Re-direction Annoyance

I am experiencing a really annoying problem which seems to be related to WIndow 7

On several occasions, when I click on a link in for example a newsletter or website, Instead of opening the target page, I am being redirected to what appears to be a marketing or statistics gathering website, which just opens a blank page, with the word 'Done' in the status bar at th bottom of the page.

I've recently upgraded my laptop PC to Windows 7 and using either IE8 or Firefox 3.6, the problem is just the same.
For example, in the TechRadar's Weird Week newsletter, there is an article on 3D TV and there is a link to 'read more' which contains the address :

http://futuremail.net/In/5784022/0/M-nVhH7…86OPOwXW217Rmq/
However, when I click on the link, instead of opening the desired page, I am re-directed to the following address :

http://uk.sitestat.com/future/techradar/s?…-gimmick-679178

This re-direction problem is happening on several links on other websites, although not necessarily to the 'uk.sitestat.com' site. If I follow the same links on my other PC which is running Windows XP and IE7, the correct website opens and I did not experience this problem on my laptop, before upgrading.

I have carried out full system scans using Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, Ad-Aware and Malwarebytes but none of them found any malware on my laptop.

I have set the 'Advanced Privacy Settings' as follows :
'Override Automatic cookie handling' is ticked.
'First-Party cookies' are allowed.
'Third-Party cookies' are blocked.


I would really appreciate any help with this annoying problem before I tear my hair out (What little I have left !)

Thanks

Hi GrampaBill, and welcome to WTT Forums. Using my XP Home system, I navigated using the two links that you posted. with Firefox 3.6x and IE 7.0 Both arrive at: Why 3D TV is just a pointless gimmick, written by Richard Cobbett I also wandered through the online version of Techradar Newsletter to see if I could discover any wrong-doing. Found nothing. It appears that both links are working properly, and the one is an intentional re-direct built into the Techradar Newsletter ______________- As to a "Read More" feature – I simply didn't see one And I didn't get any blank pages with "done" at the bottom. _______________- What "Phishing filter" features do you have set? Have you installed the latest JAVA JRE 6 x 19 ?

Thanks for your reply Doug - much appreciated.

As I said in my original post, the problem seems to be associated with Windows 7. The reason I came to this conclusion is that the problem shows in both IE8 and Firefox and I have also tried using Google Chrome since my original post, and the problem also exists using that internet browser, so I think it's reasonable to assume that it's not browser related.

Before I upgraded from Win XP Pro / IE7, to Windows 7 and IE8, the problem did not exist on my laptop and also, it does not exist on my other PC, which still has Win XP / IE7.

With regard to your comment about not seeing the 'Read More' link, I apologise - that should have been 'Read the Full Story' …….The website which shows the full newsletter in question is : http://futuremail.net/IN/M-nVhH74QgKmh2-OC…mq/WebView.aspx

If you scroll down to the article 'TechRadar says…. Why 3D TV is just a pointless gimmick', at the bottom of the shortened text, you will see a link 'Read the Full Story'. This is the link which has the properties : http://futuremail.net/In/5784024/0/M-nVhH7…86OPOwXW217Rmq/ and is the one which causes the rediredction to http://uk.sitestat.com……….

Incidentally, I now find that every other external link on the TechRadar page re-directs me to that http://uk.sitestat.com website !!! but only on my laptop - my WIn XP / IE7 PC accesses the correct pages.

As far as your other questions are concerned, Phishing protection is provided by my Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 program and my Java version is Java ™ 6 update 19. I am not aware of a facility within Kaspersky, to set any degree of Phishing protection - it appears to be either on or off. However, I am well experienced in recognising Phishing attempts………

You may have a bad DNS entry that has been cached. Let's see if clearing the DNS cache and restoring the Hosts files helps.

Copy and paste these lines in Note pad.

@Echo on
pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc
attrib -h -s -r hosts
echo 127.0.0.1 localhost>HOSTS
attrib +r +h +s hosts
popd
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset all
netsh int ip reset all
shutdown -r -t 1
del %0

Save as flush.bat to your desktop. Right click on the batch file and choose to run as Administrator.
Your computer will reboot.

Let us know if the problem persists.

When I click on those links with SeaMonkey/FireFox I get

Failed to Connect

The connection was refused when attempting to contact uk.sitestat.com.

Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.

Similar error with IE8. All on Windows 7 Pro X64.

Thanks for all your help and comments - I've found the cause of problem and can hardly believe it !! If I temporarily disable Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and then click on the links, they all work perfectly !! I shall get on to the Kaspersky forums and see if I can find a reason why it is causing the problem and if there is a solution. Thanks again

Thanks for letting us know, GrampaBill, And yes, I'll be interested in hearing what Kaspersky has to say.

It seems that I need to add blocked websites to a 'White List' in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 - What a PAIN !! I think I'll ditch Kaspersky and find another AV program. I only installed it because my bank has an agreement with Kaspersky to supply the full program and its updates, free to existing customers. I previously used the free version of AVG and had no real problems. However, the free version of AVG does not offer full protection, so I thought it a good idea to take up the offer, since I had heard and read good reports about Kaspersky. Thanks for all the help, advice and comments - they are truly appreciated EDIT Further to the above remarks, I have now ditched Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and in doing so, it has cleared up two other problems which I was having on my Laptop. 1. I have a 'Hit Counter' on my website (simple HTML code insert) and it was not being displayed, when viewing the website on my Laptop. It was OK on my Win XP box but try as a might, I could not make it display on my Laptop. Having removed Kaspersky, it can now be seen on my website. 2. I had noticed a general slowing down of my laptop but did not relate this to the installation of Kaspersky. Having removed it, my laptop is back to its normal speed. All in all - not a happy experience with that software…………….