Hi

Let me firstly introduce myself, I joined as a member about 2 weeks ago but due to commitments I have had only a small amount of time to do my computer business so please excuse me for not posting on this site earlier than this.

Problem:

I have a Vaio laptop, on which I recently had to reinstall the MS - XP Pro OS, the thing is the following site (below) which is Sony's has hijacked my homepage. Despite even going into the registry to get rid of it searching sites like Sony's (sheer waste of time ),MS, lots of FAQ's, Kellys Korner etc I cannot find a solution to this hijacking. I have run progs such as "Hijack This", "TUT", & others. I have extensive security measures & have run the best security progs going to look for Trojans, BOT's etc. I have to admit I am at a loss. I'm hoping that someone else has had a similair experience and can help me out.

I have a Sony Vaio Laptop

Os: MS- XP Pro SP2
Mem: 1.25 GB
HDD: 125 GB
I am running IE7, which I installed after the problem started, si its not IE7
I am also running now Firefox & Thunderbird & there is no problem with Firefox & my homepage there. I installed this to get around the IE7 problem, but it doesn't cure the original problem.

The site that has hijacked my IE7 browser is:

http://wwww.club-vaio.sony-europe.co...o/en/home.jsp/

This site also tries to connect to the net with the following "BIOS Info Forwarder from SONY ITE" but this is blocked by my anti dial out program.

Its odd that Sony have hijacked my browser & even odder that they want info about my BIOS etc which, if it hadn't have been for my protective progs, would have been given to Sony without my knowledge.

I have given below the site addresses of 2 excellent freeware progs that I find very useful. No spyware etc. You can donate to them if you wish.

1) Simplecheck, nice little anti spammer program:

SimpleCheck Home Page

2) Master Lister 2.2, lovely little prog that prints lists of anything on your computer.

AxiomX Multimedia

I hope you find them as useful as I have, enjoy.

Many thanks in advance to anybody who can help me out.

KidUnot

G'day Mate,your problem comes from Sony's DRM, it installs itself in rootkit of Windows it's a wonder you haven't heard the screams all around the world about it.Anyway the best tool to remove it is to go to Sysinternals Freeware and download the rootkit revealer,it's free and allows you to delete anything from Sony or anything else you may think is suspicious, but be very careful with what you do,sorry I couldn't post a direct link,It's the usual story.I've got it here somewhere but can;t find it at the moment. Hope this helps,ragzeeboy

Hi Ragzeeboy

Thanks for your advice but it seems everything is OK on that front, I've downloaded & run Rootkit Revealer, the only things it found as things to look at where:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sys tem* 23/08/2006 15:08 0 bytes Key name contains embedded nulls (*)
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{A4495969-B40E-4638-B3FF-385064D2BA9F}\RP38\A0009673.RDB 16/09/2006 17:39 1.86 MB Hidden from Windows API.
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{A4495969-B40E-4638-B3FF-385064D2BA9F}\RP38\A0009674.RDB 16/09/2006 17:45 1.86 MB Hidden from Windows API.
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{A4495969-B40E-4638-B3FF-385064D2BA9F}\RP38\A0009675.RDB 16/09/2006 17:49 1.86 MB Hidden from Windows API.

As I haven't run IE7 todayor even recently I think, with what I can glean from Sysinternals site (Good one isn't it) these are not malicious settings, so I still have the problem, not that its going to stop me surfing 'cos I've got Firefox now & I quite like it. But that Sony is bugging me some waht, you know what I mean.

Anyway Ragzeeboy thanks very much for helping out, at least I'm aware of Sony's dirty tricks & a new site for software (Sysinternals).

Thanks again have nice weekend

KidUnot

Hey kidUnot, If you want to find out more check out Marks Blog at sysinternals,he's the guy that found it. Although he's now gone over to Microsoft his archives make interesting reading as it seems Sony isn't the only one running this type of software. Mark is of the opinion that anything hidden from Windows API should be treated with suspicion.
Cheers Mate, Ragzeeboy

Hi Ragzeeboy

Will go on the blogg, it will be interesting to see whats going on, I'll let you know if I find anything that solves my problem.

Thanks for your time & trouble

KidUnot

Hi Ragzeeboy

Hope you see this, apparently it wasn't Sony (sorry Sony ) but Ad-Aware, spoke to an old friend about the problem & he asked if I was running Ad-Aware & directed me to 5 Star Support - Free Computer Technical Support & to look for FAQ then in the drop down menu Troubleshooting IE, this brought me to IE Troubleshooting then to article 23 Unable to Reset my Home Page, following the instructions I cleared Sony's site address & so far so good.

Sorry Sony for blaming you this time, but the reading in Mikes Blogg at Sysinternals makes interesting reading and makes you think if reputable companys are at this "spying" ,for want of a better word, who can we trust & where & how far does it go to.

Thanks for all the advoce & help hope I can be as useful to anyone of you one day.

Cheerio for now.

kidUnot