April 12, 2004

My friend has wasted most of a day trying to get past a piece of spyware on him computer. He finally threw in the towel and drove the machine over to my place (a 1.5 hour drive) where we worked on the machine for about an hour before we came up with the solution.

Adaware didn't find or fix the problem.

The only solution we could find was a software called SPYBOT that worked like a charm but there was a strange caveat there. I had to download the software onto another computer and burn a CD then install it on my friends computer and run it because everytime we tried to get to the download site on his computer the browser was hijacked to FREEDNSHOST.INFO.

We have no idea what the purpose of this hijack is other than possibly trying to make people click on things they don't want to click on in a desparate attempt to extricate themselves from the situation.

The problem was with a software that hijacked his computer to a website called freednshost.info. Basically any URL typed into the address bar would be redirected to FREEDNSHOST.INFO and then the computer would be bombed with popups and shortcuts to websites put on his desktop. The only information I could find out about the domain was this:

Domain ID:D5729537-LRMS
Domain Name:FREEDNSHOST.INFO
Created On:16-Mar-2004 15:23:02 UTC
Last Updated On:28-Mar-2004 21:24:37 UTC
Expiration Date:16-Mar-2006 15:23:02 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R170-LRMS
Status:ACTIVE
Status:OK
Registrant ID:C4459369-LRMS
Registrant Name:Peter Nova
Registrant Organization:Free Dns Hosting
Registrant Street1:92th Str.E.,Build.42-13
Registrant City:Cuba
Registrant State/Province:PA 5
Registrant Postal Code:null
Registrant Country:PA
Registrant Phone:+629.2561861
Registrant FAX:+629.2561861
Registrant Email:support@freednshosting.info
Admin ID:C4459370-LRMS
Admin Name:Peter Nova
Admin Organization:Free Dns Hosting
Admin Street1:92th Str.E.,Build.42-13
Admin City:Cuba
Admin State/Province:PA 5
Admin Postal Code:null
Admin Country:PA
Admin Phone:+629.2561861
Admin Email:support@freednshosting.info
Billing ID:C4459372-LRMS
Billing Name:Peter Nova
Billing Organization:Free Dns Hosting
Billing Street1:92th Str.E.,Build.42-13
Billing City:Cuba
Billing State/Province:PA 5
Billing Postal Code:null
Billing Country:PA
Billing Phone:+629.2561861
Billing Email:support@freednshosting.info
Tech ID:C4459371-LRMS
Tech Name:Peter Nova
Tech Organization:Free Dns Hosting
Tech Street1:92th Str.E.,Build.42-13
Tech City:Cuba
Tech State/Province:PA 5
Tech Postal Code:null
Tech Country:PA
Tech Phone:+629.2561861
Tech Email:support@freednshosting.info
Name Server:NS.JUSTHOST.BIZ
Name Server:NS2.JUSTHOST.BIZ

It's hard to tell from the info if he is from Cuba or Panama - The area code is not a valid North American area code.

I guess it takes all kinds.