Why the link was redirected by a so called "www.becoolsearch.net" when I use the search bar
It gave me a google search page but when I clicked the link, it was an AD redirected by "becoolsearch".
All Replies (3)
In a Windows OS, this problem could be caused by a virus that adds a few pesky lines to the hosts file, which is a Windows system file. To confirm this, open your hosts file in Notepad (see below). It's corrupted if you see some lines, probably at the end, like this (IP addresses could be different in your file):
184.107.64.188 www.google.com 184.107.64.189 search.yahoo.com 184.107.64.189 www.bing.com
The hosts file is found in the folder Windows/system32/drivers/etc (and it has no extension: the name is just "hosts"). You can edit it to remove those lines, if you run Notepad as administrator (you have to do that specifically, even if you are logged on as administrator); and to do that you might have to enable the Run As service first. Learn more about these steps at <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923947> (which pertains to Windows Vista and Windows 7 but applies as well for Windows XP) and at <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294676> (which pertains to Windows XP).
You should be careful to leave this line in the hosts file (like this--with no characters preceding those on the same line):
127.0.0.1 localhost
[This solution was provided by "gizmo1234" on <forums.techguy.org>.]
To spare yourself the trouble of doing this again next time the same problem arises, you can copy-and-paste the clean hosts file in the same folder. Leave the file name of the copy as "Copy of hosts" or change the name to whatever is meaningful (other than just the word "hosts", which won't be allowed). Then later, if necessary because of another instance of the same viral corruption, you can simply delete the hosts file that has become corrupted, and replace it with a copy of the clean version (copy-and-paste it, then rename it "hosts").
Modified by bvaughn
I can't find any file named Windows/system32/drivers/etc. I get to the drivers file but there is nothing in it that takes me where you say to go. [See image below] Can you help me?
