http://windowstopcontent.com  and then it changes to and takes me to a site address of www.ave99.com which appears to be some "visual shopping" site with two hotlinks labeled as "Cigarbid" and "Cigarsinternational" ...neither of which look like they will take me to either site if I click on it, but rather it's some sort of redirect. When I do a similar google search for CigarsInternational and click on the CI link, I get the same "http://windowstopcontent.com" and a redirect to a site called "onlyhotsales.com"

I'm not sure, but I'd say this has something to do with me watching a movie online today during lunch. At one point during the movie I got a window that popped up saying something to the effect of Internet Explorer needed to be shut down (or turned off). I clicked "ok" and the "do not send report" when programs get shut down abruptly. The odd part was that IE was apparently still working as I continued to watch the movie (The Hangover...which is hilarious so far). I did hear some *clicking* during the movie...the clicking sound you might hear when you mouseclick on something too many times and the computer "clicks" trying to scream at you to stop clicking the mouse, or when there's too many things being processed at the same time (I dunno). So after I exited the internet I thought I'd run both Spybot and Ad-Aware. First, I ran Spybot, and it found a few items, and if I recall one of them may have been listed as "malicious." Then I ran Ad-Aware, and it came up with just over 200 items, not all bad, I don't think. I don't recall if there were any "critical" objects, but I do recall seeing a bunch of tracking cookies (which is pretty typical). BUT Ad-Aware did bring up a pop-up window stating (and I'm paraphrasing) I had an object they found intriguing, and asked if I would click the submit button so that they could use the information to better analyze it, and improve their service...or something like that. I submitted it, and it thanked me for my cooperation. It showed me the name of the file, which did happen to be a .exe file (uhoh?). I can't remember the full name of it however.

it's the Russian Mofia.... they send out all the viruses and stuff.....

according to out IT guy that is...

Dave,

you got a spyware/adware virus of sorts. It has a specific name but it escapes me right now. I am sure TG will be along with a couple of software recommendations to run. Many of these fixes you can get on line for free.

If you have any spyware or adware already on your computer, may as well start running it. Sometimes this stuff goes on to a computer in layers and you will need to run the same program several times in some cases.

The ones I use are:

SpySweeper

SUPERantiSpyware

AVG

All of these have free versions on line and work quite well. I have also used in the past:

Ad-aware

Spy-Bot Search & Destroy

Also free versions.

I am sure the IT guys on here have some good ones too.

I currently have Spybot and Ad-Aware...which I mentioned in the 2nd paragraph of my ramblings. 🙂 I will try and run them again just to see if anything else comes up. I await TG's reply. 🙂

just send a check to the Russian Mofia... they will leave you alone for a month or so...

daveincincy

Please make sure your anti-adware and anti-virus programs have the most recent data and reference file updates.

I use the same two, and Norton anti-virus. Always updated and ran twice a week. Remove all the temp files and cookies. Defrag, and cross fingers.

ok, that virus/malware/adware/whatever sucks. i've had it. you can't install anything that will kill it while it's there. it's pretty freakin' brutal. the ONLY thing that worked for me was a program called combofix that i found on a website that i think is called geekstogo.com. combofix was pretty awesome. i highly recommend you download and run it if you continue to have the problem.

I'm running ad-aware again and so far it has detected 39 infections. I just ran it a couple hours ago, but this time I'm doing the full, more thorough, scan. I did make sure each spyware program had the current updates. Earlier I also deleted my temporary internet files and history, but I for some reason I didn't delete cookies. I'll do that as well...it just always deletes my user ID and account number for the site I order our office supplies from and then I have to dig around to find it. 🙂

Run Spy-bot after you run Ad-aware, resetting your computer each time. Then run Ad-aware again until it detects nothing!

NINE!!!!!!

BTW, why not bookmark Cbid? Hell, if you go to it every day, why not make it your home page?

RE #4

I didn't realize you were asking a question in the OP.

You might want to consider adding MBAM to the two programs that you are already using. I've noticed that it often catches a _lot_ of stuff that other packages either miss or can't deal with properly.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php 

What ^ he said.

Also, run the spyware/malware/virus scan in safe mode.

Stay away from the Dark Side.

Thanks, TG. It looks like the Malwarebytes MBAM did the trick (so far). I'm not getting redirected, and it found 23 additional infections even after another Ad-Aware "full scan." [/bigthumbsup]

What? The forum isn't your homepage?

Blasphemy!

TG Thanks for the link to MBAM

'welcome.

I usually just use "hijack this", go in and zap the crap straight from my registry.

Be careful you don't delete anything legit tho.

2Legit2Quit

I deleted everything that came up. LOL