[Asmo]

Dialog Studio 1.0 is out

Tuesday, December 31 2002 by Asmo

If you are into mIRC scripting this program is a must have. It is a great help when designing dialog windows for your scripts. And its author, dohcan just released vesion 1.0.

The 1.0 does not contain any new features, besides the html help file which is included now it mainly fixes a few bugs. To watch the help file, it is required that you have IE 5 or higher installed.

You can find the website for Dialog Studio here.

The new canadian server on Galaxynet delinks

Monday, December 30 2002 by Hardy

After only 9 days days linked, the admins of Ebox.QC.CA.GalaxyNet.Org decided to delink his server from the network.

The server had several problems with DoS attacks, something that unfortunately have happend more and more on Galaxynet lately.

This yet again leaves Galaxynet without a canadian server after The_X delinked Montreal.QC.CA.GalaxyNet three weeks earlier. Ebox.QC.CA.GalaxyNet.Org was meant to be the replacement but things didnt happend that way.

Hub changes on EFnet

Monday, December 30 2002 by Hardy

Earlier today EFnet approved a new hub-server sponsored by ServerCentral , a company providing the full line of internet hosting.

The servername will be ircd.servercentral.net and the admin of the server is seiki, which also admins the client server.

The reason for adding a new hub, is that ircd.charter.com admins decided to delink because they couldnt provide the client server they promised when linking a year back, and therefore withdraw until they perhaps once in the future can link both.

AOL also offerd to run a hub, but was voted down as they were to new. The client server had at the time only been linked for a couple of weeks and was still in trial.

Undernet disables maxlogin feature on X

Monday, December 30 2002 by Asmo

Due to abuse the feature which allows you to login a total of 3 clients at the same time is disabled for now. Or to be more accurate, the maxlogins have been set to 1 (without the possibility to set it higher).

This feature was great if you have a bot you liked to have a username.users.undernet.org host as well, or if you wanted to be able to login from your work while you had a client at home logged in as well.

Unfortunately a small group of users were using these usernames for their floodbots as well. And this made CService decide to set the maximum concurent logins for now to 1.

Some users now have problems login in to X since there is another client still logged in to X. You will get the Maximum concurrent logins exceeded message if you try to login now. In the old situation (before the maxlogins feature) a excisting connection would be logged out when a new client would log in. This is not the case now.

As a CService administrator explained IRCJunkie, if you where able to log out on your current session, that host will still have the +x host, making the change ineffective.

Another fine example where a small group of users who abuse a free service spoil the fun for a large group.

Popular SSH client vunerable to exploit

Sunday, December 29 2002 by Asmo

The popular freeware Putty is vunerable to a exploit that allows someone to upload a file to the user, and execute the file once uploaded. The exploit is explained on BuqTraq.

The current Putty version is still 0.53b, and no new version have yet been released. For someone to abuse the exploit he would need to be a admin on the server you are SSH'ing to. So as long as you know and trust your admins of the servers you are logging in to per SSH you should be save.

Update: in contrary to our post above, it seems that Putty 0.53b does in fact have this exploit solved, as you can read here. Thanks to HndlWCare for pointing us on this error.

New XChat version out

Saturday, December 28 2002 by Asmo

There is a new version of XChat out, version 1.9.8. As the site says, it is probally the last version before the next major release, 2.0.0. Full change log is available here.

QuakeNet does a network wide CTCP Version

Saturday, December 28 2002 by Asmo

Yay, imagine getting 150K CTCP replies. I assume someone had to setup a I:line with a rather nice SendQ here to prevent getting excess flooded.

The results are both remarkable, and as you would expect. The results show almost 83% of the clients are one of the mIRC versions, with 63% being versions prior to 6.03. So many users run a mIRC with known exploits (some more serious then others). QuakeNet themself have setup a page with explanations on the known exploits, and recommends users to upgrade a.s.a.p. to the latest version.

The second most used client is irsii, with a remarkably lower percentage of close to 2%, followed by Trillian of just above 1%, the client who was plagued with a wave of exploits in september last year.

Guess I will seeya on mIRC!!! :p

IRC protocol gives mobile phones real time chat

Saturday, December 28 2002 by Asmo

SMS has originally been a protocol designed to identify the handset, what location the user is and setting up calls etc. Its limited bandwidth of 16 Kilobits per second was never meant for the use of SMS as it is in use today.

