I was downloading a game demo and that came down fine, but other software was downloaded in the background and installed without my consent. I un-installed the other software and used regedit to remove any occurrence of the software from the registry.

The problem now is that when I type in the site name for the gaming site I am sent to the other site. The kicker is that if I type in the IP address instead of the name of the site, I go to the correct site. Is there a local table that IE uses instead of going to a name server to save time and is it possible that this software altered this table to tell it to go to the other site when this name is entered? I deleted all the cookies, put the site on my restricted sites. I will down load a spybot software just to see if anything is on my machine, but if there is a table for IE, can I alter it with the correct information or can I tell IE to not use the table and query the outside DNS server to resolve names

General Disclaimer - Happy Online would like to remind all visitors that they are responsible for their own computer settings - some suggestions may not work on some computers and may result in errors - you should only make changes to your computer if you are comfortable with any consequences that may arise.

The most likely explanation for this is that your host file has been amended so that if you go to the game site web address you are diverted to the other sites website.

To correct this do a search on your hard drive for the host file. When you have found the host file make a back up of the file as we will amend the details of the original.

Open the original file in notepad and look for a line which includes the web address - if you can find this line - delete the entire line - save this change.

Hopefully you will now be able to access the website.

Happy Online 14th July 2003

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