Just bought some domaine names, but can't see them. they are redirected. best guess it is something embedded in firefox. i can't see anything though. help!

Question

I bought some domain names from Godaddy. when i type the name into my firefox address line, instead of going to the parking page at godaddy, where it should go, it gets redirected to searchpagefix and there is a message on the side that says looksafe has blocked a hijacking page, etc.. i've spent hours on the phone with godaddy. they say the problem is not on their end. they see my domain name (peter-maloney.com) on their parking page. i spent hours on the phone with Norton support, my security software. They ran tests and diagnostics and found nothing. I downloaded ad-aware and ran that, nothing. I looked for looksafe to uninstall, etc. and it doesn't show up anywhere on my windows 7 machine. any suggestions? did this looksafe thing somehow get embedded in firefox? do i need to reinstall firefox? would i lose all my favorites?

Answer 1

Bad redirects can result from a variety of causes, including (1) system level malware, (2) system level settings changes, (3) bad Firefox add-on, (4) Firefox settings changes, (5) other (depending on the nature of the redirect).
Here's what I suggest for tracking it down:
(1) Open the Windows '''Control Panel''', Uninstall a Program. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(2) Then, in Firefox, open the '''Add-ons page''' using either:
* Ctrl+Shift+a
* "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
(3) Check your '''Firefox connection setting''' in the Options dialog here:
"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button
The default of "Use system proxy settings" should piggyback on your Windows/IE "LAN" connection settings, but you also can try "No Proxy" to see whether that works better.
(4) Search for remaining issues with the '''scanning/cleaning tools''' listed in our support article: [[Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware]].
Are you able to get rid of the unwanted redirects?