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