Hi-jacked!
My Internet Explorer home page has been hijacked by a porn site, and I can't reset it in Internet Options. Keith Bernstein
www.keithbernstein.co.uk

Jack Schofield replies: Home page and search page hijacking in Windows now make up the largest proportion of queries sent to Ask Jack. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer because several different techniques are used. However, most hijackers can be removed by SpyBot Search & Destroy or Lavasoft's Ad-aware www.lavasoftusa.com, so you should start by running these free programs. Aluria's Spyware El-iminator is another option, but it is a commercial program. If these don't work, read the article on Browser Hijacking at the SpyWareInfo website.

After you have your home page back, install Javacool Software's SpywareGuard. You could also consider installing Piotr Walczak's free Start Page Guard. Remember to keep updating SpyBot and Ad-aware because of new parasites and hijackers. You can support the anti-scumware movement by making donations for programs that are free for non-commercial use.

Uncool search
Whenever I start Internet Explorer, my home page is automatically set to http://search-town.net. I have tried changing it, deleted cookies & my cache, and run SpyBot to no avail.
G Cavanagh

· My home page has been hijacked by searchmeup.com, and I've run SpyBot, Ad-aware, and CWShredder to no avail.
Paul Blackford

JS: Search Town, Searchmeup and dozens of other hijackers are all versions of Cool Web Search, a very nasty bit of scumware. It can be removed by CWShredder and removal of the Searchmeup/ fake blank variant was added in CWShredder 1.41.0000. However, for it to work, you may have to restart your PC in Safe Mode. Andrew Clover also has a good account of Cool Web Search, with details of how to remove it manually. If you have been caught by Cool Web Search, then you have probably not installed all Microsoft's updates, and I'd guess you have missed the essential MS03-011 Security Update for Microsoft Virtual Machine published on April 9, 2003. Finally, you should also check that you do not have the Troj/StartPa-U virusanalyses/trojstartpau.html, which also changes the IE home page and drops links to pornographic websites.

360 degree
When I click the 360 degree views on the BBC website, all I get is a white screen with a red X in a box. Could you tell me how I can access them? Peter McGrath

JS: You need to have Java installed and enabled in your browser. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools|Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and scroll down to Microsoft VM to enable it. Although Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are now best buddies (and Microsoft is $1.6bn poorer), it might be a good idea to install Sun's Java from www.java.com/en.

Backchat

· Last week, John Mitchell found a keystroke logger on his PC. He reports that, after trying numerous programs, the full version of Pest Patrol removed it.

· Emails from Yahoo users reveal that its service varies among countries, including the amount of storage and POP3 access. For example, Carlos Perez-Palacio still has free POP3 access using Outlook Express with the Spanish version. "If you don't understand Spanish, you have to try to figure out where to look for the set-up instructions. After that, you don't even have to login into Yahoo.es again." Curiously, I just signed up for a mailbox at Yahoo.co.uk on Tuesday and was given 6MB of free storage with free POP3 and mail forwarding. This compares with 4MB and no POP3 on a Yahoo.com account.

· Stewart Boyle wanted to listen to his music files via a decent hi-fi. Stephen Parkinson says: "I now use the NetGear MP101 streaming MP3 player. It costs less than £100 and can cope with up to 320Kbps and VBR on my Wi-Fi network." However, Stewart says he has decided on an MP3 player, the Philips HDD120 recording audio jukebox.

· Re Surfing blind, Jon Bailey says: "The RNIB helpline is fine as far as it goes, but many independent local voluntary societies for the visually impaired have trial and demonstration rooms for computer equipment and specialist software, with skilled people (often blind themselves) to demonstrate and teach, free."