I doubt that it's a BOINC version, but classic SETI. Apparently, some people wrote a 'virus like' version... [...] Which is what, I think, Pepo is talking about.

No, not really. I'll explain on Nov 1st.
And I doubt clasic SETI would have any data to crunch now.

Who has just beaten me to it. :)

Yes, by a few seconds!

Thanks for pointing me to the right place, Pepo.

I think we need confirmation from Mr Co**ingham that that is in fact his own boinc account stats page. This computer seems to have been running not just SETI but also Einstein and Rosetta during the last 24 hours.

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Hence why I would like a Hijack This option from him. Just before Pepo's post, you can see what Matt Lebofsky (Seti) had told him already. :-)

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I think we need confirmation from Mr Co**ingham that that is in fact his own boinc account stats page.

I'm sure this will never happen. Also (although stating that "Being a reasonable person...") he writes "You have my contact information and I do not wish to make it available to the world..." and "I provide you with information, aside from extinct email addresses which no longer work, that demonstrate that I do indeed own this PC".

I'm eager to see this information!!!!

Perhaps we should explain that wearing a tin-foil hat would help prevent people spying on him via his computer...

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I think we need confirmation from Mr Co**ingham that that is in fact his own boinc account stats page.

I'm sure this will never happen. Also (although stating that "Being a reasonable person...") he writes "You have my contact information and I do not wish to make it available to the world..." and "I provide you with information, aside from extinct email addresses which no longer work, that demonstrate that I do indeed own this PC".

I'm eager to see this information!!!!

I have offered to provide personal information to the managers of the site. I see no reason to provide it to you. Perhaps you are eager to see this information.

Despite the fact that my posting appears to have been deleted, it appears that at least a few have read portions of it.

Good day.I have seen numerous posts with similar problems on this site. I suspect you are a bit naive and can excuse that in the young.

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Unhappy customer

If your computer was trickling data up to the SETI server, I would expect to see some recent credits here

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/show_user.php?userid=1650

but there's nothing. On the same page, if you click on 'computers', you'll see that no computer is registered under your name.

That's not that simple, there is no crunching project coupled with BOINC message boards and thus no computers are here :-) Take a look here to see what you are looking for.

Have you got a round boinc B icon in the system tray...

Sure not (see my previous explanation ;-)

Mr. Bruce, are you aware of project names like Einstein, Large Hadron Collider, Rosetta, World Community Grid etc.??

I signed up for SETI some years ago. I am not familiar with these other projects. I have had nothing to do with them to the best of my knowledge.I shall go to the site you recommend and see what is there. I have no BOINC icon in my tray. It is not locatable under searches of the hard drive. I do see postings through Google that a PC that fits the description of mine is transmitting information. I also see usage of my CPU that is unexplainable.
I have deleted all programs save for Word and a spreadsheet program and still see this. Perhaps you have some explanation or advice. I would certainly welcome advice as to why, I keep finding my information linked with this. Please advise.

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Unhappy customer

Thanks for pointing me to the right place, Pepo.

I think we need confirmation from Mr Co**ingham that that is in fact his own boinc account stats page. This computer seems to have been running not just SETI but also Einstein and Rosetta during the last 24 hours.

Hi, I am a bit concerned as these programs are unknown to me. My name is actually a bit common and I run across others whom I know not to be me in a Google search but the coincidence of processors is a bit uncanny. I am truly puzzled at this point. I'll back up and search through all my rather paltry number of programs and see if Einstein or Rosetta are operating on this machine. I confess I am totally unaware of such programs and am far more interested in employing a different one in my discipline which is why 100% CPU usage has become an issue.

I agree with confirming the account but can't find a way to do it as the email accounts under which I originally began doing business with SETI are long gone. Model and serial number of PC work? I am truly curious.

Contrary to one of the suggestions above, I have not intimated that my PC is being spied upon. I have stated that CPU suage is not under my control and from what I have seen through a Google search, it seems to be used by SETI.For my own reasons, I would rather have control of my property.

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Unhappy customer

Perhaps we should explain that wearing a tin-foil hat would help prevent people spying on him via his computer...

Interesting idea Mike, but I feel its only fair to point out that the following MIT scientific paper casts some doubt on the effectiveness of tin-foil hats ...

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

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If your computer was trickling data up to the SETI server, I would expect to see some recent credits here

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/show_user.php?userid=1650

but there's nothing. On the same page, if you click on 'computers', you'll see that no computer is registered under your name.

That's not that simple, there is no crunching project coupled with BOINC message boards and thus no computers are here :-) Take a look here to see what you are looking for.

