Lots of people, unfortunately. It's a very frequently seen form of malware called a "browser hijacker".

Follow the instructions at tomcoyote.com for downloading, installing, and running HijackThis, a malware analysis and reporting tool. Create a folder on the C: drive called C:\HJT. You can do this by going to My Computer (Windows key+e) then double click on C: then right click and select New then Folder and name it HJT. Unzip HijackThis into that folder, and run HijackThis.exe from there.

Don't attempt to fix anything HijackThis reports without expert advice! Once HijackThis has scanned your system, click on "Save Log", and save the log file to your hard drive. Then select everything in the log file as displayed, (Ctrl-A), copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C), and paste it (Ctrl-V) into a new message in the Virus Information and Removal board, where you'll receive expert advice from the trained volunteers. Include a note describing the problem you're experiencing in your post.

Jim

pstar,

Download either Ad-aware from here and/or Spybot from here. Check online for updates to their databases then run either and delete all the spyware they identify.

If that does not rectify the problem download HijackThis from here. Run it and post the log it generates in the Special Interest - Virus Information and Removal conference.

Try this repair of WinXP first. Go to Start> Run Box> and enter this bold text in the box, then [ENTER]:

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\windows\inf\ie.inf

If it asks for the XP CD then insert it. If not edit the browser line from C:\....inf\i386 to just \i836.

This will repair your IE installation. It will also remove several Win updates, which you will have to go back and get.

If that fails, you can try this as a last resort::

http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

Message Edited by chuket on 06-30-2004 12:24 AM