script exploit messing with my computer

[luvvbuzz]

a couple of days ago i was merrily surfing the internet when i went on a site with a load of pop ups. suddenly my zone alarm alerted me that two new things were asking permission to access the internet, so i told it not to let the access the net. now when ever i restart my computer the homepage is reset to some search portal, even though i keep reseting the homepage to blank.
i have run adaware and spybot and still it is hapening. how can i stop this from happening? and surely it must be illegal for them to keep hijaking my homepage settings on my computer like this, doesnt that infringe on my privacy or anything?

[iooi]

I think they usually get round the legallities by having one of the pop up windows saying set to home page.... Usually about the 23rd one so you are so pissed off you dont read anymore.....
A google search should yeild some results on how to remove the problem. Have a look at programs running at start up as it might be in there or add remove programs. You will most likly end up editing the registry to remove the problem though.
Which page does it direct you to ?

[Ripper2860]

Could be a version of JS.Exploit, which hijacks your browser and points it to a new home page. This really is a form of computer virus and not Spyware, so Adaware and Spybot are really not the appropriate tools. If you don't have A/V installed, get it. If you do, get the latest signatures and do a full scan of you hard drive(s).

[holistic]

hijackthis : http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

tutorial : http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html

Learn it, Use it.

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[luvvbuzz]

just updated my avg, it found the virus straight away, it was called startpage, i have healed it and removed it.
cheers