WIN-XP ..History

[pennydog]

I have a question if someone can provide an answer or maybe a link to where the information will be.

We use an IBM Thinkpad that runs wireless from a router to our desktop. We use Win-XP, IE, DLS and occassionally I will use Mozilla if IE is acting strange.

My question is about the history. What does the history store; websites visited, websites searched and email accounts logged into? I use Yahoo for my personal email to chit chat with friends/family and I notice that it always shows my [email protected] in the history if I view it. Last night there was an unknown email address listed about a dozen times. It was [email protected]. Neither one of us recognized this email address, but it was in our history. How can this be? It was my understanding that actual emails sent or recieved were not stored in the history, is this correct? I have never seen any other email addresses in the history except for the 3 accounts we use.

Can someone explain how the unknown yahoo email address just shows up in our history on the Thinkpad? Thank you.

[Welshjim]

pennydog--The answer depends on what you mean by "History". And I cannot address your question about Yahoo, since I do not use it.
The History folder in Internet Explorer keeps a list of all the sites you have visited over the period covered in IE Tools|Internet Options|General tab|History. I think that if you "Clear History" there you will delete all entries in the History folder as well as Start|Run and any browser Address or Search line drop down entries.
You will not, however, delete AutoComplete entries. That is accomplished in IE Tools|Internet Options|Content tab|AutoComplete. And the list of Recent Documents is cleared in the Task Bar|Properties|Start Menu|Advanced window.
Concerning Yahoo, this is no answer, but rather a few comments.

it always shows my [email protected] in the history if I view it

I am not sure what you mean by "in the history ". (I use Outlook Express as my email program, and do not believe it stores a "history" of email addresses anywhere, except in the Address Book. And you can see I have not included email addresses in the above discussion.)
I suspect your ID@yahoo is being stored either in AutoComplete (if it appears when you start typing it) or perhaps in your yahoo.com cookie if it already appears when you open that yahoo page. The question about the appearance of other email addresses in "history" is one I cannot answer. In OE, there is a setting so that if I reply to someone's email, that person's email address is automatically entered into the Address Book.

[pennydog]

pennydog--The answer depends on what you mean by "History". And I cannot address your question about Yahoo, since I do not use it.
The History folder in Internet Explorer keeps a list of all the sites you have visited over the period covered in IE Tools|Internet Options|General tab|History. I think that if you "Clear History" there you will delete all entries in the History folder as well as Start|Run and any browser Address or Search line drop down entries.
You will not, however, delete AutoComplete entries. That is accomplished in IE Tools|Internet Options|Content tab|AutoComplete. And the list of Recent Documents is cleared in the Task Bar|Properties|Start Menu|Advanced window.
Concerning Yahoo, this is no answer, but rather a few comments.

I am not sure what you mean by "in the history ". (I use Outlook Express as my email program, and do not believe it stores a "history" of email addresses anywhere, except in the Address Book. And you can see I have not included email addresses in the above discussion.)
I suspect your ID@yahoo is being stored either in AutoComplete (if it appears when you start typing it) or perhaps in your yahoo.com cookie if it already appears when you open that yahoo page. The question about the appearance of other email addresses in "history" is one I cannot answer. In OE, there is a setting so that if I reply to someone's email, that person's email address is automatically entered into the Address Book.

Thanks Jim. What I mean by History is when you click on the history icon in the tool bar and it displays all sites visited. Last night there was a yahoo email address stored there "as sites visited" and we have no clue how it got there. If I log onto my yahoo account, it shows my [email protected], if we log on to hotmail, it shows [email protected], that is if we have actually signed onto the account. It never shows actual email addresses of people I send or receive email, only my main login and it shows as many times as I log in. I may not be making myself clear, because I am unsure myself, but last night the history link was clicked on and up popped [email protected] along with my personal [email protected]. It is almost like the unknown yahoo was logged into from my laptop.You cannot actually access my email account from this link if I have logged out, it just takes you to a screen that says error system timed out or cannot access this site, please log in. But plain as day there was another yahoo account showing in that view history window. I am having a hard time explaining where it came from since it appeared while I was using the Thinkpad. Thanks.

[pennydog]

Could my system have been hijacked or hacked? I logged on this morning and a little while later I looked at the history and there are 2 sites listed that I have not visited this morning. I just don't understand how things can be listed and I have no clue. Thnaks.

[Welshjim]

pennydog--I run neither yahoo nor hotmail. I use OE as the email app and comcast.net as the web-based email service provider. I have never seen an email address in History.

a little while later I looked at the history and there are 2 sites listed that I have not visited this morning

Site URL's (rather than email addresses) are a different matter.
Are you familiar with the 2 sites? Scheduled Tasks, such as automatic updates, can be accessing sites behind the scenes. But if the sites are unknown to you and look suspicious, then indeed, you should suspect malware.
You may want to consider this procedure
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=167915

[pennydog]

Thanks Jim. I will go to the link and see what I can do. We have OE as our defalut email and the only time I have ever seen an email address show up in history is when I log into my yahoo account, and then it is only my email address. The strange email appeared several times as if it had been logged into. I have no clue who it is or how it got there. Can someone hijack my browser to cause this or maybe use my wireless connection? I am at a loss, but it looks as tho someone accessed that email account from this laptop. Usually anyone with the least bit of computer knowledge knows that email addresses normally do not show in a history bar, but I wanted to be sure that was correct. Thanks.

[Welshjim]

pennydog--

Can someone hijack my browser to cause this or maybe use my wireless connection?

Yes, there is spyware (called dialers) that can launch email or phone calls to their "home" to report Lord knows what.
There is other spyware that can send email to other persons using your Address Book. Your PC is being used as a zombie. All the addresses in your Address Book are added to the spyware's list of addresses. These emails, of course, are usually promotional.

P.S. I gather you are talking about a History folder in Yahoo rather than IE's History.

[pennydog]

No I am actually talking about the history in IE. I tried to scan the laptop with housecalls and it shuts down halfway. I have antivir running and have scanned with it............nothing..............if my computer is being used as a zombie...what can I do.............I am shutting it down until I know what is up. Thanks for the help and please advise as to what I need to do.

[Welshjim]

pennydog--That is a bad sign. Try scanning in SafeMode. I presume you have AV and spyware detector apps on your PC.

[pennydog]

pennydog--That is a bad sign. Try scanning in SafeMode. I presume you have AV and spyware detector apps on your PC.

I was afraid of that Jim. I tried to get it to boot up in safe mode and it will not. I know I have trouble getting the laptop to boot in safe mode. I just rane the adaware scan and scanned with my anti vir. Yes I have the antivir pe classic and I use the windows firewall on this laptop plus our router has a firewall. I routinely scan with adaware and spybot.

I tried several times to boot up in safe mode today and it will not. I think it just happens by chance. I am working toward posting a hijack log, but owuld love to be able to scan in safemode first. Thanks.