Everytime I search something in the firefox address bar for it to automatically find the site, I am redirected to a place called Sitelutions instead of my page.
Basically, every time I enter a search into the address bar (like "google" or "facebook" with out the .com extension) I get redirected to a page which seems to be owned by Sitelutions telling me:
"The website google{hpfromuri} is (or was) utilizing the Sitelutions Redirection Engine. Unfortunately, the URL has been entered incorrectly, or the site has been deleted by its owner. Below are some of our other services and features that we offer."
(heres the URL) http://domainpark.sitelutions.com/redir_not_found/redir_not_found.shtml?google{hpfromuri}
Normally it will go to the page directly. I am thinking it could possibly be some kind of Trojan or some spyware may have crept its way on to my computer and is causing this, but my virus software is not picking it up (Avast! and Malware Bytes).
Any suggestions?
All Replies (4)
Check the pref keyword.URL on the about:config page.
To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
Unfortunately that did not work. I am beginning to think that this may be some kind of Browser Hijack. I've now tried uninstalling firefox and deleting my personal settings and addons, then reinstalling. This also did not fix the problem.
I'm not sure what to do at this point in time. Any other recommendations would be appreciated.
Could be caused by Malware, or even a Rootkit virus, but re-directs caused by either of those usually affect pages loaded from a Search webpage - not from the Location bar.
Install, update, and run these programs in this order. (Not all programs detect the same Malware.) They are all free for personal use, but some have limited functionality in the "free mode" - but those are features you really don't need to find and remove the problem that you have.
Note: If your Malware infection is bad enough and you are mis-directed to URL's other than what is posted, you may have to use a different PC to download these programs and use a USB stick to transfer them to the afflicted PC.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
SuperAntispyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/
AdAware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Windows Defender: Home Page - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/prod.../default.mspx
If these don't find it or can't clear it, post in one of these forums for specialized malware removal help:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/index.php
http://forum.aumha.org/
http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/
http://bleepingcomputer.com
As far as being caused by a Rootkit infection, see this Google search:
redirect Rootkit
It could be your ISP having a deal with Sitelutions to redirect you in case of unsuccessful search. I had a similar redirection with Verizon, but the redirection page also offered the possibility to cancel this behavior, which I did.
It is usually better to use the Search field rather than the address bar even for site names. The former will use a search engine such as Bing or Google, while the latter relies on the DNS server that has limited search functionality. Basically, it will check if the string you typed exists in its database. If not, it may ask a few other DNS servers around, and that's it.
Usually, the DNS server you are connected to is provided by the ISP, but some malicious software might force a specific DNS server on your computer, so it can make money displaying ads, for instance. To verify it: - Open the Control Panel - Open "Network and Sharing Center" - Click "Local Area Connection" - Click "Properties" - Select "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) - Click "Properties" Normally, the radio button "Obtain DNS server address automatically" should be selected. Any forced DNS server IP address is probably a malicious attempt. Write the IP address down, disable it and restart your computer, to see if your address bar searches work better.