RE: Google changes -- MIDRANGE-NONTECH

~~~how did you do that?
Actually, I did several things, then as it goes, I was wrong, I got ticked
and wanted to find out exactly what was going on.
I had downloaded the Google toolbar thinking gosh, that should be friendly.
It worked but the regular search triggered the popup blocker.
I killed everything to do with history & cookies. went over the ie security
settings, still popups.
Then I realized it was something called: clientman; by searching Google
again on one of the strings it was opening...

we have a child using this CPU so I was not sure what he may have clicked
'yes' on.
To correct my earlier post, it was spyware causing the crazy behavior.
Since the computer is practically new, I thought it was a default
combination of Google and detection of XP, and that Google had caved to
market testing on XP only for now.

smart and devious of spyware to hook into Google calls.
Odysseus marketing is the owner (if they are real) and the program installs
to Program files\clientman.
the articles online say it is smart enough to update itself from the mother
server to keep outsmarting these removal tools.

It is pretty hefty piece of work. Hard for me to completely get rid of. This
thing actually relaunched itself after I killed it in the process manager,
probably on my next Google click. Three active processes, bunch of DLL's,
yada yada...
Would be a good avenue for a worm too. There is a write-up (via Google
search on clientman) that suggests it knows how to change popular firewalls
to suite it's needs. Yet another reason not to use a windows firewall.
I feel sorry for windows techies in a big shop if this breed of spywares
start getting downloaded.


I tried giving the little guy 'user' rights but he can't install his games
then. He just turned 6 and 300 Mhz was not fast enough and he kept bugging
me for game-time. So we have been shifting around some "resources" to
everyone but me. I don't know how they get the new computer and I don't. I
think I have talked him out of dual booting with redhat, for now.



~~~but, Google does give you (at times) interesting behavior.
~~~Search for "weapons of mass destruction" but hit "I'm feeling lucky"
~~~instead of "Google search" and study the error message. Try
~~~some of the remedies...

Empire Poker is what I got, sometimes I wonder if I am the only one getting
these ads.

I will never get used to extra processes launching when I close windows and
programs. Not a good way to market to me.
Microsoft or someone is going to have to add a flag to prevent loading this
spyware class, I think they call it "Browser Helper Objects"
So dangerous compared to rock solid iSeries.

-Mark