Malaysian based company Multimedia Super Corridor now made a new chat application that will bypass the limitations of the current SMS protocol by using GPRS to transfer the data.

And to bring it all on topic again for IRCJunkie, they made this all based on the IRC protocol. The application itself is build in Java, which will make it run on mobile phone's like the Nokia 7650.

New article series on IRCJunkie

Friday, December 27 2002 by Asmo

Always curious what the person is like behind the O:line? Opers are just like normal people, really. And DownKaos will show you that in his new series Chats with opers. In his first chat he talks with jv, admin of the irc.ipv6.cesnet.cz IRCNet server, and developer of the ircd being used on IRCNet.

Other IRCJunkie news: As you might have noticed, we also have added a search IRCJunkie news option in the side menu. So now it is also possible to search through the news archives, which was previously not possible. Enjoy

Weekly virus report

Friday, December 27 2002 by Asmo

This week 3 new virusses have been published on Symantec Security Responce. All three are of the backdoor type again, meaning they will give unauthorized access to the cracker, so he can perform commands and execute programs and thus do highly unwanted things like using the computer in a DDoS attack.

- Backdoor.Rephlex is the first for this week. On infection the backdoor will connect to a IRC server where it will wait for commands from the cracker. A file named Update.exe in your Windows directory is a sign of being infected with this backdoor.

- Backdoor.Hornet is also a backdoor that is being given commands from IRC. It copies itsef as C:\Windows\Active.exe or C:\Windows\Win HTM.exe, and as usual, add registry entries to make sure it is being started on windows boot time.

- Backdoor.NetTrojan is the last for this week, and as the name suggest, another backdoor. This backdoor is a little different since it is making use of plugins to define what it is doing once it is installed on a computer. Some of these plugins can perform Denial of Service attacks, others send IRC messages to get others infected, or they spread over network drives.

For a while back IRCJunkie published an article that explains some of the basic measurements you can take to prevent yourself from getting infected, or to protect against DDoS attacks.

news from tabo, scripter of the popular airc script

Thursday, December 26 2002 by Asmo

It is going bad with the more powerfull "full scripts". For quite a bit back ircN stopped developemnt, a bit back Peace & Protection stopped development, and also aIRC had seen its last update like half a year ago.

Finally some good news from aIRC again though. Tabo has let us know on the website for aIRC that he is very bussy with his job, girlfriend and school, but that development still have not stopped.

Besides some DLL's that are in the interest of scripters (like a dll that does !seen like features) the two scripts for mIRC tabo is working on will see new releases;
"the aIRC which is close to come up is the one for 5.82; the other script, airc++ for 6.03, I still have to co-ordinate some things with Kamek (could you say that Kamek knows mIRC better than Khaled? thanks )"

Why tabo still wants to release a script for a mIRC version wich has known exploits is a bit unclear to us, but we suggest to wait till airc++ for mIRC 6.03 comes out (for some bugs prior to 6.03: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

As to when the scripts are going to be released tabo told us:
"The release is going to be in the first week of January, but airc++ is going to delay a bit more, but it's sure that it will also be for January".

The features tabo will be mainly working on is the flood protection and the userlist routines of the script. To his own saying what people most like in his scripts. He expects to be able to do a lot of work on both scripts from january till march, when he has vacation from his university.

On the scripts that are slowly replacing the old and respected full scripts tabo had to say;
"What you see now are tons of scripts all alike, with 10kb of code and 1mb of dlls. Note that I'm not saying dlls are bad, I was one of the first to use mdx, but now scripts are just a toolbar, decens of WindowsXP-style icons, dialogs that are pretty rather than useful, and practically no features but estethic only. It's in an enviroment like this when the lack of activity from scripters is much more felt".

HydraIRC 0.335 released

Thursday, December 26 2002 by Asmo

hydraIRC released a new version of their IRC client for the Windows platform, HydraIRC 0.335. This open source client is currently undergoing strong development, but still needs some work. Looking at the features page, a lot of the aimed for features are yet to be implemented. The client itself looks really nice though, and worth a shot for those who need a break from mIRC.

Loss of DNS server causes havoc on smaller IRC networks

Thursday, December 26 2002 by Asmo

It is something you see happening regurally on smaller IRC networks. They make use of a single DNS server who direct clients to the correct server. But, what if that DNS server is down due to hardware failure or problems at the upstream provider?

