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 Post subject: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 7th, 2014, 5:53 pm 
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This started a few months ago. I could handle it but it's really has become inconvenient now.

I can't get any browser to work properly.


I have used Pale Moon (it's like a firefox sister) for several years now and hadn't had any problem till one of their updates a few months back. Starting with random crashes.
I'd figure the next patch would fix the problem and waited. When that patch came and went with no fix, and contacted the people behind the browsers. They weren't sure.

That's when I decided to download Chrome as it was recommended to me.
That was even worse. Every time I tried to get on Chrome, I got sent to a weird homepage, that wasn't even like a real url and got many pop up's telling me to update java with fishy links.
(I of course never clicked on any) My Java is up to date. I know this, through their official page.
But that alone causes my whole computer to freeze and go berserk. Only way out of would always be through the task manager. (you know when nothing else responds)
Which made me think I downloaded Chrome from a bad link.


I uninstalled it and ran a computer scan. Nothing.

So I then went to IE. Which using a Windows PC is already installed. So it wouldn't be a bad download.
I hadn't used IE in over a year as Pale Moon has always been my main.

Well when I tried to open IE. The exact same thing happens then, as when I tried using chrome.

A weird homepage and flooded with virus popups like "UPDATE JAVA" etc.


I still use Pale Moon as almost everything I can still run smoothly.
Facebook... Youtube, Wikipedia, eBay etc, are all fine.
But I get crashes say...

When I try view a Vine video.

*picture to show what I mean*


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Also when I opened Runescape's Solomon Store and went to view an Animation I thought about buying.
I got the same Crash.
I ignored this problem for awhile as I don't use Vine so it wasn't a big deal. But seeing how the same crash suddenly and always occur with the Solomon Store.
Now it's effecting me more. I don't know what a solution could be as I don't even know what the problem is.

Any ideas? Or help would be appreciated.
Maybe try a new Browser. If someone can give me a legit link? (though I don't honestly think I downloaded a bad Chrome, but I don't know what else)

Thanks.

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 Post subject: Register and login to get these in-post ads to disappear
PostPosted: November 7th, 2014, 5:53 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 7th, 2014, 8:27 pm 
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OK, well your computer is obviously infected with a virus. Getting that off would be the only way to fix things, but that may not be so easy. Try seeking out a forum like bleepingcomputers with knowledgeable people who might be able to help you.

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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 7th, 2014, 8:37 pm 
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If it's affecting all browsers, it's likely a browser plugin doing it because they are usually installed in a location that all browsers will access.

In chrome type into the address bar:
Code:
chrome://plugins/

In firefox (or firefox derivatives), go to the addons menu and click on plugins.

Look at all the names of the plugins and look up what they all do. Disable any that you do not need. You should immediately be suspicious if any of them are not known to you. If any of the names come up as reported viruses, your best course of action is usually to backup your data (which you should be doing already anyways), and reinstall a clean copy of windows. It's hard to be sure if viruses are really gone when you remove them, because it's often not just the one virus.


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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 8th, 2014, 10:35 am 
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Arceus wrote:
OK, well your computer is obviously infected with a virus. Getting that off would be the only way to fix things, but that may not be so easy. Try seeking out a forum like bleepingcomputers with knowledgeable people who might be able to help you.

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I'll just leave this here...

When was the last time you reinstalled Windows? Can you give us a list of installed browser plugins and installed programs?

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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 8th, 2014, 10:57 am 
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Earth wrote:
Arceus wrote:
OK, well your computer is obviously infected with a virus. Getting that off would be the only way to fix things, but that may not be so easy. Try seeking out a forum like bleepingcomputers with knowledgeable people who might be able to help you.

Image
I'll just leave this here...

When was the last time you reinstalled Windows? Can you give us a list of installed browser plugins and installed programs?


Well considering they said this:

Quote:
Every time I tried to get on Chrome, I got sent to a weird homepage, that wasn't even like a real url and got many pop up's telling me to update java with fishy links.


I don't find it outside the realm of reasonable possibilities. I see your point though.

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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 9th, 2014, 3:30 pm 
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As Mike said, it sounds like there's a plugin / addon that is hijacking all of your traffic. Pretty common, and fortunately very easy to fix.

First, check through your installed programs and look for any toolbars / adware junk. These commonly are installed with freemium / shareware programs, and can easily be remove. The uninstaller often doesn't remove the browser changes, so you'll have to do those manually as detailed below.

In Firefox/Pale Moon, go to about:addons and disable either everything, or those that you are not familiar with. On the left you should also see Plugins, and some of these you may wish to disable as well.

You can launch a browser in its safe-mode, which should disable all of these addons/plugins. Here's a link to do this in Firefox (I would assume Pale Moon is the same).

Chrome does quite well with their reset browser settings dialog, found in the advanced options of the program. Here's a guide to find it if you don't have any luck.

Internet Explorer should have similar options, but I won't bother detailing them since it's unlikely you'll end up using IE.

If none of these fix the problems, you may have some DNS entries that don't belong. It's not super common for this to happen, but if your DNS entries are set to a malicious third party, they could be giving you junk pages instead of what you'd want. Change these back to "obtain automatically", or to your own DNS preferences.



After ALL of that is done, don't forget to change your homepage back to whatever you'd prefer. Adware tends to change search settings as well, so while you think you might be using Google or Bing, you're actually using SuperSpeedyJunkySearch.com or whatever. That's the benefit to resetting the browser settings, as this should be wiped out.

Good luck!

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 Post subject: Register and login to get these in-post ads to disappear
PostPosted: November 9th, 2014, 3:30 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: All Browsers are Failing Me
PostPosted: November 11th, 2014, 8:46 pm 
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As far as Addon's or Plugins go. Nothing really there.
Pretty much just ABP and Hola. No plugins look suspicious. *nothing really there either*


I rarely get viruses as I don't usually download things. (I have gotten a virus from a Star Wars jpeg before *don't ask*)

I have changed Anti's. Got rid of AVG, a friend told me to try AVAST as that's what he used.
It found quiet a bit of threats. (thanks AVG) Got rid of most of them.

I uninstalled Chrome and somehow was able to download Firefox.
Every time I tried in the past, the system would read Palemoon as being Firefox.
Somehow I worked around it and have both installed.

I think most of my problems are fixed though truthfully I haven't ventured very far since my *problems*


Thanks for the help. I don't really feel shame asking others for help here, as I may have been an addicted computer user for 15 years, I'm still not very tech smart when it comes to fixing them.

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