager
running so I have a clue that AVG is doing something. However, my
customers don't do this and are complaining about interruptions and
slowdowns.

This played absolute havoc with my auto backup software,
which runs every night at a fixed time. If AVG started a scan or update at
the same time, it crashed the backup.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... not mine. However, I don't run my backup software from
Windoze. I boot a CDROM and do an image backup to another driver or
to a data dumpster on the network. Current favorite is Farstone
DriveImage Express. However, I"m having problems with it and will
probably switch to something else. DriveImage 5.1 turned into a big
mess when a restore resulted in a trashed registry and mangled a few
other files that were open during the backup. Booting from a CD as in
the Express version doesn't have this problem, but it pukes if it
finds a bad sector or gets a read error. That's unacceptable and
useless for backing up a failing hard disk before it totally dies.

Apart from all of this, the machine started running like a dog in general.
Click to expand...
Yep. AVG 8.0 is a major dog. 8.5 is a little easier on the CPU, but
not much. Avast is faster, but unless a way is found to scan the hard
disk without having it stop every time it finds something, it's
useless for overnight scans. PC Mag comparisons:
<http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,4796,00.asp>



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
 
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:dc58u4lfaplhqb8dg3dlnvhumsjke6kpdl@4ax.com...
On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:46:18 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

I had always used AVG in conjunction with AdAware, and that had not posed
any problem to my machine at all.

I prefered Spybot S&D instead of Ad-Aware.

Then came the dire warnings that the
last "7" version was no longer going to be supported, and an upgrade to v
8.

Yep. I still have customers using AVG 7.5 without incident. Machines
that are running slow get downgraded to 7.5. It's really hard
complaining about a free product.

When I did the initial installation scan under v 8. , I gave up and
aborted
it at 13 hours.

There's a slide bar on the bottom of the scan whole computer page.
Change it from "Automatic Scan" to "Fast Scan". It's much quicker.

Also, the update and scan timing is no longer properly valid
in the freeware version, such that it goes into update or scan mode,
pretty
much when it feels like it within a couple of hours either way of the
assigned time.

Yep. I noticed. Worse, there's no indication on the screen that it's
doing something in the background. I like to leave the task manager
running so I have a clue that AVG is doing something. However, my
customers don't do this and are complaining about interruptions and
slowdowns.

This played absolute havoc with my auto backup software,
which runs every night at a fixed time. If AVG started a scan or update at
the same time, it crashed the backup.

Hmmm... not mine. However, I don't run my backup software from
Windoze. I boot a CDROM and do an image backup to another driver or
to a data dumpster on the network. Current favorite is Farstone
DriveImage Express. However, I"m having problems with it and will
probably switch to something else. DriveImage 5.1 turned into a big
mess when a restore resulted in a trashed registry and mangled a few
other files that were open during the backup. Booting from a CD as in
the Express version doesn't have this problem, but it pukes if it
finds a bad sector or gets a read error. That's unacceptable and
useless for backing up a failing hard disk before it totally dies.

Apart from all of this, the machine started running like a dog in general.

Yep. AVG 8.0 is a major dog. 8.5 is a little easier on the CPU, but
not much. Avast is faster, but unless a way is found to scan the hard
disk without having it stop every time it finds something, it's
useless for overnight scans. PC Mag comparisons:
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,4796,00.asp



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, I back up to an external hard drive made by Seagate.
The software to perform the auto backup is called Bounceback Express, and
came with the drive. I've no idea really whether this is considered a good,
bad or even unknown utility, but it has a reasonably intuitive user
interface, and seems to do what it says on the can, quietly and
unobtrusively, without any further intervention from me. I have had to do
one restore from it in all the time I have had it on the machine - probably
4 years now - when my data disk failed. It did this with minimal effort, and
completely correctly - as in I've never found a problem with any of the data
or applications that I keep on the replaced drive. All in all, Bounceback
has never caused me any problems at all, except when it had this thing about
crashing, if AVG started one of its (semi) scheduled scans or updates.

When this has happened, and I've come down in the morning to find a
Bounceback failure message on the screen, I have just gone ahead and re-run
the backup with a manual start, and it hasn't complained about other stuff
that I've had running, so it did seem to be a problem with compatibility
between the two programes, rather than Bounceback wanting the machine to
itself when it did the backup. That said, I've not had Bounceback trying to
back up the drives at the same time as Avast! is doing it's thing, because
on that program, the scheduling works correctly, as it used to on AVG, so I
have the times set such that they avoid one another.

Arfa
 
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