I got a email today from a admin on the Renegade IRC network (dont bother clicking, it wont resolve for now), a small ~ 1200 user network currently listed as the 85th network on NetSplit.de, telling me:

"Recently late dec 24 irc.renegadeirc.net lost there dns server, with a 1000 user base this has caused a great deal of user loss, we are asking that users connect to irc.renegadeirc.org to circumvent the lost dns during the holiday season."

If you are making use of such a small network it can be a good idea to keep the IP's of the server stored somewhere. In case of problems with the DNS server, you can always connect to your server of choice on IP then, which should work without problems.

Update to the new version of EnergyMech

Tuesday, December 24 2002 by Goodie

After EnergyMech announced last week the implementation of the trivia game into their bot, today they announced some updates to the latest version:

- Logging format has changed to the chan.day.month.year format.
- The bot will have features to make use of the new Undernet +x host hiding.

Those interested in the EnergyMech bot can download the latest version and the trivia game as well from their site.

New version of WinBot released by Christmas eve

Monday, December 23 2002 by Goodie

WinBot developers are planning a new release (version 2.4) by Christmas eve as one of the members wanted to let us know they put effort into fixing and changing faults that www.IRC-Junkie.Org picked up on the review made on WinBot version 2.2.
Here is what Craig Edwards, one of the WinBot team member says about the new release:

Just thought I'd let you know that we're planning a new release of WinBot at midnight (xmas eve)
- we specifically put effort into fixing and changing faults you picked up on in the review of 2.2, and enhancing features that you and other users particularly liked, such as the WBS scripting.

A detalied list of updates is already available here .

If you are interested in WinBot you can read the review made on WinBot version 2.2. by www.IRC-Junkie.org

The greatest IRC event

Monday, December 23 2002 by cArLiLLoS

The Undernet is glad to invite all the IRC community to the greatest IRC live event in its history: the 10th anniversary of the Undernet.

The event will be held on the 8th of February of 2003 at 23:00 GMT in #liveevents. We will have special guests and network representatives from the past and the present to talk about the beginnings, the present and the future.

We will be very happy to have you among us celebrating this great Undernet event.

More details: The Undernet Promotions Forum

No more script crashes in Irssi !!

Monday, December 23 2002 by cArLiLLoS

Are you tired of seeing your Irssi script crashing often? His author has suggested how to fix this in the Irssi's webpage.

Firstly, you'll need the Hans Boehm's Garbage Collector (apt-get install libgc6-dev), then GLIB2 and finally CVS Irssi. Now enable GC, then configure perl_memory_check_level (1 is default, 2 is slower). Now if an error occurs, you'll get an error message with a line number to script, etc.

The complete instructions are here

QuakeNet accidentally glines few hundred users

Sunday, December 22 2002 by Asmo

Many IRC networks these days have services running that scan users for open proxies, or any other abuse that might orignate from them, like flooding. The services aim is then to remove those users from the network by glining them automatically.

The service responsible for doing that on QuakeNet is proxyscan. And apparently, something went very wrong yesterday when it glined several hundred of innocent users. We asked Faile, oper on QuakeNet, what happened, and his responce was:

"...a little later all of them were removed (the GLines, ed.). What happened was we have a nifty little service that detects joinfloods and reports them in our private channel, and it also provides the ability to gline said 'joinflooders' with a simple command, and...human-irc-service-interaction-error occured."

So, a little "oops" indeed. Thanks to MD87 for pointing us to this little event

A new Digifox Hax0ring lesson

Sunday, December 22 2002 by Asmo

It has been a while, but for those who love complete nonsense, we have 1 more Digifox lesson waiting for you... Dive into the dark world of Phreax0ring... That is, if you passed the test ofcourse.

"Dangers of IRC"

Saturday, December 21 2002 by Asmo

The recent cannibalistic crime committed in Germany where a man has eaten a man who he has met in a chat room, and had recorded the whole event on video made German news site DW-World.de write a article on the use of IRC.

They are not to positive on the use of IRC, as this quote from the article shows;

"Even when they are public, IRC channels are difficult to monitor, and the users cannot always be tracked. They use nicknames and are not required to reveal personal information at anytime. Even Internet service providers are unable to detect IRC activity.
Like the World Wide Web, IRC is accessible throughout the world. The system is administered by IRC operators (called IRCops), who neither take part in exchanges nor police them. In fact, there is no way to police IRC so far. The only chance authorities have to prevent crimes planned through IRC is to go undercover."

