If the website address of a particular website is changed, you will be redirected to the new address. If only one website is redirected, it’s may not be a virus. If many websites are redirecting when you click on the links, that you got after doing a Google search, then your computer will have redirection virus. If you have website redirection issue, the basic things you can do are as follows
1. Remove the temporary files.
2. Reset your Internet browser:
3. Remove unwanted entries from host file.
4. Reset winsoc to default settings and remove unwanted DNS entries.
5. Install a new web browser (temporary fix).
To access the temporary folders easily you need to open the Run window. To open Run window press the windows key and then press the R button without releasing the windows button or you can open it by clicking on,
a. Start>Accessories>Run (Windows Vista and Windows 7)
b. Start>Run (Windows XP)
Type the command temp and then press Enter button. Remove the files that are in the temp folder. Do the same for %temp%, prefetch and recent.
Note:
- Removing the temporary files will delete the web history and saved login username and password for websites (it will not be deleted if logins are saved using a third party add-on).
- Removing prefetch and temporary files will improve the speed of the computer if its running very slow and deleting prefetch will not cause any issues.
Remove personal settings as well when resetting Internet Explorer.
- To reset Internet Explorer follow the steps in this link
- To reset Mozilla Firefox follow the steps in this link
This is one of the important steps that need to be done for this issue. Open C drive. Then go to Windows>System 32>Drivers>etc. After opening the etc folder you will see a file named hosts.
Double click on the host file and a window will pop up, asking you to use a program to open it. Select Notepad from the list of programs. After opening the host file with notepad you will see as following (the host file shown below is for Windows 7)
There is a small alternation in the host file for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. But it’s almost the same. If you see any other entries below the following you need to remove it
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
You need to remove any entries below this in the host file and then save the file in the same format i.e., you need to select the save as type as “All files” while saving otherwise the file will be saved as text file which is not valid. Sometimes you will not be able to save the file in the same format. It’s due to the permission given to the etc folder. In this case you can move or drag the file to desktop. Then save the file after removing the unwanted entries. The file will save in its format and then you can move it back to the etc folder.
If your computer is affected by a malware the winsoc settings can become corrupted. Resetting the Winsoc or Windows Sockets Application Programming Interface to default settings can fix the internet connection issues as well.
The DNS resolve cache will save the DNS information about a website and will help to access a website faster if you have visited the website once. But it also saves the DNS information of the websites which have temporary issues and so when you try to access the website again after it’s up, the browser will open the page that was opened when the website had issues and this is due to the DNS cache. So the cache needs to be removed.
- To remove the DNS cache:
Go to Start>All programs>Accessories>Command prompt (For Windows Vista and Windows 7, you need to right click on the Command Prompt and then click on Run as administrator and if you see a pop up click on Yes). When the command prompt window opens type in ipconfig /flushdns (there’s space after ipconfig and /. There’s no space between / and flushdns) and then press the enter button. It will show that the DNS cache is flushed.
- To reset winsoc:
In the same command prompt window type in netsh winsoc reset catalog and then press the enter button. Then restart the computer.
5. Install a new web browser (temporary fix):
You can install a new web browser if you need to access a particular website urgently. For example you need to access you bank website urgently but its redirecting to another website created by hackers. In this case you can install a new web browser i.e., if you are having website redirection issue in Internet Explorer, you can install Mozilla Firefox.
You can download Mozilla Firefox from the link
http://www.mozilla.com/
http://www.mozilla.com/
If you have issues with both browsers you can install Google Chrome.
The link to download Google Chrome would be http://www.google.com/chrome
You will be able to access the bank website through the newly installed web browser. This is a temporary fix as the website redirection virus will soon affect the new browser installed and so you need to contact a technical support to fix the issue.
Note:
- Do not login to your bank website if you got an email which is asking you to log in to your bank website by clicking on the link that came with it.
- Do not provide any personal or Credit Card details if you receive an email that is asking you to provide it because your bank won’t ask you to provide any personal details through email. If you click on the link on an email, it will redirect you the webpage created by the hackers or it will install the key logger program automatically. When the website is redirected to the website created by hacker, the login and other details that you are entering will be sending to the hacker who created the website. If the key logger is installed, it will copy all the information that you are typing using your keyboard and will send to the hacker.
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