Cleaning Browser Redirect Virus

How many times has this happened: You're on google, click on some search result, which initiates a chain of web page redirections to various malicious websites? Well, you're not alone. There are a lot of articles explaining how to clear such issues on Windows or a Mac, but come on people! We're one and a half decades into the 21st century! Most people are now surfing on their smartphones and tablets, which means iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry must be taken into account! I'll cover the 1st  two here, but the same concept should work on any device.

STEP 1: Clear Browsing Data

That's right. Start with the basics. Clear ALL browsing data: history, cache, cookies, everything. Pretty standard stuff.

STEP 2: Change Your DNS

OpenDNS is built on four cornerstones: safety/security, speed, intelligence and reliability.

Okay, I don't know why this works, but it just does! When you surf the web, your device connects to the internet through a DNS server. The default server is provided by your service provider, but by all means can be changed if necessary. We are going to switch to OpenDNS.  I'm going to assume you're browsing through wifi. With that said, here's what you do:

iOS:

Go to Settings > Wifi and edit the network you're connected to. Change the DNS to 208.67.222.222. You should be fine now.

Android OS:

Go to Settings > Wifi, long click the network you're connected to and select Modify Network Config. Enable Show Advanced Options. For some reason, Android doesn't let you modify your DNS unless you use a static IP Address.....whatever. Go ahead and switch the IP Setting from DHCP to Static. Scroll down to DNS 1 and change it to 208.67.222.222.

That's All Folks

OpenDNS seems to offer much better security than my service provider. This fix has worked in most cases I've seen. I'd love to hear your results in the comments. Enjoy!

-Niranjan