IRC needs precaution, just like any other use of the Internet. Just as IRC can get you in contact with questionable persons, so can MSN Messenger, ICQ, and other chat protocols. And the risk of getting infected with virusses is probally a lot higher using email, then using IRC.

Weekly virus report

Friday, December 20 2002 by Asmo

This week Symantec's Security Responce reported on a total of 4 IRC related virusses, one of them being a XDCC bot for porn channels;

Backdoor.Hethat is a trojan that will try and get your passwords for MSM Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and will try to contact the author of this virus per ICQ. The trojan will connect itself to a IRC server where it will sit in a channel and wait for commands fom the author.

W32.Titog.Worm is a mass mailingworm that will use IRC as well to auto DCC itself to any clients joining channels. It does that with creating a script called Scirptoz.ini in the mIRC directory, and sending itself as Aim.exe.

Backdoor.Vmz is a less commonly working virus. It is being used in channels as a XDCC bot. The user infected with this file is basically a file server where users on IRC download and upload porn movies to.

VBS.Gaggle.B@mm is another mass mailing virus that uses MS Outlook as its prime way of distribution. It also uses mIRC to spread itself per auto DCC Send.

Have some good antivirus software installed on your system, and make sure you update the virus defenitions at least once a week. You can get a one time free scan online using HouseCall , which can be a great help getting rid of a infection too. Just click the scan without registering link.

EnergyMech update

Thursday, December 19 2002 by Goodie

EnergyMech team has a surprise for those who have been waiting for something new. Yesterday they announced that the popular trivia game that we all love will be implemented into EnergyMech starting Christmas.

For those that love trivia but have no idea what an EnergyMech is I must say that the popular EnergyMech is an IRC bot programmed in the C language running on UNIX platforms, designed to protect IRC channels but starting Christmas it will also entertain the IRC users with the trivia game.
Untill Christmas when the update will be implemented you can get the latest version of EnergyMech from here

ircu+Lain 1.2.0 released

Thursday, December 19 2002 by Asmo

Lain is a patch for the popular Undernet ircd software ircu.

IRCu 2.10.10 Patch Lain consists of commands like a /check command for opers to get extensive information about user/channel/server, a /sethost command to set a custom host, a /servmode command to set modes network wide without having to use operservices, +c channel mode to filter colors and +C channel mode to filter out all channel wide CTCP's. For a full list of changes look here.

Lain is based on a older ircu (2.10.10), and is yet incompatible with the new branch 2.10.11 which is a lot more more effective. As a result Lain is also less used on the QuakeNet network.

Lain developer Kyuu told IRCJunkie: QuakeNet is now making a newer ircd based on the .11 ircu, but ircu+Lain is still used on several servers there, though of course will be changing away as they perfect their .11 patch.
As one of those who resigned from QuakeNet along with me was the head ircd coder, Sivis, we decided to finish up this project. This was because we knew a number of smaller networks ran an earlier version of ircu+Lain and the QuakeNet version of 1.2 was still having a few issues.

The current release is less dependent on QuakeNet, as this patch is also in use by several smaller networks, and also contains several problems these networks encountered.

IRC Services 1.0 released

Tuesday, December 17 2002 by Asmo

For users of eggdrops on Undernet this new version of IRC Services is very interesting. The script is meant for eggdrop to login to services for several IRC networks.

For Undernet is has a extra interesting feature. It will first make the eggdrop login to X, and get the +x hostname (*@username.users.undernet.org) before it will start joining any channels the bot is in. This to prevent users still being able to get the bot's real host/IP. Some extra security which is badly needed these days (unfortunally).

tip: You can set multiple logins on X with /msg x set maxlogins N, where N is the number of logins you want at the same time. Currently you can set a maximum of 3 logins. This way you can have 1 username on wich both you and your bot can login.

A new development version of XChat

Monday, December 16 2002 by cArLiLLoS

XChat IRC client is now in its 1.9.7 development version according to its website. This new version includes some language translation updates, events and plugins fixes/changes and more. See the Changelog and keep enjoying !

DALnet releases new ezine

Monday, December 16 2002 by Asmo

And it is time for yet another DALnetizen, the ezine of the DALnet network.

This issue is mostly geared towards christmas and has besides some letters from users on the ongoing DDoS attacks also a contest to win a $50 Amazon.com voucher.

