-= Gametoast.com =-

When I click on links in google results (or on any links on any page), it usually brings up some random page that has nothing to do with what the link I clicked on actually contained. This has been going on for a while, and I'm not too sure how to fix it. Help?

(btw, this happens in IE and firefox, which are the browsers I use on my laptop)

Virus alert.
Also, ditch IE.

I'm with Twilight. Do a full scan with your computer with Microsoft Security Essentials, and stop using IE. Firefox is okay. I'd recommend if you want to use two browsers that you use Firefox and Chrome instead.

Unplug from web, run spybot, open msconfig and disable anything in the start list you don't know you need, clear temp, install any free firewall To avoid this in the future, enjoy

I had this exact same problem about a month ago. I searched a bit for solutions and I found a tutorial for kaspersky TDSSKiller. It worked like a charm.

Oh duh, guru is right. Run Spybot. It's one of the two anti-virus softwares that I trust and have installed.

Okay, so I tried both this

guru wrote:Unplug from web, run spybot, open msconfig and disable anything in the start list you don't know you need, clear temp, install any free firewall To avoid this in the future, enjoy

and this

Unlucky13 wrote:I had this exact same problem about a month ago. I searched a bit for solutions and I found a tutorial for kaspersky TDSSKiller. It worked like a charm.

and neither of them fixed it. It still opens random links, or sometimes takes me back to the google homepage. Spybot did find several problems and it fixed them, and I restarted my laptop, but that didn't fix it. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

It sounds to me like you've been hijacked. Try CWShredder and HijackThis.

I'd like to give some info about this infection - cause I'm doing studies about Computer security:

@Fierfek: Yes like AceMastermind, you'd better use HijackThis to scan your system. One thing: HijackThis doesn't automatically fix any error - it scan your computer for registry keys, running services and BHOs (Browser Helper Objects = addons) and doesn't make any difference between legitimate and illegitimate files. CWShredder does.

@guru and Wulf: The problem with SpyBot is its popularity. This tool is often very recommended but is completly outdated. Most of the program files -including the spywares blacklists- weren't updated since at least 2010, which is severe for an security tool. Also it doesn't have real-time security, it only allows you to scan your computer after infection.
Last thing: the main program and its sister process TeaTimer use A LOT of ram.
I don't recommend it at all. Same with SpySweeper, SuperAntiSpyware and other free tools. It's a sad thing but most of antispywares are useless. Your computer doesn't really need them - the only thing to do is being careful when surfing.

@Unlucky: FYI, your solution doesn't always work because TDSSkiller was made for fighting a particular type of infection only - the MBR rootkits (like Alueron, TDSS, Whistler, Sinoal/Mebroot, Stoned, Evilcore, w32.xpaj ,etc. ...), which are a more complex type of infection, because they launch attacks outside Windows.
In Fierfek's case I'd rather think to a Adware.


If you have this kind of problem with your browser, it's because you installed program from a repacked executable - these modified install programs come from websites like Softonic, which you should avoid like the plague. They distribute tons of toolbars and crappy useless softs - they just do that for money, they get a lot of money per download.
In case of such an infection, clean your system with a special tool like CWShredder (Ad-Aware is outdated / SpyBot doesn't remove this type of infection / CCleaner doesn't fix this kind of error). If it still doesn't work, well... make a thread here and someone will help you

[Padawan]Helkaan wrote:the main program and its sister process TeaTimer use A LOT of ram.

That's not a lot by my standards. Just saying. And TeaTimer's job is done just fine. I don't run SpyBot proper most of the time. And it can't hurt to use it.

Spybot has a one button update and every few days it's got virus Trojan and filter updates. But I'm only speaking from 10 years of using it every day on 12 pcs and repairing 100s of clients with it.

Msconfig is my fav though, open it, check google with anything listed in your start programs if they should be there or you no longer use the associated program uncheck them. It will stop anything from loading at boot up.

Guru is correct! <-- A admin or moderator's edit I guess

I got samples of Trojan.DNS + a startpage hijacker + a crappy toolbar + Magic.Control and installed them on a PC. These are well common infections which were spread for the first time in 2006 (!).
Then I (first installed the latest version, because I got rid of it months ago) scanned with SpyBot.
It reset the patched DNS but it doesn't delete the malware files (so the DNS get changed again an again).
It deletes the toolbar but not the associated .dll (so you get missing files errors - not severe tough).
It deletes the false startpage but not the browser's preference files associated to it. Also it deleted some relative DLLs but not the core files of the toolbar and the program which installed it (so the files used to hijack can still modify the page again and again, and you get errors about missing DLLs.).
The latest version of SpyBot failed to delete 6 years old infections, which the method of infection hasn't changed much in all that time.
The scan took one hour (but my VM was very slow I agree) and deleted many about 10% of all the craps I installed - the rest were browser cookies.
Then I scanned with AdwCleaner (a 500 kb tool). One minute of scan after, my browser got its original startpage back, and all the toolbars files were deleted.
Finally I scanned with MBAM. The scan was much longer but everything related to the infections was deleted.

Spybot is useless if you want to get rid of the latest trojans or infected files spread by web exploits for example, however it's a nice cookies cleaner. And I agree the vaccination tool can be useful.

If I had to show every fails in every disinfection tool, it would take ages. But it's like when you want to choose an AV: someone tells you getting MSE, another one tells you Avast, or AVG, or Avira, or Kaspersky... the better thing is making the choice yourself because all opinions of security tools are different.

(The following part isn't addressed to you guru, because you apparently have a certain experience about these things)
If you're a novice user and want to choose a free antispyware, well get the one you want but I don't recommend it. All the peoples I work with agree about one thing: the antispywares aren't compulsory.
I guess there are two factions in this battle (battle which never will ends ).

(By the way, this topic can be locked. I ended up formatting my laptop and resintalling my OS for other reasons, and that got rid of this problem.)