Has anyone else had this problem?

[Immortal_Z]

When I try to go to neopets, or any link to it (such as Piggletta's page) it asks me to start a new account and that I've been refered by 4f8networks. I can't get to anything from any page now.

EDIT: now I can't even feed my pets from my inventory... the sign up page comes up instead!!!

[anjuna]

Hmmm, sounds weird. I searched for that name and found the neopets top referral link page.

Try clearing your cache and temporary internet files, maybe scanning for spyware, maybe rebooting, then try relogging in to neopets?

I used to have a similar problem with Firefox "holding on to my cookies" (trying to constantly "authenticate" them or such nonsense), even though I never used FF, just had it on my system as an alternate browser just in case, which prevented any login from IE, but this sounds like something different.

Good luck.

[Immortal_Z]

no, it didn't fix it, but thanks for trying.

[Rubywinged]

Best i can say is clear everything clear cookies clear temp files clear saved passwords. Run spybot if you dont have it go dl it. Run your antivirus (wich also sometimes snags spy/adware) If that doesnt work do a system restore from a few days ago... sounds like you have some sort of adware on your computer to me tho.

[Immortal_Z]

I did all those first thing. When it loads it says something like shoppingcamel.com/possiblysaysgohere/neopets/somethingorothergoeshere

[Rubywinged]

yeap searching for shoppingcamel shows that you do indeed have ad/spyware.

*edit*

Also it says that spybot would not have caught this.... do you have norton? did you run it? (they often show how to remove such things) The only sites i was able to find help on was:

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=71856

I hope that you are able to find help. If you want to try to fix it yourself I would do a system restore a day or so before you first noticed the problem it may be a heck of a lot easier then doing what people on that topic i pointed you towards show. However the people there SEEM helpful and I belive i have had to follow directions on that site before. However with you and what you have on your computer I would suggest signing up on that forum and starting your own thread...

Hope I was helpful!

[Immortal_Z]

*swears* I pay 10 dollars a month to keep this junk of my computer! Stupid piece a crap securit... and I just did a system restore this morning to fix something on itunes, and it wasn't like this yesterday.

[anjuna]

I hope you have Ad-Aware / Ad-Watch at least.

Try a Panda online anti-virus scan.

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

If it is a broswer hijack it helps to use Security Task Manager or WinPatrol.

You can find other anti-malware utilites at my eSnips page:

http://esnips.com/web/anjunasOtherStuff

Hijack This is highly recommended. A rollback (system restore) will not always cure such things as spyware, viruses, trojans, worms. You need to clean them from your system by using utilities and your own knowledge.

Try arranging your main Windows System folder(s) by date modified and see if you see anything suspicious there (a recently dated suspicious .exe file, for instance). There might also be things buried in Program Files and other places like shared application folders.

If you need more one on one help, I am willing. Helps if you have an instant messenger of sorts. I am on MSN (now Windows Live) AIM and Yahoo. Much luck to you, I can even send you the best utilities that I use.

EDIT: You could also just try searching your System for the word "shoppingcamel" and see if it comes up with any file or prefetch by that name (Start > Search > Find Files and Folders). Sometimes you can catch 'em easy.

EDIT 2: Oh, and hit Ctrl+Alt+Dlt to see if anything odd is running in real time. Sometimes you can see the file name (again usually an odd .exe) and any possibly related files from there, too.

EDIT 3: As for paying for security, my advice is: Don't. I use AVG Free and a swarm of other utilities, plus my own brain and eyes and 10-yr experience (yes I remember when spyware didn't exist!) and I still catch some that pass by all my usual (regularly updated) defense utilities.

EDIT 4: Sorry this is so long. If something persists beyond all this, it may be so naughty as to be in your startup (msconfig), too. You can go to Start > Run > (type the word) msconfig > Startup (tab) and see if there are things there that shouldn't be. That is not the only place things can be buried, but common shopping spyware shouldn't be too much trouble, honestly.

Again, PM (or IM or e-mail) me if you need more help. I am more than glad to assist with such troublesome things. Ever since I got and rid myself of the recently infamous TheMatrixHasYou time bomb explosion, I can empathize, sympathize, and be glad to assist.

Here's a help page for such. Apparently the advice worked for this person, so I think you should be all clean soon.

I searched an exact term for shoppingcamel at Metacrawler.com and it comes up with a lot of additional instances. Looks like it is something very common, and most likely an updated Ad-Aware/Ad-Watch would catch. Avant Browser (and Orca Browser) also blocks such common spyware URLs by default. But it doesn't support the Neopets toolbar. (Awwwww.)

[Immortal_Z]

our local ISP provided this scurity company. They can actually link to your computer and fix the problem themselves. I'm contacting tech support right as we speak.

EDIT: their server is too busy, so I'm trying the scan you reccommended

[anjuna]

Amazing. By remote access? That alone is a security risk in my opinion but I have strict rules for my personal computing, heh.

One would think such an ISP (such as as the famous xs4all) would prevent such from even getting to you.

Good luck with tech support. I hope they treat you well. In my experience it is never worth relying on such and can be sooner solved on one's own.

EDIT: The small utility Hijack This usually finds and gets them all in less than a minute. Otherwise any decent spyware utility like Ad-Aware/Ad-Watch should catch it. I didn't think ISP's even supported shopping spyware. They wouldn't even support my "Microsoft Windows" problem when I told them the reason my internet kept ketting logged off and on every 30 seconds to 2 hours was due to them not telling me that a Windows default firewall does not allow incoming ICMP (nor about the CRC checksum being off or on mattering, on my common/standard NIC card). I wrote them back saying something about well I assume most of your residential customers use Windows and if you are not prepared to alert them to common problems, then I saw them losing a lot of business. They thanked me for my words after that.

I bet if you just do a couple of things, you can have it done before you're off hold.

Last edited by anjuna on Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Immortal_Z]

well that's not fair, it says I need to pay to get it disenfected (from your scan). I guess it's time to go diving in my hard drive for my adaware 6 installer.

EDIT: and earlier, I ment provider instead of provided and I ment to put reccommended after provider...

Last edited by Immortal_Z on Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

[anjuna]

Try some of the other simpler methods I listed above. Best to instant message me on anything and I can likely help you solve very soon.

It is only shopping ware. There is a method to the madness.

Try the ctrl-alt-dlt first, then msconfig, maybe check win files while you scan for spyware (by the way the point is more to pay attention to what Panda tells you, it is a recent thing they charge for disinfection). Regardless, you don't need to pay anyone anything to get this done fast.

My point is, some things you can delete by finding the file name alone. You don't always need a utility. If you do, Hijack This is the default anyway. Plus all I listed above and on eSnips, all free. I can send you files of all the best simple utilities here and now in real time if you like.

EDIT: Aww, heck. Just download Hijack This and send me your Hijack This log and I will find the problem(s) and tell you just how to eradicate it.

[Immortal_Z]

alright, I have hijack this somewhere on my computer... I'll send it to your MSN name. I assume it is mailto:psygirl604@hotmail.com? All you have on your lookup is psygirl604

[anjuna]

mailto:psygirl604@msn.com

I messaged a person on Yahoo, but don't know if it is you (hotwheelsracing2004)?

[Immortal_Z]

ya that's me, I'm not signed on