New version of ircu released

Sunday, December 15 2002 by Asmo

Time for those networks using the ircu ircd software to upgrade again. Version ircu2.10.11.03 contains a few important fixes for desynch problems, but also contains some interesting new commands for the end user, you and me.

/WALLVOICES is a new command that will sent a notice to all the ops and voices in the channel (it is like /wallchops, but then also including voices).

For a the full release notes check SourceForge.

BitchX news

Friday, December 13 2002 by Asmo

The popular *nix console based IRC client BitchX has some news for us again. Sinister and power have build two new websites in the interest of BitchX users. A scripting site, and secondly a site with a FAQ.

Put the glasses on so we can start!

Friday, December 13 2002 by Asmo

Yay, finally we have a new logfile for you to read. This time a logfile from a guy who just cant get his 3D glasses to work right....

Weekly virus report

Friday, December 13 2002 by Asmo

Time to make a list of this week nastinesses released out to get you! And it is a more bussy week as usual, a total of three virusses discovered who are related to the usage of IRC.

Strikingly visible is that they are no ordinary virusses as they used to be. Almost always they contain the possibility for the cracker to use the infectee in a DDoS attack. We only have to look to DALnet to see how destructive these virusses are.

The first of the list is Backdoor.Mapsy which gives the cracker unauthorized access to the computer, and opens port 6754 for him. As usual, it will make it sure it will be started on Windows boot with a registry entry. One of the functions is that it will also install a FTP server, so the cracker can use your computer as a storage device ...

The second virus, W32.Heovin@mm is spreading through mass emailing (using Outlook), as well as create a script.ini in mIRC's directory, and then tries to DCC send itself to others. It will make the attachment look like something the user would really run. So far he did not really succeeded at that, since the number of infections is below 50.

And finally, W32.Lamin which infect Portable Executable's (PE files). This logs keystrokes (passwords) and contains a IRC backdoor which allows the cracker to control the infectee from a IRC channel, where the drone will sit and wait for commands. It will disable firewall products in order to have a undisturbed access to IRC.

The destructive power of these DDoS drones are visible on DALnet, and should be enough ground for you as IRC user to make sure your machine wont be used for such lame actions.
You can have your computer scanned for virusses for free with Housecall . Better would be to have an antivirus product installed permanently on your system, such as Norton AntiVirus, or another program that will keep watch of virusses non stop.

Mr. Criminal uses IRC to communicate

Thursday, December 12 2002 by Asmo

If you think of it, it is only logic. Criminals are using IRC, ICQ and other means of Internet technology to communicate with eachother. And why wouldnt they?

VnuNet, a UK based technology website reports on the first e-crime congress in the UK, being held in London this week.

Len Hynds, head of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) said: "We now have reliable intelligence showing major drugs and arms traffickers using sophisticated and disciplined methods of communication using internet relay chat and ICQ protocols as well as encrypted emails".

NHTCU focusses on extortion, drug trafficking, hackers, virus writers and paedophiles.

tricky tricky! AOL jumps from DALnet to EFnet

Thursday, December 12 2002 by Hardy

One and a half month a go AOL delinked it`s client server tricky.va.us.dal.net from DALnet. Today they applied the same server to EFnet.

US Routing is currently reviewing the application but only few hours after the application was recived the first two out of nine votes were allready yes.

For DALnet this is another nail in the coffin as they are suffering hard from DDoS attacks (See previous articles). AOL already have a client server and a hub on UnderNet.

EFnet links a new us server - irc.limelight.us

Wednesday, December 11 2002 by Hardy

EFnet`s US Routing Committee approved earlier today a new server located in Phoenix, AZ.

The server irc.limelight.us is sponsored by Limeligh Networks, a company that offer internet services.

The server is admined by Matthew Ramsey (mjr @ EFnet), the old admin of the famous irc.blackened.com which in september 1998 was the first irc client server to break 8000 concurrent connections.

EFnet is currently the fourth biggest IRC network accourding to netsplit.de

Two Unreal ircd releases

Wednesday, December 11 2002 by Asmo

Those using the Unreal ircd needs to spend some time upgrading again. Both stable and beta version have a new version out.

Unreal3.2-beta13 is the new beta version available. It has numerous bugfixes (including fixed for the win32 port..), as well as some new features. One new feature includes a can_override which defines which opers can use OperOverride. Also additional SSl options have been added (yay).

