hi.html ??? (IE 6.0)

[Chuck Tucker]

After installing XP SP2 (or perhaps before -- I'm not sure) my friend is getting a pop-up window with "PopUp - Microsoft Internet Explorer" in the title bar. Then there is a message saying that the system (XP? or IE?, I don't know which) has restricted C:WINNThi.html. I had never seen hi.html before. Is this some sort of virus or what?

[DaveA]

SP2 comes with a Pop=up blocker, which is on by default. Go to "Tools, Pop-up Blocker" and select to turn it off.

[Chuck Tucker]

Hi Dave,

Gee, I'm retired too, but wonder how I ever had time to work. Most of my time is spend helping friends and people from my church with their computer problems -- it certainly is a learning process.

I realize I can turn off the pop-up blocker, but I'm wondering where this particular popup comes from. "hi.html" is very suspicious. And I would like to have it continue blocking popups if possible.

Also, I've never see such things on my computer and I have the popup blocker running. If all else fails I'll try turning the darn thing off.

Thanks for the advice.

[jscher2000]

Judging from the location, it does sound like a file "dropped" by a virus. Does your friend have a good, up-to-date scanner?

[viking33]

Chuck,
I couldn't find too much info regarding hi.html. I searched on my machine and there is no occurance here.
The definition I found was that it is an indexer and the date was 1995.
Here's what it says for all it's worth:

Its purpose is to generate a Resource Discovery database. This Robot traverses the net and creates a searchable database of Web pages. It stores the title string of the HTML document and the absolute url. A search engine provides the boolean AND & OR query models with or without filtering the stop list of words. Feature is kept for the Web page owners to add the url to the searchable database.

[Chuck Tucker]

I updated NAV and ran a full scan (she had 12 virus'), but this problem persists. Perhaps I need to scan again.

I found the same info Bob found, but I still don't understand where this popup is coming from. Next time I visit my friend I'll do a bit more snooping -- I ran out of time the other day.

[jscher2000]

Does it pop up when Windows is started, when IE is started, or randomly? If it starts up with Windows, or shortly thereafter, it may be in one of the many Run keys in the Registry. A program like StartupList or HijackThis may help track it down.

[Chuck Tucker]

As I recall it pops up when IE starts -- but I"m not sure, so I'll check it out next time I'm at my friend's.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[JohnGray]

Chuck

See if you can load it into Notepad, and post the contents as an Attachment, having first renamed it to be something like HI-HTML.TXT!

I found a number of instances of hi.html using Google, the worrying one being http://www.mcse.ms/message1061432.html

John

[jscher2000]

For posting here, please ZIP it up with a name such as suspicious.zip so that no one opens it accidentally.