Has your computer ever been hijacked? I think mine is.

@hulaboy (319)
Micronesia
July 31, 2009 5:49am CST
I'm inspecting my computer because i'm suspecting there is a malware on it and therefore been hijacked. There's a message that comes on saying that another computer on my network has the same ip address i have. But when i click my network map, there's no comp using the same ip address i'm using. I'm downloading free anti-virus softwares and scanning it. If i don't find anything, i will try the online av scanners like kaspersky, and panda. What do you think might be the problem?
11 responses
• India
1 Aug 09
Firstly can you tell is your firewall active or its inactive you did not mention it ....another thing is that even though you are getting such kind of messages check this with your ISP as they might tell you who it is and what it is. I think your system is not been hijacked but the thing might be that some 1 knows your id and password of you ISP provider this is what i think so just give a try and let me know what was the matter actually.
• India
2 Aug 09
Other than that you will be having OS[operating system firewall] check it out and see if its active or not because if its active it does not allow any outsider to enter into your system give a try and let me know with the result.
@hulaboy (319)
• Micronesia
2 Aug 09
my firewall is active but i don't know if its strong enough. Its norton firewall
@lhendrie (30)
• Indonesia
31 Jul 09
If your computer connected through network it is possible if someone else in your network using the same IP Address as you are. Usually this happens when you connect to the network with DHCP (direct connection). The network server will assign an ip address. And if someone also connect with direct connection there is a possibility the server will assign the same ip address for him, therefore your ip address will crash, and your computer will keep showing the message. And it will keep going on like that until one of you set a different ip address into you computer. So all you got to do is checking each computer in your network which one of them using the same ip address as you, and then change it. But if you are not using direct connection but you set up your network connection manually, you have to specify your ip address manually, and usually this is a set up from your network administrator. If this is the case, then you need to ask your network administrator for another ip address.
@hulaboy (319)
• Micronesia
31 Jul 09
Oh thats good to know. Thanks.....i thought wrong then.
• Philippines
1 Aug 09
is it possible? I thought I would not be possible. You see, there are standard met and systems are always being update to meet the international standards... If it happened in the past, then maybe they have already solve. or maybe not.
@amit2506 (233)
• India
1 Aug 09
No, never. As I am a ethical hacker I can smell the hijacker and warns him.
@icehut (508)
1 Aug 09
Let's say you connect your laptop to a friend's network, and their DHCP server at 192.168.0.1 assigns your laptop 192.168.0.2... You hibernate the laptop and return home. Let's suppose your home network uses the same subnet addressing 192.168.0.x and your home desktop PC is assigned 192.168.0.2 by your DHCP server at 192.168.0.1... When you bring your laptop out of hibernation and connect it back to your home network, the laptop's NIC (wired or wireless) thinks it's still on the same network as the gateway/DHCP server is at the same IP address and it's on the same subnet. This is when your home desktop PC notifies you that another computer has the same IP address. One NIC will give up and request a new IP address from the DHCP server, but the DHCP server will have a lease list of IP address allocations to specific MAC addresses - the physical address of NICs... Best solution would be to force both computers to release their allocated IP addresses and to request a new allocation. Now, if you have static IP address allocation on some of your computers, it may be that you've allocated an IP address that's also within the DHCP server's Pool... Either change the static IP to an address outside of the DHCP pool, or shift the pool to another range of addresses outside of your static ones... ^_^
@hulaboy (319)
• Micronesia
1 Aug 09
Thank you icehut for the descriptive explanation. I believe you are right. I am on a wireless network and that notification comes on after hibernation.
@EliteUser (3964)
• Australia
10 Sep 09
Hey, No my computer has never been hijacked/hacked into. Just get a good antivirus like Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 or something like that. Then you should be quite fine! Make sure you have a good day, Happy Lotting!!
• China
3 Aug 09
It is quite common that my ip adress was conflicted by others! my computer was lied in a big and complex environment,which we get the ip adress at our wishes,so other people always alter their ip adress when they can't open the web!
• Canada
31 Jul 09
I think my computer has.. One time I has surfin the web, when all of a sudden my mouse as taken over and the user typed in meatspin.com and at that point I force shutdown and system restore while shutting down internet for an hour. I was FREAKIN out lol. After that everything was normal and nothing elase happended
@arunmails (3011)
• India
1 Aug 09
It is probably ridiculous.. if your computer is hijacked, then it seems that your computer security alerts are not functioning.. make it clear that your security alerts are functioning,,,,
@wanpisu (207)
• Malaysia
31 Jul 09
If you have a network in your home. Probably someone use the same IP address with your computer. My network map cannot view each computer IP address in the network. You should check the IP address of each computer in the network to confirm that no computer use the same IP address with your computer. You can view the computer IP address by typing ipconfig in the command prompt. Good luck
@murtuza89 (513)
• India
31 Jul 09
Well, fortunately uptill now my PC has not been Hijacked. Im using my PC with Internet installed since past 10 years. However, I have not faced any such issues with my PC. I think the Hackers have been very Kind to me as of yet and I hope they remain the same.
@lovefei (21)
• China
31 Jul 09
I brought my laptop two years ago. But my computer has never been hijacked.I surf interent very careful and when i download some softwares.I will use some anti-virus programes to examine it.Don't open some strange emails and some strange website that strangers send to you.If you do that,i am sure your computer will refuse most of hijacks.