Google search from within browser always goes to google.com.HK

[tankman1989]

Every time I do a search on my friends computer and use the default browser search it sends me to Google.com.HK and if I do a search from within the browser on the normal Google.com page, I get results with no input box for the searched term(s), where it usually shows the # of results and what was searched for, it is just blank. It seems like it could be something like browser hijacking since the search results for his browser aren't the same as the search results for my browser using identical terms. Does anyone know hwat could cause this or how to clear it up? I'm running MBAM, Spybot, CCleaner and it has fixed a number of cookie issues and cleaned up a lot of junk cache files but it still seems to be doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Knightsman]

Sounds like a host file hijack. What browser are you using? have you reset the browser?

 

[fixitdaz]

Google directs users from google.com to a different top level domains when we expect a redirect will improve the search experience for that user. For example, if a user based in France types google.com into his browser, he will be redirected to google.fr. Traditionally, this meant that some users based in China would be redirected to the google.cn domain.

We recently announced that users who previously would have been redirected to google.cn are now being redirected to google.com.hk. If users want to go to google.com, they can click on the "Google.com in English" link at the bottom of the google.com.hk homepage. Alternatively, users can go to http://www.google.com/ncr, which will take them to google.com in English and should not be redirected.

link

 

[iisjman07]

I bet it's either a hosts file hijack or a rootkit, I'm thinking probably the latter

 

[tankman1989]

I bet it's either a hosts file hijack or a rootkit, I'm thinking probably the latter

I think it might be a rootkit I've run Spybot, MBAM, and CCleaner and cleaned everything that it found. Spybot found 19 "redirects" and when it tried to change the Hosts file, it wouldn't let me. I tried to locate the Hosts file and it wasn't in it's system/drivers/etc/ location.

So what's the best way to remove a rootkit using Teamviewer?

 

[Darren55D]

Have you tried using Kaspersky's TDSS killer?

Darren

 

[tankman1989]

Have you tried using Kaspersky's TDSS killer?

Darren

No I have not. I will try this

 

[iisjman07]

Try TDSSkiller and GMER; without going offline then these are probably your best bet

 

[tankman1989]

I'll run the TDSSkiller and see what happens. I'm getting ready to run the Panda anti-rootkit program now, it looks promising.

So, if this doesn't clear up the problem, what would you suggest? I can't go to my friends house as he lives 800 miles away. I guess he would have to take it to a tech huh?

 

[iisjman07]

Send him a cd with the kaspersky rescue system on it? Ship the computer/hard drive?

 

[tankman1989]

Send him a cd with the kaspersky rescue system on it? Ship the computer/hard drive?

Well this is a Dell system so I told him to find the restore CD's. Once he has the restore cd's installed, then comes Teamviewer and i should be able to handle it from there.

I am just hoping that a full wipe of the hard drive will be enough to get rid of all the nasties on the machine.