AOL Hijacked Home Page

[MikeB]

I guess this is about 'off topic' as it get, but I think there are probably some knowledgable computer people on this site. I know about enough to be dangerous with the keyboard. I do like 'troubleshooting' though. It's in my genes or nature.

Anyway, it appears that AOL has hijacked my home page. I don't know how, but it might have come from one of those automatic updates that appear at times when you're shutting the computer down for the night. Anytime I try to go back to my old homepage, the AOL page reappears . Hell! I have nothing on my computer that's AOL related, but I can't get rid of the AOL page by any normal means. While it's not the end of the world, I'd like to be able to click on my Centurytel homepage other than running down the favorite's list or through the saved addresses.

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve the problem in a 'simple' manner? It's raining today and I can't fly my Champ anyway and I'm out of parts for my L16 project .

Thanks,
Mike Berg

[joea]

Mike,

I really doubt that AOHell (as I refer to it) did anything to your page but could be someone out there who is doing this and putting AOL up there just to perturb people, which it does. Just to let you know where I stand on AOHell, I would eat dirt before using AOL as my ISP.

If you could post your webpage URL we could take a look at it and see how it looks. Do you have a backup that is fairly recent that you could use to over-write what is on there now?

Joe

[MikeB]

Joe,
I did a little "google' search and the problem seems to be described as not unusual (lucky me). Apparently the browser is hijacked some way so even if you change the address back to where you want it in the 'internet options' under 'tools' it will always go back to AOL. Nice, huh? According to what I've been reading, it would be necessary to make changes in the registry which is probably beyond my simple mind (I have stuff on here that I don't want to lose or even try to recover).

Anyway, the homepage that always comes up now is: hp-desktop.aol.com
The one I'd like is: my.myway.com I just tried making my.myway.com my home page (all I have to do is click on it) but as soon as I tried to bring it up it went to a AOL homepage again.

As I said before, it's personally not a big problem other than I don't like someone messing with my life and I should be able to get rid of it.

I can't seem to go back to previous date or setting for some reason. I've tried that trick. We have Windows XP, a couple of years old. Never had this problem with my old Windows 98 V2.

Thanks,
Mike

[CptKelly]

Its AOL. They periodicially change things around for THEIR benefit, not yours. They love to change stuff around so that their advertisers can bombard you with moving ads, and it really gets under my skin. Most of the time, the "close" x is exceedingly small, or moving... this is their way of forcing you to see the ad. I'd quit AOL if they didn't still have such a good product. My home page changed a couple of weeks back, and I called AOL helpline. The Indian chap I talked with was gushing apologies, but couldn't do anything about the basic programming. So, whatcha gonna do?

Mike

[joea]

Mike,

Have you tried to open a separate IE (or better use Firefox) browser and set the homepage there?

Would try that to get around AOL changing anything. Try Firefox. I switched to it over a year ago and love it compared to IE.

[MikeB]

Joe,
My kid (son) says he changed his to Firefox and likes it, but said it was kind of tricky to install....whatever that means and which probably means he thinks I'm not capable . I'm going to see him in San Antonio in a couple of weeks so I'll ask him how to go about it. That should take care of the problem, though. I'd forgotten until you mentioned it.
Thanks,
Mike

[joea]

Mike,

The current version is not "tricky" at all to install, just download it and it runs you through the setup.

Another reason to get away from IE is that the majority of the hackers go after any Microsoft product. Firefox has no where near the bugs and security holes in it as IE, so its a safer project to use.

Hope you can try it.

Joe

[joea]

Mike,

Did you ever get this taken care of? Hope you are able to try Firefox.

[shorty]

"google" search for "Hijack This". read about it. download, and install.
Run the prog. It will tell you ALL the running apps. you will find a few "browser helper objects" (BHOs)

check all that don't relate to known installed software, such as Adobe reader,(for PDF files) Internet explorer, (windows app.), etc. and "fix"

some hijackers can be real boogers to git rid of.
If you bought your computer new, it probably came with some AOL ("trial") software installed. as well as 'trial versions of anti virus, anti spyware, etc.

I can tell you here how to remove all this un wanted stuff, but it would take up several pages.

on Windows machines you can go to "internet Options" in your control panel, and change your home page there. But if you have a hijacker, it will change back as soon as you close and re-open your browser.

[shorty]

Mike,

The current version is not "tricky" at all to install, just download it and it runs you through the setup.

Another reason to get away from IE is that the majority of the hackers go after any Microsoft product. Firefox has no where near the bugs and security holes in it as IE, so its a safer project to use.

Hope you can try it.

Joe

Actually, firefox is chock fulla holes! But there are so few people out there running it, that th' hackers feel theat "it aint worth their time".
Also there is no challenge in hackin' firefox, I kin do it in me sleep while drunk, performin' an outside loop, inna CA! But what'd I git fer my efforts? Absolutly DiDDly! 'Cause there ain't nobody else runnin' it, and it ain't produced by a multi gozillion doller company, with absolutley 0 debt service.

[shazam]

Anybody running the Linux operating system instead of Windows? I've gone pretty much pure Ubuntu Linux. It rocks, It's free to download (and free forever), updated regularly, and eliminates the WHOLE bunch of Microsoft issues. Sweet thing is that Office-compatible software is freely available, and everything done to change the OS is monitored by a gazillion people (it's called open-source -anyone can look at it). Just a suggestion for those long Northern nights.

Jim

Sorry about 'jacking the thread, just seemed to fit here.

[joea]

Jim,

I have thought about going over to Linux but just not enough time in the day for me to get around to it yet...

Glad to hear that you are using it and like it. More options the better and MS has enough money already...

[MikeB]

I haven't changed anything yet. I did look at Firefox when I was in San Antonio visiting with our youngest. Seems simple enough (the download) but I haven't had the courage yet (might take several bottles of a light brown liquid). Right now, other than losing my homepage to AOL everything is working according to plan. Microsoft does have a 'check and repair' procedure for the problem.

It's still on my list of things to correct some rainy Sunday afternoon when the Packers aren't playing and I can't fly .

Thanks,

Mike

[joea]

My flight attendent is using NetZero, so everytime it starts up it goes to a IE version that NZ uses. I just installed Firefox on her computer and she loves it. She can do what she wants to with it as opposed to however NZ wants her to do.

[shazam]

Mozilla is painless Mike. Doesn't even touch your IE at all. You can download at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ Once you get the download on your computer, just run it by double-clicking, and it will install itself, and you can take a look at it. Recommend it whenever you have time.

Jim