Conduit search. Am I paranoid?

Yes. It is a browser hijacker. Sounds like your firewall might have done a good job in blocking some things until you removed this.
Conduit search

Search hijacks can definitely cause useability issues with browsers. I had problem once in which one of my browsers wouldn't print. It would just stall in queue. Turns out it was PUP which installed without permission with another app. AdwCleaner got rid of it.

Download Spybot and it will help to keep out some of those bad bugs. It found and blocked conduit for me.

I think I am rid of it. I actually, on that computer, installed, what I considered, legit software and had it ask if I wanted Conduit as my preferred search engine with the box prechecked. It may have ignored the fact that I removed the check.

I, now, stay away from uTorrent and now CNet, which I used to trust. I pretty much distrust anything that says "FREE".

I have found that it is a good practice to check my "Uninstall a Program" feature regularly with programs sorted by date installed, most recent first. That way, no program can be installed without my knowledge. Of course, that wouldn't help in this case because no program was installed.

One other problem that appears sometime is Sweet Packs. I have had to run Malwarebytes in Safe Mode before, to get rid of Sweet Packs.

Sweet Packs is what prevented my browser from printing. Don't use CNET's installer. Only use the direct link option. If they don't give one, go to the developer's site to download instead.

I also got Conduit from CNET. I won't use CNET again.

I problem was that I didn't know what the problem was until Spyhunter eliminated it.

8.1 Van wrote:

tenbear wrote:
I also got Conduit from CNET. I won't use CNET again.

How do I get rid of Search Conduit?

I was in the process of setting up my DW's new computer when I got it. I tried many things but I finally reinstalled windows from my CD backup.

If using Firefox, browse to about:config and search for 'new tab'

Even after removal, it likely has set itself to the url used when opening a new tab in a browser window.

Also, after removing Conduit and BEFORE REBOOTING, browse your registry to 'Run' and 'Run Once' and remove the entry related to the uninstall.

In FF, you may want to check your search engines and make sure you remove Conduit items.

Not bad, but needs extra attention to completely remove.