Griz

Ok,

Here's something I've never encountered since I converted to Mac religion...

I open Safari, it goes to my homepage and in a couple of seconds it opens another tab (that forces itself to be the main tab) that heads to a variety of advertising, everything from adult stuff to computer stuff...WTF???

So far I've:

Ensured popup blocker is checked/adblock is updated/etc. (the "duh" stuff).
Reset Safari/cleared caches/cookies/etc.
Repaired permissions
Called the browser various names.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on with this? I am using the latest/greatest/uptodatest version of Safari.

**In an odd sort of way, I must admit it's somewhat nostalgic as I feel like a frustrated windows/PC user all over again!

eMacMan

What is your homepage? Have you tried setting to different Homepage? What were the results?

Have you tried the same homepage from a freshly created user account?

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chas_m

Something there is DEFINITELY odd.

Check your Tabs preference in Safari and UNcheck the middle option ("make it active") if its checked. That won't solve the mystery of WHY you're getting a new tab, but it will stop the tab from becoming active.

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johnnyspade

It's could be that those popups are being called by the homepage and not from Safari. If you post the homepage URL, I can check this. You could also try visiting the site in another browser to see what happens.

Polygon

Sounds like you may have caught a trojan horse. There's one in particular called RSPlug which, among other things, is able to redirect your computer to a rogue DNS server. Though you may not have RSPlug, the behaviour you're describing certainly sounds like a trojan.

The Doug

Just a thought, couldn't this be the result of some kind of malicious javascript hack on the homepage itself?

In addition to trying the homepage with another browser, maybe try it again with Safari but with javascript disabled.

CubaMark

By any chance, are you running the AnchorFree HotSpot Shield IP address masking program? (green or red shield in the menu-bar, top-right)

I've noticed lately than whenever I have HotSpot running, and do a Google search, it immediately redirects me to its own list of search results...

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Griz

Hey guys,

Thanks for the great responses!

I'm starting to believe that it might be the home page itself as mentioned. They recently just changed it a bit, but now a completely other page has started doing that.

I suspect someone is, as mentioned, hacking websites.

I will look at much of what was suggested with thanks!

Chas - yeah, weird thing - already unchecked (I like opening 5 pages of a search, and then working through them so I keep that unchecked all the time.).

I did a several scans too, permissions, clean ups, etc. Weird indeed!

CanadaRAM

This sort of thing can be done several ways - one is to hack the localhosts file on your machine, one is to poison the DNS tables of your ISP.

You can do a check of your server's by manually changing your DNS Server settings to the OpenDNS numbers, http://www.opendns.com/ 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

You can also try flushing your DNS Cache
Mac OS X – Clearing DNS Cache Inert Ramblings