Hello Dick.

Hopefully this support article is what you need:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Searches+are+redirected+to+another+site

Also, just so you know, this kind of changes are often due to users installing other software (like firewalls, media players and things like that) that bundle "make SEARCH.COM your default search engine" with them. Some users forget to read what their doing and just press next next next, and this happens... Just for future reference.

solved the problem. i had didabled windows automatic updates, but somehow Microsoft sneaked it back on. found and update 3.0 something and restored the system to just before the date of that update.

damn Microsoft!!!