Odd redirecting and sound bytes with all browser types

I've already done several scans with Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials. Nothing turns up. About 50% of the time I click a link, a window opens up in the background. I don't recall where it's going, I always close it. About 25% of the time I'll be redirected somewhere entirely different than the link should be going. And the same two sound bytes randomly play no matter where I am browsing. One begins with what sounds like a horse getting in a car wreck (weird, I know). The other sounds like a basketball player complaining about how he missed a shot or something. They'll randomly play, no matter what. The strangest thing is that my Wife's brand new XPS 17 did it right out of the box. This happens on FireFox, Google Chrome, and IE. I'm beginning to think it is my ISP, because they just got bought out. Or maybe something to do with my network? Can anyone shed some light on this? It is getting very old. Thanks in advance.

 

Are you using a router?

Very odd.

 

Strange indeed.
Did your wife's laptop immediately show the same syptoms after hooking up to the network?
Was any other computer already on the network at that time?
I'd at least try two simple steps; if applicable, reset your router to it's standard config and setup a new password and new wireless key.
And do a scan with the free version of HitmanPro3. (see sig)
Reconfiguring the router should be done with a known clean computer of course so perhaps it's best to do this using a Linux Live-CD (if you know how to) if no clean computer is available.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Hitman Pro found a bunch of tracking cookies, but I doubt they're the problem. I did reconfigure my router. Gave it all new passwords and generated new keys. This all started right about the time our ISP got bought out. Another thing I noticed since my first post is that if there are any ads on the page I'm viewing that contain sound, the sound plays automatically. I don't have to mouse over it or initiate it in any way.

 

Which ISP are you using? Have you contacted them?

If you're using a router are you using WEP keys or WPA2?

 

Yeah, make sure you are using WPA TKIP as a minimum, WPA2 CCMP is best. If you are still using WEP then it doesn't matter if you change the password, it's easily cracked... this sort of sounds like a sidejacking attack but it's pretty unusual. It's likely that your ISP's DNS servers are screwed up and handing out strange requests, you can try changing dns servers manually - use google's dns for now and see what happens.

 

[RESOLVED]

I went to the manufacturer's website and upgraded to the latest firmware for the router. All of the crap went away, and I'm browsing normally again. Thank you for all of the suggestions.