FFox bug?

version 3.5.1

can't remember exactly when this started, wondering if anybody else has this annoyance:

Let's say you're looking at a Google search results page, with all the links blabla, and you do like I do and press the mouse wheel on a link to open in a new tab. Viola, junk redirect every time. The only way to open in a new tab so that I can actually see the page I want is to go old school and right-click/open in new tab. This is also occurring whenever a sub-link is clicked, ie a link to a different part of a large site.

I'm pretty noob at connection stuff, is it possible some proxy settings or something have been changed without me knowing?

solution: done

Never encountered this issue before. Provide us what this "junk" is?

Solution:
Export your bookmarks.
Uninstall Firefox (be sure to check the remove personal settings option).
Download the latest version.
Install latest version.

haymaker said:
Viola, junk redirect every time.

As omegaslayer says, can you please clarify this for us as it is important to diagnosing the issue.

Are we correct in inferring that when you click on a link you are being redirected to a different URL/spam domain etc?

If so then yes, likely you have some sort of malware/spyware that is causing your web traffic to go through a malicious proxy (in which case FatString's suggestion of installing another browser would not resolve the issue). Hijacking your google search results in this way is an extremely common attack vector, but usually the fix is fairly straightforward.

You need to check your hosts file - this is in Windows/system32/drivers/etc

Open it in notepad. It should look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
#    127.0.0.1       localhost
#    ::1             localhost

If there are any additional uncommented lines (ie not prefixed with a '#') then something has messed with your proxy settings. Delete them and you should be fine, but download something like Malwarebytes as you very likely have some form of malicious apps running. Also, get a decent antivirus... they're free these days, or get nod32 or kaspersky if you insist on paying. Also, turn UAC on - it will stop anything messing with hosts.

There are other ways of hijacking your browsing traffic besides the hosts file, but any of the above apps should sort them out.

Needless to say, if you do indeed have the above issue then, once you are certain it has been resolved, make sure to change all your passwords as all your internet activity could well have been going through a malicious proxy whose purpose is to extract passwords/bank details/personal data etc

Nice post Larchy, yes your definition of my term 'junk' fits the bill. Thanks for cluing me in on this stuff. Indeed there is an extra line in the 'hosts' file :

# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost

I've deleted it but have not tested it with a restart yet. Infections of any sort are extremely rare on this machine so I didn't even consider that.

That entry is fine so you can leave it alone - it's just the default local loopback address. It's not the same as the one I posted as I just c&p'ed my Win7 one without thinking and it's slightly different to Vista/XP - sorry. You can just re-add the entry though, no big deal.

If your hosts file is clean then something else must be causing the link redirection... which can be a malicious program running on your PC, some registry edits by malicious apps, and once I even encountered a malicious app that changed the proxy settings on the router that just had the default admin/admin login!

Usually they do edit the hosts file these days though... bit surprised it looks clean tbh.

Try dl'ing HiJackThis as it will tell you about any non-default changes to your PC's config.... a lot of these are legit (eg logitech setpoint in startup, msn/yahoo BHO's etc) but it should find any malicious stuff too.

If you're not sure about any entries, post the logfile and we can go through it!

Well that was a correct assumption about malware. Thanks for the tip. My previous experiences with viruses have been much nastier so I wasn't expecting something so innocuous. idk what malwarebytes dug up but it seems to have fixed it for now

Download Spy Bot S&D as well. Run it and see what it picks up.

Nice one, glad it's fixed.