Question

Virus has apparently disabled DNS

Asked by: llevy1

Hi,

I can't verify the presence of a virus, but my user reports after opening a suspicious email she was unable to browse.  This is a DSL connection, and the connection is made successfully, and she can ping by IP address, but she cannot resolve any names.  No matter what I try to browse to I get redirected to 'info.lookupanything.net..." If I try to browse directly to an IP address (say, 216.109.118.65 for www.yahoo.com) I get a 'page cannot be displayed' error.  This is on an XP Pro box, SP1, IE 6.0 SP2.

A virus check reports no infections, but she does not have the most recent patterns, and without the ability to access the (Norton) LiveUpdate, she may be in something of a catch-22.

Would appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,

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Asked On
2004-06-03 at 20:18:01ID21013049
Tags

dns

,

virus

,

disabled

Topic

Windows Network Security

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: Joseph_MoorePosted on 2004-06-03 at 21:42:10ID: 11229673

Check the HOSTS file on the system, and see if it has been hijacked or not.
Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc folder, open the HOSTS file in Notepad (no file extension; just called HOSTS).
Most normal people don't need anything in their HOSTS file, except for this one line:

127.0.0.1  localhost


That's it. Anything else in the file will over-ride DNS. So, if you have:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  www.yahoo.com

in the HOSTS file, then no matter what DNS says, when you go to Yahoo, you will go to the IP address listed (the xxx in my example).

So, check out the HOSTS file, and delete anything you see in there that shouldn't be there.

 

by: llevy1Posted on 2004-06-04 at 04:36:12ID: 11231453

Nope -- that's not it.  There is only the one entry in there, and anyway that wouldn't override ALL DNS entries.  I can't browse anything at all -- any site I key in.

Thanks anyway...

 

by: msicePosted on 2004-06-04 at 08:51:39ID: 11233894

 

by: llevy1Posted on 2004-06-04 at 17:25:22ID: 11237551

I already had 'Spybot' and it didn't catch it, so I was a little skeptical, but yes indeed adaware caught it and nailed.

Thanks again!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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