[WEB4LIB] Xupiter Hijacks Browsers

[Stacey Kimmel]

Hi,

I had problems with IE 6 which coincided with uninstalling Xupiter on my 
home PC -- IE would not launch, and IE errors appeared even when working 
in other applications. Uninstalling it, plus running some generic 
cleanup (disk cleanup, scandisk, scanreg /fix and defrag) resolved the 
IE errors. These driveby downloads are particularly hard to troubleshoot 
with users over the phone, since the most are unaware anything has been 
installed on their system, and they're so used to popups and other 
intrusions that they don't notice it..

I'd sure like to know more about what search habits, or search sites, 
tend to put users at risk for getting these uninvited guests...

Stacey Kimmel
Lehigh University

Robert Sullivan wrote:

>According to a story in Wired (mentioned on Eric Meyer's site),
>
><http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html>
>
>Xupiter is a browser toolbar which changes home page and search settings
>to Xupiter's site.  We have had infestations of similar pests in our
>Gates PC lab.  This one sounds like it's particularly hard to get rid
>of.
>
>Bob Sullivan  <rsullivan at sals.edu>
>Schenectady County Public Library (NY)  <http://www.scpl.org/>
>Schenectady Digital History Archive
><http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
>
>  
>