Travel Technology - TT Web Browsing Clinic: Legitimate links lead to cr@p?

Hello All,

If I google search on a topic and click on a site that appears legitimate from the google search, it leads me to junk with pop-ups. If I repeat the search and click the link (identical from above), I get to the right source on the second try. Never had this until recently. No new software or downloads I am aware of. Any leads? TIA.

You probably have spyware on, browser redirects, something like that. Do a full scan with one of the spyware products, clean and repeat until a scan is clear, then repeat with another of the spyware products in case the first one missed something.

Spybot is a good one to start with.

Microsoft has a page on browser hijacking here

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/browserhijack.mspx

it's a bit old, but some of the info is still good.

Be prepared, most times it's a fairly simple process to remove it, some of them however can take your sanity to clean up.

Another vote for your machine probably being infected.

Sometimes it is as simple as looking to see if your browser is being redirected through a proxy server. Go into your browser settings and see if that is the case, as it is a pretty easy thing to fix. If you don't know how, post and we'll help!

It could also be a poisoned DNS server that you're using or your DNS settings could be altered. What makes me think that is it could be your DNS settings is that you say you get the right page on another attempt. Your ISP will be able to provide you with their legitimate DNS server addresses so check these against the ones configured on your PC. If you're running through a home router/cable modem then you may find your PCs DNS points to this box so check the settings on that as well.

almost certainly you have some malware.

download and run Spybot Search & Destroy from http://www.spybot.com/. (Free).

If you do not have anti-malware (anti-virus, anti-spyware) installed on your PC then it is time to do it. There are loads of options, here is a review of different options from last October: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333448,00.asp

Ron

Spybot seems to have worked. Thanks all!

One of the best new-comers in the Antispyware realm is

www.malwarebytes.org

Free to scan, pay to have it in "watching" or preventative mode.