search engines

Hi,

Have a strange problem. I use a meta search engine called webferret. About three days ago i was infected with spyware, I used HJT and CWS, adaware, Spybot and NAV to clean the machine. At least i think its clean.

problem now is that since the infection webferret has stopped talking to all its search engines, for example to altavista it says connection refused. i haven't seen this before. i tried deleting and reinstalling but no improvement.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on?

You sound like you're no n00b...but is it possible that you really cracked down with your firewall during the chaos and blocked something you need?

*edit*
I was gonna suggest using google if you never got yours working...but danged Nemory beat me to it, lol. Another thing - you ran all kinds of scans on your computer but were all the programs fully updated with their definitions when you ran the scans?

Use google.com's toolbar :) best search engine ;) I was gonna say reinstall the software, but since you did it and it didnt help i have not any good suggestions, try uninstalling it, then download a fesh(updated) copy. When u uninstall it though, make sure you delete every folder and registry key associated with it, Also update IE before installing the new copy,

Could try using Mozilla and see how that works. IE's crap anyways. :D (Just my personal opinion. <g>)

How about a system restore to a point when it was working, uninstall it, run all your ad-ware scanners and cleaners then re-install web ferret?

Quote:

---

When u uninstall it though, make sure you delete every folder and registry key associated with it

---

After uninstalling programs one of my favorite programs to run is System Mechanic. It can scan your resgistry for invalid keys and delete them. Back-up your registry first before running a scan. I have never had a problem with this prog.

Thanks for the replies.

To answer your questions, sounds like I've done everything you've suggested, even trying the system restore. Yes I updated all tools today and ran them again for the scans, so I'll try deleting and reinstalling again as suggested.

As for google, I've run this against webferret and it almost appears to me they are the same, I like webferret becasue it runs as a seperate program, rather than in IE.

Anyway will let u know the results of the latest attempt to fix, meanwhile any other suggestions appreciated.

Then just make "www.google.com" as your startup page on whatever browswer you use...Mozilla, Firefox, IE, whatever lol.

webferret actually has spyware in it, so when you ran the ad-aware program it removed a piece of functionality of the webferret. I'd strongly suggest using google's toolbar for search. Webferret is far from the best search engine. Goolgle has that spot all locked up.


--PuRe www.pureehosting.com

you can run google seperate from IE with a google API.
http://www.searchenginelab.com/products/gapis/