Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
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It isn't someone, but something that's trying to take over your browser, yes. This is a fairly classic case of a browser hijacking.
More commonly referred to as spyware.
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It's fairly straightforward, actually. Somehow, somewhere, software was downloaded onto your computer, and somehow inserted itself into your browser. Now, when you try to go one place, this software sends you somewhere else.
It's also fairly classic that the destination it sends you to ends in ".ru". That's a domain based in Russia, where some significant percentage of spyware originates.
Fixing it should be fairly easy.
Install a scanner and run an up-to-date anti-spyware scan. Personally I recommend Microsoft Anti-Spyware, however there are several good anti-spyware packages out there. One important feature to look for is real-time checking ... so that the next time some software attempts to install itself, the tool will prevent it.
And while you're at it, make sure you're running a good anti-virus scanner as well.
Article C2452 - November 3, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Same problem.... youtube would never come up and google.com would always pop up some .ru site
I tried all the other stuff and I finally came up with a solution for my system running Windows 7.
I ran Hijack this and found all sorts of sites that came with my IP as the Host. Hijackthis recommended for me to go into Windows\system32\drivers\etc\host
I deleted the "host" file. Everything worked fine on internet explorer and/or firefox.
Posted by: Mike S. at December 26, 2010 12:09 PMIm running Windows7. Hope this helps out!
Well... I finally found and fixed the problem (at least for now). Here's what I found..
Posted by: NetBestBill at March 3, 2011 8:11 AMThe windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file had been corrupted with a dozen or so redirects for google and yahoo sites. Since that's a system read-only file, I had to adjust the security on the etc folder to allow administrator access and then I removed all of the redirects... saving the file back. On reboot.. all is well. I've tried cold and soft boots, browsing around, and generally exercising the computer on the internet and the problem hasn't re-occured yet....
Only Google search is being redirected on my PC . yahoo works , fine And so does google Image search .
Posted by: Phil at March 31, 2011 6:40 PMWhat First pops up during the redirect every time is www dot bliywl dot net . then it goes some where else , Well Guess what There is no such thing ,
I'm a bit confused in the above fixes . As I have 1 Host file and 4 host backup files can some one give me a play by play of what to do ? Thanks !
I cleared the history, cookies, temp and all, now the browser doesn't redirect..;)
Posted by: thiyagi at November 28, 2011 9:20 AMI renamed two host files in(Windows\system32\drivers\etc\host) to (oldhost) and eliminated the redirect problem completely. Couldn't have been easier!!
Posted by: Bruce at December 28, 2011 6:23 AM