Unreal3.1.5 is the new stable release. Besides the usual bugfixes, there is also a OperOverride function here, altho here it is in the form of a userflag, v. It looks like there are some security fixes included as well, since the site really recommends you to upgrade to this new version.

mIRC forum is back

Monday, December 9 2002 by Asmo

Good news for those who visitted the mIRC forum a lot. It has returned now after it dissapeared in the fire that had destroyed the rc of the University of Twente on the 20th november, of which we have a news item available on the archives page for november.

Unfortunally, all the posts and user information have been lost. So you will need to reregister your username/password.

DalNet get hit hard over the weekend

Monday, December 9 2002 by Asmo

Curve, editor of the DalNet ezine, and admin on DalNet wrote to the DalNet mailinglist about further DDoS attacks that hit the network this weekend.

"This weekend, yet again, DALnet servers have suffered from massive Denial of Service attacks. The attacks have been destructive and prolonged, causing many servers to become unavailable and making it difficult for you, the user, to connect." she said on the list.

As the weekly graph shows on NetSplit, usercount have plummeted to 0, while channel count at one point have reached 600000, an attack towards ChanServ? The history shows that lately there have been no stability in the network at all.

"We can only apologise for the inconvenience and assure you all that DALnet administration has done, and is doing, all that is humanly possible to find whomever is attacking the network and work with law enforcement to apprehend
them." says Curve.

If you try to get connected, you best use a direct server name, since irc.dal.net is under constant attack. A list of servers is available on the DalNet website.

QuakeNet passes 150k user mark

Sunday, December 8 2002 by Asmo

It was to be expected that it would be soon that QuakeNet would pass the 150000 user mark. It's growth has been spectacular, as the statistics site Netsplit.de shows.

Thanks to ircler for the tip.

Former Dalnet admin reacts on recent events

Sunday, December 8 2002 by DownKaos

I recently spoke with former Dalnet admin Wagahai and he answered a few questions relating to the current Dalnet situation.

Q: We have seen a few dalnet leaders like yourself leaving dalnet recently, do you think many more will be jumping ship after the de-link of typhoon and twisted?
A: I believe most of these items are unrelated, so no, I don't believe more will be leaving. Just was bad timing for the 2 events to happen near the same time

Q: Do you think dalnet will be able to survive with the loss of one of its best servers?
A: yes. as long as the staff remain active and the are new servers applying, DALnet will most definately survive.

Q: Dalnet is in a pretty tight spot right now, can thing only get better or do you think the worse has yet to come?
A: Definately an unknown - DALnet had been sitting in a quiet spot by itself for a while and now the waters have so many waves that DALnet will be forced to "sink or swim". Personally I believe that there is enough optimisim and activity by the staff that it will recover, but only time will tell.

Q: Do you think dalnet can keep the high level of service to its users eventhough it is losing servers?
A: that depends on if new servers continue to appear - like acool, kernel etc

Q: What would you do if you were the CEO of dalnet right now?
A: a massive re-organization internally - unfortunately I can't provide details of what I'd do without leaking info that I know as a former DALnet staff member.

Q: If this re-organization happened would we see your return to dalnet?
A: possibly, I'm undecided still

According to netsplit.de Dalnet, with a usercount of only 6490 users, dropped to the 18th spot today, a big fall for a network that once was firmly in the top 3.

Update: Eight hours after the initial post of this news item, DalNet even completely dissapeared from the top 30 list of networks on NetSplit.de. The current statistics page for DalNet showed the bot could not get connected to any server.

Canada waves byebye to Galaxynet

Sunday, December 8 2002 by Hardy

GalaxyNet`s only canadian server, Montreal.QC.Ca.GalaxyNet.org, decided thursday to delink from the network. The admin, The_X, lost intrest in being an admin and running the server so he decided to pull the plug on it. The server had been linked to the network for more then a year.

On another note, RoyalChat.US.GalaxyNet.Org have been renamed to K-Systems.US.GalaxyNet.Org.

Good news for IRC and Unreal Tournament junkies

Saturday, December 7 2002 by Asmo

Yay, if addicted to both, one of your main problems in life is solved now.. Play UT, or chat on IRC? Well, that problem will be solved in UT2003 dear IRC addicts.

UT 2003 Beta Patch 2153 is released towards beta testers. Two of the new features are:

- Added In-Game Chat Client (Similar to IRC)
- Allow double-clicking 'unreal://' and 'http://' URLs in IRC chat.

