A few days ago I installed Spybot. Some of you may remember my last thread about dating ads popping up all the time, and I found out the culprit was in fact Spybot's little toolbar. Well, it may not belong to them, but it comes with it.

I hear all the time on here to install both Spybot, and Ad Aware, so I did. I looked through Spybot and decided to add it to my system along with Ad Aware 6.

I looked through some of the options and, seeing that it had a Toolbar for pop ups and other bad site blocking features, I clicked on install in Spybot's panel. This is where the fun begins:

I started getting odd pop ups that would seem to be a part of the webpage I was currently at, and thought it was a bit strange. After undoing the changes Spybot made to my setting, I got rid of the tool bar, and the dating service pop ups.

Well, at least I thought I did. I decided to undo all changes Spybot made, and then uninstalled the tool bar. This seemed to work for about a day.

It came back, and I could not figure out why. I ran Ad Aware, and it found the tool bar and had a little description on how it stops you from being able to do pretty much anything with your IE tool bars.

I let Ad Aware take the tool bar out, and tried again. It was gone...For about a day. A few minutes ago I loaded an IE window, and guess what was there again? The damn tool bar. Now, considering that at least Yahoo! has an uninstall feature, this was getting annoying.

I went to update the Ad Aware software, and it said "Web update complete". No new reference file? Hmmm... It gets even better.

Figuring that Spybot, and the **** it comes with had something to do with it, I uninstalled Spybot, and tried to get to http://www.lavasoft.de/

I got an error, "The page cannot be displayed". Well that's funny, but maybe that's why it wouldn't update right?

Well, I popped up a DOS prompt, and tried pinging it. I got great responce times, considering that the web page for Lavasoft had been set to :

127.0.0.76

Hmm, so it edited my hosts file?

I'm in the process of cleaning up the mess now. and if you see some spelling errors, please disregaurd them. I'm not feeling good with my allergies, some type of cold, and being pumped full of drugs. I'm somewhat out of it. But this pissed me off.

I think it's time we all stopped telling people to use Spybot. When ti comes packaged with the same **** it is supposed to be removing, I think that is a sign.

I did a search on my computer for "hosts" and found both the hosts files... The regular one in C:\Windows\I386 looked normal.

But another one was in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc, and this one had:


127.0.0.0 localhost
127.0.0.1 and.doxdesk.com
127.0.0.2 auditmypc.com
127.0.0.3 boards.cexx.org
127.0.0.4 bulletproofsoft.net
127.0.0.5 camtech2000.net
127.0.0.6 cexx.org
127.0.0.7 computercops.us
127.0.0.8 ct7support.com
127.0.0.9 doxdesk.com
127.0.0.10 eblocs.com
127.0.0.11 enigmasoftwaregroup.com
127.0.0.12 forum.aumha.org
127.0.0.13 free-spyware-scan.com
127.0.0.14 free-web-browsers.com
127.0.0.15 grc.com
127.0.0.16 grisoft.com
127.0.0.17 hackfaq.org
127.0.0.18 hazeleger.net
127.0.0.19 javacoolsoftware.com
127.0.0.20 kellys-korner-xp.com
127.0.0.21 kephyr.com
127.0.0.22 lavasoft.de
127.0.0.23 lavasoftusa.com
127.0.0.24 lurkhere.com
127.0.0.25 majorgeeks.com
127.0.0.26 merijn.org
127.0.0.27 mjc1.com
127.0.0.28 moosoft.com
127.0.0.29 mvps.org
127.0.0.30 net-integration.net
127.0.0.31 noadware.net
127.0.0.32 no-spybot.com
127.0.0.33 onlinepcfix.com
127.0.0.34 pchell.com
127.0.0.35 pestpatrol.com
127.0.0.36 safer-networking.org
127.0.0.37 secure.spykiller.com
127.0.0.38 secureie.com
127.0.0.39 security.kolla.de
127.0.0.40 spybot.info
127.0.0.41 spychecker.com
127.0.0.42 spychecker.com
127.0.0.43 spycop.com
127.0.0.44 spyguard.com
127.0.0.45 spykiller.com
127.0.0.46 spyware.co.uk
127.0.0.47 spyware-cop.com
127.0.0.48 spywareinfo.com
127.0.0.49 spywarenuker.com
127.0.0.50 spywareremove.com
127.0.0.51 spywareremove.com
127.0.0.52 stopzillapro.com
127.0.0.53 sunbelt-software.com
127.0.0.54 thiefware.com
127.0.0.55 tomcoyote.org
127.0.0.56 unwantedlinks.com
127.0.0.57 webattack.com
127.0.0.58 wilders.org
127.0.0.59 www.auditmypc.com
127.0.0.60 www.bulletproofsoft.net
127.0.0.61 www.cexx.org
127.0.0.62 www.computercops.us
127.0.0.63 www.ct7support.com
127.0.0.64 www.doxdesk.com
127.0.0.65 www.eblocs.com
127.0.0.66 www.enigmasoftwaregroup.com
127.0.0.67 www.free-spyware-scan.com
127.0.0.68 www.free-web-browsers.com
127.0.0.69 www.grc.com
127.0.0.70 www.grisoft.com
127.0.0.71 www.hackfaq.org
127.0.0.72 www.hazeleger.net
127.0.0.73 www.javacoolsoftware.com
127.0.0.74 www.kellys-korner-xp.com
127.0.0.75 www.kephyr.com
127.0.0.76 www.lavasoft.de
127.0.0.77 www.lavasoftusa.com
127.0.0.78 www.lurkhere.com
127.0.0.79 www.majorgeeks.com
127.0.0.80 www.merijn.org
127.0.0.81 www.mjc1.com
127.0.0.82 www.moosoft.com
127.0.0.83 www.mvps.org
127.0.0.84 www.net-integration.net
127.0.0.85 www.noadware.net
127.0.0.86 www.no-spybot.com
127.0.0.87 www.onlinepcfix.com
127.0.0.88 www.pchell.com
127.0.0.89 www.pestpatrol.com
127.0.0.90 www.safer-networking.org
127.0.0.91 www.secureie.com
127.0.0.92 www.security.kolla.de
127.0.0.93 www.spybot.info
127.0.0.94 www.spychecker.com
127.0.0.95 www.spychecker.com
127.0.0.96 www.spycop.com
127.0.0.97 www.spyguard.com
127.0.0.98 www.spykiller.com
127.0.0.99 www.spyware.co.uk
127.0.0.100 www.spyware-cop.com
127.0.0.101 www.spywareinfo.com
127.0.0.102 www.spywarenuker.com
127.0.0.103 www.spywareremove.com
127.0.0.104 www.spywareremove.com
127.0.0.105 www.stopzillapro.com
127.0.0.106 www.sunbelt-software.com
127.0.0.107 www.thiefware.com
127.0.0.108 www.tomcoyote.org
127.0.0.109 www.unwantedlinks.com
127.0.0.110 www.webattack.com
127.0.0.111 www.wilders.org


You can't go to those site's in any normal way of course. I'm just wondering, all of you who tell people to download Spybot, update it, and run it, and then download Ad Aware, update it, and run it, do you yourself ever do this?

That was what I did, and this was the result.

System information:

Windows XP, anti virii is AVG, Ad Aware is installed, and helping me clean up the mess Spybot left.

Your thoughts on this?





EDIT:

I opened the hosts file in the \etc directory and completly deleted every line of text, hit save, and then closed it. Now I can connect to Lavasoft.

Don't bother trying to actually uninstall the Tool bar, it doesn't work. Well, it will, for a few days, but it comes back. I just uninstall Spybot, I'll see if it comes back or not now.