Adtomi

· Overview ·
· Origins ·
· Distribution ·
· Operation ·
· Risks ·
· Detection and Removal ·
· Research ·

Overview

Vendor Notes:

 from the web site: 'Since August of 2001, Adtomi has presented itself as an active network. We have recently ceased all support and operations of the network and are now working directly with webmasters and advertisers on a case-by-case basis. We have several networks, agencies, brokers and webmasters that are part of our contact list and we invite you to add your name. We will email everybody when we have new campaigns for you to run and if you are interested in a specific campaign, we can setup your campaign from there. We do require that you have a website, a network, or even just contacts to other webmasters or networks that have the ability to serve at least 5,000 impressions per day. In May of 2003, we paid out just under $47,000 to our client/partners.'

Alias:

 Adware/Adtomi [Panda]

Category:

Hijacker: Any software that resets your browser's settings to point to other sites. Hijacks may reroute your info and address requests through an unseen site, capturing that info. In such hijacks, your browser may behave normally, but be slower.

Adware: Software that displays popup/popunder ads when the primary user interface is not visible or which do not appear to be assocaited with the product.

Browser Helper Object: (BHO). A component that Internet Explorer will load whenever it starts, shares IE's memory context, can perform any action on the available windows and modules. A BHO can detect events, create windows to display additional information on a viewed page, monitor messages and actions. Microsoft calls it "a spy we send to infiltrate the browser's land." BHOs are not stopped by personal firewalls, because they are seen by the firewall as your browser itself. Some exploits of this technology search all pages you view in IE and replace banner advertisements with other ads. Some monitor and report on your actions. Some change your home page.

Similar Pests:

 Hijacker · Adware · Browser Helper Object

Origins

Group:

 Adtomi.com

URL:

 http://www.zestyfind.com, http://www.adtomi.com/

Date of Origin:

 May, 2003

Distribution

Prevalence:
  • Adtomi: < 0.00005%
    • More Info

    Clot Factor:
  • Adtomi: 3

    • The "Clot Factor" is a measure of how much a pest "gums up" a machine by adding registry entries, files, and directories. As more objects are placed in a machine, manual removal becomes more difficult and more error-prone.

    Operation

    Storage Required:
  • Adtomi: at least 1769 KB
    		•

    Browser Performance:

    		 Likely to slow performance of Internet Explorer.

    Risks

    Privacy Policy:

    		 http://www.adtomi.com/privacy.html

    Detection and Removal

    Automatic Removal:

    PestPatrol detects this.

    PestPatrol removes this.

    Manual Removal:

    		 Use "Add/Remove Programs" in the Windows® Control Panel.
    Stop Running Processes:

    Kill these running processes with Task Manager:

    Remove AutoRun Reference:

    Go To the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
    If you find the value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\v7gh03g7.exe, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.
    If you find the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\yahoostock, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.



    Unregister DLLs:

    Unregister these DLLs with Regsvr32, then reboot:

    Clean Registry:

    Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:

    Remove Files:

    Remove these files (if present) with Windows Explorer:

    Restore Settings:

    After following the instructions above, you will still need to restore your original settings and prevent this from happening again. Here''s how.

    Research

    File Analyses:

    More Info:
  • AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo!
    		•

    Research By:
  • PestPatrol's Pest Research Center
    		•

    Last Revised:

    		 April 25, 2005