I have a windows xp operating system. i use aol to connect to the internet(dial up), but lately i can't enter websites because eachtime i enter a web site in the i get redirected to "smart-finder.biz". i only anti virus i have running on my pc is avast. can any one tell me how i can over come it. any help will be great.

There's some sort of ad/spy ware on your system or a trojan. It is hijacking your browser. get ad-aware, spybot, and hijackthis, scan your whole computer. If you are doing virus scan, do an online virus scan from trend micro virus scan. From experiences it find virus that desktop anti-virus might not be able to find. Good Luck

Few things to try.. Download CWShredder unzip it, d. click cwshreder.exe, click fix, next, exit, reboot. Download Spybot S&D install, check for updates, download updates, restart spybot, click check for problems, tell it to fix all red items, reboot...if spybot asks to run at startup..let it...it will remove some stuff during its startup scan it couldnt while windows was running. If you still have problems then download HijackThis! to seperate folder, unzip, d.click hijackthis.exe, hit the "scan" button, scan button changes to "save log" button, save the log, copy/ paste the entire contents in the security/virus forum. Do state that you ran updated spybot and cwshredder without sucess. Please don't try to fix hijack items...most of what you see is harmless or even essential...someone here will look it over and tell you what to do next.