Is SuperSearch worth it?

[Hecks]

No, the dev (Rdl) was never connected with NL. I don't know the threads to which you're referring, but I can't imagine that they're anything but misguided speculation - links?

On the other point: I'm not sure what you think we can do about it. The free version of Alt.Binz is distributed through the site http://www.altbinz.net, and the latest versions from the Contributors forum. The trojans haven't been coming from there, I assure you. They were posted to usenet by what we must assume are just opportunists who saw the crack requests. Who knows why people do these things.

If you or anyone else wants to check whether their system has been compromised, why not install wireshark and see whether anything is phoning home. Hopefully decent AV will have picked it up and protected from the worst damage.

As for problems with 0.25.0: well, I can only speak from experience at the Alt.Binz forums. For 99% of users, it's rock solid. For the rest, we try as best we can to work out what's interfering with it on the users system. Top culprits so far have been: AV packages, intrusive firewalls, bad memory, bad HD, badly configured setup.

-Hecks

I assure you I have no bad setup, it's a band new system, I had Vista on it, brand new built from scratch everything...it would constatnly freeze my PC and be forced to to a hard re-boot. AV is ESET, Firewall Is Commodo. And I'm not a noob on setup, so I've checked and checked and gave up. Maybe it was just Vista Like I said, ESET will be contacting me hopefully soon and we can all see if it is indeed a trojan that phones home. My thoughts on the cracking situation is take donations back down to where there once where, if no one has noticed, no one has money to spend, hence the program being cracked. On the other hand, if ESET says it doesn't phone home and doesn't hack people then what?

BTW, what do I keep repeating you mentioned in your first post? That both cracked version seem like they are virus's? If you look in the software section you can clearly see I stated ESET picked them up.

As before, I can only go on past experience on the Alt.Binz forum. It would be good to get definite word from a source that you trust - but what we already know is that users who installed the 'cracked' versions out of curiosity have had their forum accounts hacked.

Donations: well, this seems to be a situation in which the dev can never win. He introduced the minimum amount just recently in response to complaints that there *wasn't* one, lol. That still makes Alt.Binz half the cost at least of clients such as Newsleecher, Newsrover, Newsbin Pro, etc. The usenet community tends to think a bit differently than the P2P community about these things, I find. What we all understand is that having a really good client is absolutely vital - it's your gateway to the riches of usent, after all. After a couple of years of public versions, Rdl decided he just couldn't keep giving his time for free - a lot of time, as it happens. So it was a simple choice for us punters, really: let Alt.Binz stay as it was, or see it continue to grow and develop with new features by making a (single) modest contribution as a motivation for the dev. Well, when I say 'we' I mean the 2,000+ contributors so far.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack this thread any more than I already have, so I'll say my goodbyes for now.

-Hecks

[Skiz]

I was just testing this out and my AV picked up the virus before the unrar was even complete.

http://i41.tinypic.com/34nles3.jpg

[saulin]

I was just testing this out and my AV picked up the virus before the unrar was even complete.

http://i41.tinypic.com/34nles3.jpg

Which release did you download. I still have the CRD release on my HDD and I scanned it with Kaspersky AV and it still comes out clean.


You would think that Kaspersky would have caught it as a trojan/virus by now???

I have not tried it though. As always only download stuff with propper nfo file attached and with the original scene release name only. AFAIK CRD is an actual warez group that have made a few app releases too. Which AV are picking up CRD's release as a trojan?

[SonsOfLiberty]

Both vesion are infected, both ESET and VirusTotal (more than a 50%) says they are, they might not be, but who know for sure...like said in another thread, I put out a scene notice to both iND and CRD to see if they "really" did release these.

[piratebot]

Not sure why the 'scene' would want to crack this software.

[Skiz]

Altbinz.0.30.0.CRACKED-iND

Needless to say it's the last thing I ever download from iND.

As for Kaspersky, I find their services inadequate for my needs. You may as well.

[saulin]

If both are infected then for sure they are not scene releases. I'll send it to kaspersky and find out what's going on and why Kaspersky doesn't pick it up. So ESET is picking it up?

[Skiz]

Indeed. So is AVG.

[UsenetGuy]

Altbinz.0.30.0.CRACKED-iND

Needless to say it's the last thing I ever download from iND.

As for Kaspersky, I find their services inadequate for my needs. You may as well.

iND is not a specific person/group, it means an individual released it. If you are not part of a group then you are supposed to tag it as -iND. If you ever come accross another iND release then most likely it'll be from someone else and not related in any way.

I've not tried these cracked versions yet, dont need to, I contributed

If both are infected then for sure they are not scene releases. I'll send it to kaspersky and find out what's going on and why Kaspersky doesn't pick it up. So ESET is picking it up?

Actually the scene puts out quite a lot of crap and dodgy stuff, heck it wouldn't surprise me if they got the cracked altbinz from usenet and just repacked it.

I assure you I have no bad setup, it's a band new system, I had Vista on it, brand new built from scratch everything...it would constatnly freeze my PC and be forced to to a hard re-boot. AV is ESET, Firewall Is Commodo.

Go through advanced settings in NOD32 and make sure you haven't got advanced heuristics enabled for anything. It's overkill and tends to make some apps crash.

[SonsOfLiberty]

*******************************************************************************
                   Alt.Binz v0.30.0 - NEEDS TO BE CRACKED!!!
*******************************************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              General Information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type.................: Application
Platform.............: Windows 9x/ME/2000
Compression Format...: ZIP


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 Release Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This needs to be cracked to use. I am posting this so a group or an individual 
can do so. Alt.Binz, is a great news reader and is worth the 15 euros (approx 
$20) asking price, however the creator and some of the admins aren't worth shit. 
Lets keep this news reader open for all the usenet community to use :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 Install Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: Install the altbinz0.25.exe, then browse to where it is installed. 

2: Overwrite the altbinz.exe with the one from the Altbinz v0.30.0 folder.

Posted on usenet, then posted to VDOWN, then posted to a few other sites that might have a workig fix for it

And yes that contains the "un touched" contributed download exe

Real scene cracks are generally caught by AV's, reason being, the software used to actually crack it. Also, AV companies want your money, so they do that also to make you think you have a tojan or whatever, and these heuristic scanners now-a-days are stupidly over protective.