[heisje]

the much touted "November 7 Meeting" must be over by now - is it not?

is anybody going to brief us about the proceedings and the conclusions?

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

heisje,

http://abw.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=548608979&f=179600589&m=3676021951

<font size="2" face="Verdana">Haiko


The secret of success is constancy of purpose. ~ Disraeli</font></p>

[heisje]

thanks, Haiko - the most suitable place to post, I presume . . .


affiliates vs parasites:

"if you cannot beat them, join them"

now that the Nov 7 meeting has elevated them to legitimacy, why not?
has it crossed your mind?



just a thought . . .

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

heisje,

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> "if you cannot beat them, join them"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Prior to the meeting, yes many were saying such, even some AMs /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

But, I can tell you that the meeting identified what the rules of engagement and fair play is so that they are not parasitic. Toolbars and plugins will not disappear, how they work and rules needed to be addressed and they were.

<font size="2" face="Verdana">Haiko


The secret of success is constancy of purpose. ~ Disraeli</font></p>

[ecomcity]

Here's a new one from some wank advertising firm seeking to take over and monitize all Browser search functions and even your destops...

"Parasite: HuntBar

http://allentech.net/parasite/HuntBar.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This record last updated Tue Sep 03 2002 17:05:00

Description

HuntBar is a toolbar providing searching features, which is added to every new Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer window.

It also changes your home page and search bar settings to point to HuntBar's servers, and automatically opens this search bar when it detects you using any other search engine.

Distribution

Through ActiveX drive-by-download at affiliate sites, possibly in pop-up advertising.

TrafficSyndicate, the makers of HuntBar, offer 'co-branded' versions of HuntBar which may be installed by other sites under a different name.

What it does


Advertising
No.
Privacy violation
HuntBar sends the domain name of the site being viewed, the domain name of any site previously being viewed and the title and any keywords in the current page to its controlling servers whenever a new site is viewed. It does this even if the toolbar is not turned on.

However, it does not (currently) use a cookie or unique ID to track visits across sites.
Security issues
Yes. HuntBar can silently download and execute arbitrary code, as an update feature.
Stability problems
None known.


Removal

TrafficSyndicate offer two removal programs. (Bottom of page; these have not been tested.)

Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D cannot yet remove this parasite.

Manual removal

HuntBar stores its code in a folder called 'MSIETS' inside the 'Common Files' folder in 'Program Files'. Before you can delete it, you must deregister its DLLs. There will be one called 'msiets.dll', and, if HuntBar has been running long enough to download some updates, probably also 'msielink.dll'. If you don't have msielink.dll you will only have to use the first of the two following commands.

Open a DOS command prompt window from Start->Programs->Accessories, and enter the commands. For Windows XP, 2000 or NT:

regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msiets.dll"
regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\mslink.dll"

Or for Windows 95, 98 or Me:

"%WinDir%\SYSTEM\regsvr32.exe" /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msiets.dll"
"%WinDir%\SYSTEM\regsvr32.exe" /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\mslink.dll"

You will need to change the path 'C:\Program Files\Common Files' in the above commands if your Program Files are on a different drive, or have a different name (eg. non-English Windows installations).

Having done this you can restart the machine and delete the MSIETS folder, along with the entry '{8A05273A-2EA5-42DE-AA75-59EA7D9D50D7}' inside 'Downloaded Program Files' in the Windows folder. You can also run 'regedit' and remove these entries from the registry to clean up if you like:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MSIETS
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MSIETSLink
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\{8A05273A-2EA5-42DE-AA75-59EA7D9D50D7}

After removing the software you may want to delete the shortcuts it adds to the desktop, start menu and favourites menu, and set your search and home pages back to normal (see Tools->Internet Options->Programs->Reset Web Settings).

Links

HuntBar portal
TrafficSyndicate, makers of HuntBar


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information about Scumware, Spyware and Parasites, their sources and their cure, visit our Parasite Index page and related Tech Links.

by Robert Allen, Allen Technology and www.allentech.net (http://www.allentech.net).

If you hack into a bank's computer systems and you get caught, you go to jail.
If you write a worm or virus and spread it around, if you get caught, yes that's right, you go to jail.
If you write a program that spreads a spyware agent on everyone's computer system (without their permission) and steals their private information (without their permission) and manipulates their Internet experience (without their permission), and you use other people's web sites to show your advertising (without their permission) and you make lots of money from their work in the process (without their permission) and if you get caught, guess what, you don't go to jail, you may get rich instead.

WebMaster Mike

[heisje]

do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich?



A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.


oh, well . . . .