ML>another one i've seen is the distributed.net dnetc.exe client listed as a
ML>PUP... there were folk getting it onto machines that they didn't have
ML>permission to put it on... they were doing this to build up their
ML>"farm" of machines contributing work under their account... 
ML>dnetc.exe got flagged as a virus for a while because of this and 
ML>then it was finally listed as a PUP... you are specifically running 
ML>it, it is neither a virus nor unwanted ;)

 EV> That one sounds to me like something a user on a UNIX system might
 EV> try doing.

nah but it is available for numerous platforms ;)

distributed.net's dnetc is one of, if not the first, distributed processing
apps where you "donate" your computer's idle time to work on projects with
thousands of other people... dnet was the main group working on bruteforce
cracking of items encrypted with DES... DES was the US gov't's authorised
encryption standard... the idea behind any encryption is to keep the data safe
from prying eyes until such time as it is no longer highly valuable... dnet's
huge group of volunteers were able to crack a short message in a very short
amount of time and this forced the US gov't to rethink their policy and change
it to use better encryption... now dnet is working on two projects... one for
OGR (Optimum Golum Rulers) and RC5-72 (which uses a 72bit RSA key)... the
initial RC5-56 project was completed in 250 days back in 1997... the next
project, RC5-64, was completed in 2002 after only 1757 days... for an idea on
the size of the keyspace for RC5-64, it took the project 1638 days to go thru
75% of the total keyspace... that was over 51 billion work units which over
320000 participants contributed to...

you can find more information a http://distributed.net/ ;)

 EV> I'm not even going to do a search for dnetc.exe on the web because
 EV> it probably is WAY OVER my head!

running dnet is nothing... you set it and forget it... it does all the work...
if your contribution solves the decryption project, then you win the prize
money... but that's only for the RC5 stuff... the OGR stuff is more science
related...

 EV> Ed can take just so much of this high level computer stuff that's
 EV> old hat to you.    ;-)

haha... i hear ya, buddy :)

)\/(ark

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