Help!! Am I a Spam Zombie????

Hi,

I'm looking for any and all help that I can get. Several days ago, I noticed that I could no longer do searches on Google, Yahoo and MSN. I tried Verizon (my ISP) and Lycos with no problem. It appears that I have been banned from these search sites and I don't know why. I checked Zone Alarm and noticed that a network had been allowed entrance to my computer (169.254.0.0 and 255.255.0.0). I tried to eliminate this network but was told I could not eliminate an active network. I also noticed in taskmanager.exe that a few network functions were present that were never there before. Also, when I start up my computer, windows firewall states that my automatic update feature is not working. I then open up windows firewall and it says that auto updates is working at which point I have just closed the window. This never occured before the last few days as well. It appears that some outside network has gained access to my computer and I don't know what to do.

I reinstalled Zone Alarm, it caught the new network and asked me what I wanted to do....I asked to block it, but then I couldn't connect from any browser thru my ISP connection and the new network still showed up in the connections that were allowed by ZoneAlarm. I checked windows firewall to see if this network was being allowed thru and it didn't appear as if it was.
Am I a spam zombie that has been banned from these search engines and how do I correct this problem?

 

Hi kayosnxs

Welcome to Wilders.

Have u done any scans for viruses?

Here's a few free online scans,

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://www.wilders.org/free_services.htm

If u would like, u could follow the instructions here,

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=15913

then post your HijackThis log in the hijack cleaning forum with a full description of your problem and one of the experts will give u recommendations on any Malware found.


snowbound

 

Hi Snowbound,

Thanks for the welcome!!

I failed to mention that I did use Spysweeper, Adaware and Norton AV as well as Trojan Hunter in my quest to find out what's g0ing on. I did clear out some malaware but nothing out of the ordinary.

Is there a site that I can check out to see if I'm on a blacklist for the search engines or is there an address at these sites to contact them??

Thanks for any help that anybody can lend

 

well, I'm not a spam zombie after all!! I ran HiJack This! and found that my search pages were being diverted to a new host/dns. After eliminating the 3 entries that were hosts, the problem was solved.

If this happens to anybody else, you can also fix it this way:

run search for hosts and eliminate selectively, then run:

ipconfig /flashdns

then

ipconfig /display dns


that ought to do the trick!!!

For what it's worth, I ran Norton AV and it's trojan Qhost tool DID NOT pick up this problem at all!! NAV is totallly up to date too!...Makes you wonder if this AV is all it's built up to be!!

 

Hi there, congrats with finding the trouble; did you post the Hijackthis log here, so we can see it with own eyes what exactly where and so we might be able to direct others too (in case they would have to wait for an expert)