Did they change the name of Hijack This to Alertspy or is Alertspy
something else?
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have never heard of 'AlertSpy'; I
know nothing about it. I first became aware of 'Hijack This' when I
had a similar problem. A program I knew nothing about was causing my
computer to try and go to a certain site immediatly on boot up.
Trouble is, the site had been discontinued, so all I would ever get
was a 404 message (immediatly on boot up, without even asking for the
URL.) I zapped the mysterious program but then on bootup it was right
back there doing its thing again, time after time. A friend of mine
said we would have to go kill it in the registry where it was hiding,
always looking for a way and time to restart itself. He told me where
to find Hijack This on the net; I got it and installed it. It gives
you many warnings in the process of installation, essentially telling
you if you don't know what you are doing, to get back out of the way
and find a _real-man_ to do the job. My friend talked me through it
over the phone, and once the proper registry entry had been located
and deleted, that was the last of the problem; at that point,
following the hijacking process, I had to turn the computer off, wait
a couple minutes then turn it back on.
I thought to myself at the time the spammers/hackers/whoever who go
and deliberatly tamper with your system registry in the process of
installing their crap should be ashamed of themselves. But my friend
pointed out 'this is the internet. There has been no shame around here
in years ...' When I first told my friend about the mess I was
certain I would have to do a fresh install of Windows to get rid of
it. But Hijack This cured it all, and even rebuilt the registry in
the process. PAT]
bob@coolgroups.com