staff blogs

distributed.net staff keep (relatively) up-to-date logs of their activities in .plan files. These were traditionally available via finger, but we've put them on the web for easier consumption.

2003-12-15

sdodson [15-Dec-2003 @ 21:15]

Filed under: Uncategorized — sdodson @ 21:15 +00:00

:: 15-Dec-2003 21:15 GMT (Monday) ::

Just an update on the status of the problems we’ve had with AV vendors lately.

McAfee has clarified the wording during detection and the entry on their site
to clearly state that distributed.net client is simply a piece of software
that has in the past been installed on computers through use of trojans. They
explain how to identify if the software was legitimately installed. They also
mention that the option to detect “possibly unwanted” applications is not on by
default.

Norton has also removed the signatures that were identifying dnetc.com as a
trojan.

2003-12-05

sdodson [05-Dec-2003 @ 10:36]

Filed under: Uncategorized — sdodson @ 10:36 +00:00

:: 05-Dec-2003 10:36 GMT (Friday) ::

It’s been brought to our attention that now McAfee is also detecting
our software as a “possible unwanted program”. We’ve contacted McAfee
requesting that they look into it and should have this resolved shortly.

We’ve also made progress on having Symantec remove us from their
definitions and it looks like the next set of definitions released
next Wednesday should have the signature for dnetc.com removed.

I’d like to thank Jonathan and Ben Newman for their assistance as well
as the support staff at McAfee.

2003-11-07

sdodson [07-Nov-2003 @ 16:41]

Filed under: Uncategorized — sdodson @ 16:41 +00:00

:: 07-Nov-2003 16:41 GMT (Friday) ::

We have had several reports from users that Norton AV 2003 is
detecting the file dnetc.com from build 483 as a Trojan. We
have confirmed this as well as confirming that Norton AV
corporate edition 8 has the same behavior. Both versions are
using definitions dated November 5th, 2003.

We have verified the authenticity of the files using the original
PGP signatures created when the builds were made. The files
have not been modified in any way. We are currently working with Symantec
to resolve this issue and hope to have it resolved with the next
edition of definitions.

Symantec has in the past worked with us to resolve these issues and
has published this description of distributed.net and our client :
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2000101607584306

If you have any concerns please feel free to e-mail help@distributed.net

2003-03-28

sdodson [28-Mar-2003 @ 00:18]

Filed under: Uncategorized — sdodson @ 00:18 +00:00

:: 28-Mar-2003 00:18 GMT (Friday) ::

First I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Scott Dodson and I’ve
been working with the help@distributed.net and now more recently the
abuse@distributed.net mail queues.

Recently there have been numerous reports of individuals scanning the stats
web pages for participants who are not on teams and then “spamming” users
asking them to join their teams. This activity is not allowed and will not be
tolerated. If we find the report to be accurate we will remove the address from
the stats database and all work from that ID will not be credited to the team.

If you have any questions about this I advise you to review our legal policy
available at http://www.distributed.net/legal/policy.html and contact
help@distributed.net if you have any concerns.

If you would like to report abuse issues please contact abuse@distributed.net
and be sure to include mail headers from the messages you have received.