It is expected that this patch will be released publically within two weeks.

Weekly virus report

Friday, December 6 2002 by Asmo

It has been a quiet week again, just one virus. We don't complain! When we browse the Symantec Securityresponce we can see a clear shift of focus from clients like mIRC towards peer to peer networks like KaZaA. It's obvious that these networks are in use by a lot more users these days then IRC, which makes logic if your goal is to infect as many people as you can in as little time possible. You also have to remember their goal in this; one of the most important reasons is to collect a army of DDoS drones they can use to attack other computers.

As said only one virus related to IRC this week: Backdoor.Lolok. The file spreads as a download on IRC (the dreaded DCC's once you enter a channel) and per email.
If you get infected with this backdoor it will connect to a small irc server irc.tu-pac.net on a custom port. This server has about 1000 users, and hold only warez related channels. As usual it will write a value in the registry to make sure it will run each time you boot into Windows.
Once connected to the server the cracker is able to update the client, and use a wealth of other commands to control the infectee.

Always run a decent and up to date AntiVirus scanner like Norton Antivirus, there are also freeware antivirus solutions, for a list check out our links page.
For a perfect free online scan, you can use Housecall, just click the scan without registering link, and follow the instructions.

Little update: apparently we overlooked 1 virus. Backdoor.Coreflood is a trojan virus that is mainly being used for DDoS attacks. As expected it will join a predefined channel on a IRC server, and sit there and wait for commands. A registry entry will be made in order to make sure it is started each time you boot into Windows.
Thanks to Ralph Attard for pointing us out to this error.

DalNet looses key servers

Thursday, December 5 2002 by Asmo

Things are going in a really bad direction for DalNet. As if the constant DDoS attacks are not enough that are plaguing the network since months, personal issues are now making admins decide to delink their servers from the network, so reports IRCNews.

Frink, admin of twisted.dal.net told IRCNews how personal disputes with the DalNet administration made him decide to delink his client server. The twisted.dal.net played a key role in holding users on the network, as it at one point held up 58391 users.

Besides this client server, DalNet also lost the typhoon.dal.net Hub server.

How much the loss of these two server will affect the available user connections is something we will be able to see the comming days on the IRC monitoring website NetSplit.

Carrying the IRC in your pocket.

Wednesday, December 4 2002 by cArLiLLoS

Do you think in the IRC while you are in the car, the train, the bathroom, the discotheque? Can't you wait for getting your PC to connect to the IRC? Suffer no more !! PocketIRC is here !
Yes, you read well. An IRC client for handheld/pocket PCs is available now thanks to CodeNorth Software.

This amazing client (currently in its 1.0.5 version) supports connection to any IRC networks taking advantage of the IRC capabilities. Besides it also supports all Pcket PC platforms: ARM, MIPS and SH3.
It has many excellent features like colour codes, events customizing, text formatting, background picture preferences and even a built-in IDENT server for those IRC networks that may require it.
DCC capabilities, scripting support, IrDA and Bluetooth chat support and other features are coming soon.

You can download a free trial version of PocketIRC (fully functional) and/or register it for US$ 14,95. Isn't it good news?

Anonymous CVS access for XChat

Wednesday, December 4 2002 by cArLiLLoS

XChat has setup anonymous CVS repository access for 1.8 and 2.0 branches. And for those who like testing the client and finding bugs, there is also a bug reporting sytem. Both, CVS and bug tracker are hosted by sourceforge.

Special feedback on features that work well in 1.8 but it doesn't appear to work in 1.9 is welcomed. So, enjoy !

IRCNet gets two new U.S. servers

Sunday, December 1 2002 by DownKaos

IRCNet the worlds second largest IRC network, according to netsplit.de, has linked its 3rd and 4th U.S. based servers. Hub1 will be a new hub while irc1.us.ircnet.net will provide client connections. The servers are based in Washington, D.C. and are provided by Omni-Hosting LLC

I talked to Aghor one of the IRCNet website coordinators and he had this to say "A good new client server is always a good idea, especially if it comes from USA. As the IRCnet had only one server in USA (irc.stealth.net), the new server will give the American users on IRCnet an new stable and fast way to connect."

He also stated that we might be seeing more U.S. servers in IRCNet's future.
_________________
Asmo

webmaster www.IRC-Junkie.org