Experimental Box

 
Thursday, May 6, 2003
 
I built a separate computer for the sole purpose of experimentation. The motherboard is an ECS K7SOM+, a fully integrated board complete with a 1.2Ghz Duron CPU. This was purchased used on eBay for $60. The RAM is a 256 Meg DDR stick and the hard drive was a surplus 40 gig WD from my box of spares. The case selection was a mid tower for ease of construction and was the cheapest I could find at $38. Turns out it was a very nice unit. Into it went all components needed plus a floppy and CD-ROM drive salvaged from junk computers. On this platform I intend to test all those e-mail viruses going around, an FTP server and eventually Linux.
 
The machine was partitioned and set to dual boot Windows 2000. The Boot Manager from Partition Magic wouldn't work to my satisfaction so I turned that duty over to the W2K boot manager. One installation is a stable install for general use, the other is for sacrifice of my choosing. Both partitions are backed up using a program called Ghost. With that I can boot to a recovery CD and restore my system in ten minutes. Operating systems from Windows 95 through to XP Pro are at my disposal. OS of choice for this project is Windows 2000.
 
I get around the internet. All my software is pirated. When I hear of Bill Gates or Microsoft falling upon hard times I'll put a jar in the local post office to collect from them. Until then - boo hoo on them.
 
Most vendors allow downloads of trial software. From there it's simply a matter of going to a favourite Crak Site and downloading either the serial number or Key Generator. Badda Bing Badda Boom, fully functioning software. My favourite crak site wants you to download and install a toolbar from Integrated Search Technologies. If you don't then you have to click through a screen half a dozen times saying you don't want the installation. Eventually you can retrieve your file without the toolbar. First thing this does is reset your home-page to Slotch.com.
http://www.slotch.com/?&account_id=138770


They also provide your browser with a new search toolbar. There is a button to toggle it from regular "useful" searches over to one that conveniently allows you to search for porn and adult services. How handy!
 

 
When you reboot you find you have a new program: Power Scan. It prompts you to scan your system for viruses and lo and behold, it finds them! You have porn and porn links on your system. You then get bounced to a URL to sell you an eraser package, for only $86.20! Wow, what a deal!
http://www.interneteraser.com/index.html?ID=8342987
 

By looking in the Add remove Programs section I see a couple of new entries, Internet Optimizer, 164kb. Interstitial Ad Delivery by 1 800 Search Assistant, no size given. Active Alert, 164kb. ISTscv, 12kb and PAD Look-ups again by 1 800 Search Assistant, 3.17 meg. In removing the Interstitial Ad Delivery package you get bounced to a new URL to download an uninstaller. http://www.n-case.com/ncaseaduninstall.html

Going through the procedures in Add Remove Programs and the above uninstallers appears to have removed this Spy-Ware program from my system.

 

John Smith

 

 

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Editor : Timothy W. Shire
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