;/ Trojen or virus blocks search engines....

Ok, well....

I couldn't find anything. http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/archives/0903/30.php
this page has an application about a third of the way down Under the section "are you trying to find Google?" I ran it and asked it to reset host files to defaults (negating all the host files I have added). It worked. I will have to rebuild my host files though, my custom ones.
[Message Edited]

*TrojAn* ...ahem

No problems here... Yet.

Yikes... The fake greeting card thingy mentioned in link #1 sounds scary.

...hehe..... the one place Jafo can't put his little man......

I'm so bleary eyed from looking through my host files.... I had added a LOT of them, like thosands.

The fake greeting card thingy mentioned in link #1 sounds scary

Grrr... The link in POST #1

Perhaps you could try another search engine? (Alltheweb.com works well)

Well, that application restored it. Apparently, some variants of the thing block ALL searches... and who knows what else.

[Message Edited]

I can find the host files again. They were great.

GM, what part of Hawaii are you in?

Honolulu, two blocks from Ala Moana, one block from the convention center. My lanai overlooks the Daiei parking lot, and to my left is BlockBuster video.

I was wondering about you.... Punahou student?

Actually, Im homeschooled.

We're up on Tantulus...

...ahhhh you are very lucky. I want to move back into Manoa or at least upper Makiki where it is green.

One time we were walking up there and the man who started "Shuman Carriage' or something like that gave us some water. So clean and good smelling up there. We found lots of passion fruit. and guava. (and also mosquito's)

(and also mosquito's)

Oh yes, LOTS of mosquitos.

...I remember the news story a few years back of a house there on fire. The firetrucks were slow getting there and water was stored in towers on a dry summer. The home owners were flying back to Honolulu and were greeted in the air by the sight of their home ablaze!

You guys still using water towers up there?

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/benefits_restrictions.html

That is where I found my host files!

I got hit by this the other day. It creates a new hosts file C:\windows\help\host in which all whole bunch of search sites are mapped to some ip address of a server that has since been taken down.

It also screws with the default search engine address that's used when type in keywords in the address bar. It also tries to screw with your dns server settings

Getting rid of the host file is easy (just delete it), but the annoying part is that it messes up some of your registry settings that are used to do the above.

Norton's anti-virus has an update to correct the above. For the trojan itself, Microsoft doesn't have a fix for it yet (or rather they had one but supposedly it doesn't completely work, and needs further tweaking by them)

Symantec has a page describing what it does
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html

though I thougth this page had a more detailed description of the changes:
http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virus.aspx?ID=37191

Response to 14

Nope, the city water pipes only go so far up the mountain...After that, the houses stop for a while 'till it gets more green and lush.
If you're above that point, all of your water comes from your roof. (Then goes into a cistern and is filtered before your drink it/shower with it etc.) Which is great, 'coz you dont have to pay a water bill.
It usually rains a few times a week up here, so you almost never run out. (And if you do, you can call to have them truck it in)

OT...

I grew up on the windward side...where there's more than enough water.

Removal tool:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.removal.tool.html