paulwatkins wrote:On my home PC I seem to be unable to pull up the LEC website. I just get a blank screen then get redirected to a random search page.
This doesnt happen with other web site addresses.
I've tried various programmes - IE, Firefox, Opera - but none of them work.
Amyone got any ideas?
It is possible you have either some malware operating or even a rootkit which is redirecting URLs.
What version of Windows are you using?
In the meantime, I'd suggest the following:
1. Go along, download & save a copy of
MS Security Essentials2. Unless you've a licensed copy of Kaspersky or Eset Nod32 A/V or I/S then remove whatever anti-virus you've got in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs or Control Panel > Programs & Features.
3. Reboot machine
4. Install MS Security Essentials from wherever you saved it. It is free to use as long as you've a valid copy of Windows. When it has installed it will update itself. When finished updating do a full system scan. do Clean Computer on anything it finds.
5. Go to
Malwarebytes and download the free version -- save it to someplace you know about.
6. Install Malwarebytes, then double-click the red/white icon on your Desktop
7. Run Malwarebytes. It will open with lots of tabs > you only care about 2 of them > Click Update tab > Check for Updates. It should update the database definitions. Click on the Scanner tab, Select Full System Scan > click Scan Now.
8. If it finds anything it will be listed in red. Click View Results > leave everything ticked and click Remove Selected > If it needs to reboot the PC to finish cleaning it will tell you so. Follow its advice.
9. It is possible you've got a root kit. This is something that loads (usually a .sys file) at boot time and then conceals itself from the Windows API so you can't see it. Seen quite a few of these recently.
10. Download Macafee rootkit Detective
HERE > extract it and run the program. Re-name any entries it finds
11. Download Rootkit Revealer
HERE extract and run it. Ignore the 2 SAC/policies entries. If it finds other thing then email the logfile to me.
12. Some would say the only true course of action after rootkit infection is format c: and re-install operating system and all apps & settings but I've had pretty good success doing the above.