Have you got a round boinc B icon in the system tray...

Sure not (see my previous explanation ;-)

Mr. Bruce, are you aware of project names like Einstein, Large Hadron Collider, Rosetta, World Community Grid etc.??

I signed up for SETI some years ago. I am not familiar with these other projects. I have had nothing to do with them to the best of my knowledge.I shall go to the site you recommend and see what is there. I have no BOINC icon in my tray. It is not locatable under searches of the hard drive. I do see postings through Google that a PC that fits the description of mine is transmitting information. I also see usage of my CPU that is unexplainable.
I have deleted all programs save for Word and a spreadsheet program and still see this. Perhaps you have some explanation or advice. I would certainly welcome advice as to why, I keep finding my information linked with this. Please advise.

I am not sure just who contributed the search covered by the link to "here" but it was at least somewhat informative. It seems that someone with a similar name is providing information. It still may be my machine as the usage history indicates something is going on even after I reformatted the hard drive and loaded original software back onto the PC.

What I do have a print out of is statistics about a computer that has been providing numbers to SETI as of yesterday. The computer is referenced to someone with the same name. It has the same processor as mine. It could be a coincidence.I have a possible suspect for this if it is an accident of name. I'll check any identifiable material on my PC from the report and perhaps call this chap. Coincidences in nature are rather rare but they do happen occasionally.

I am left at present with the following questions:
1. A PC with the same processor as mine appears to be providing information to SETI or BOINC or whatever entity is involved.
2. My name (perhaps not the full name as the middle name is omitted) is attached to these reports.
3. My processor is tied up to the point where it slows the functions of my PC.
4. I wish to install software that will peermit me to perform calculations I wish to perform in slack periods and seem to have some sort of interference.
5. I have no idea of exactly what previous advice is referred to by Mr. Lebofsky. Should he wish to contact me off the list, I can provide an email to him personally. I choose not to publish personal email addresses on the Internet. That does seem redundant though if computers accessed by Mr. Lebofsky are accessing my computer.
6. There is an intriguing possibility that some sort of virus that has not been detected by Norton or other antivirus software is running. I rather doubt that as Norton probably would have caught any software that I had not authorized at some point.

At present, I am stumped. I do have these issues and have noted from views of other threads in the discussion list that I am not the only one with similar problems. Advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Comments about tin foil hats are not and unwarranted.
3.

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Unhappy customer

I do see postings through Google that a PC that fits the description of mine is transmitting information.

If it is no sensitive information, could you please point us on these postings?

I also see usage of my CPU that is unexplainable. [...] I would certainly welcome advice as to why, I keep finding my information linked with this. Please advise.

You could try to close and exit all applications you are able to find and then check how many free RAM is remaining to the system and how many is used by the rest of applications. Sysinternals' Process Explorer tool will help you a lot. And additionally to the applications, recommended by Ageless (did you try any of them?), you could try their Autoruns and RootkitRevealer tools. If no one will be successful, than I'd assume it being probably the mentioned BIOS virus.

I am not sure just who contributed the search covered by the link to "here" but it was at least somewhat informative. It seems that someone with a similar name is providing information. It still may be my machine as the usage history indicates something is going on even after I reformatted the hard drive and loaded original software back onto the PC.

You can try to switch off your machine (or at least plug it out of any connection to internet) for a period of 3 (three) days. Then we could be able to tell you whether the mentioned computer is yours or only coincidentally similar one.

I do have these issues and have noted from views of other threads in the discussion list that I am not the only one with similar problems.

Few links to such threads would be appreciated too...

I do see postings through Google that a PC that fits the description of mine is transmitting information.

If it is no sensitive information, could you please point us on these postings?

I also see usage of my CPU that is unexplainable. [...] I would certainly welcome advice as to why, I keep finding my information linked with this. Please advise.

You could try to close and exit all applications you are able to find and then check how many free RAM is remaining to the system and how many is used by the rest of applications. Sysinternals' Process Explorer tool will help you a lot. And additionally to the applications, recommended by Ageless (did you try any of them?), you could try their Autoruns and RootkitRevealer tools. If no one will be successful, than I'd assume it being probably the mentioned BIOS virus.

I am not sure just who contributed the search covered by the link to "here" but it was at least somewhat informative. It seems that someone with a similar name is providing information. It still may be my machine as the usage history indicates something is going on even after I reformatted the hard drive and loaded original software back onto the PC.

You can try to switch off your machine (or at least plug it out of any connection to internet) for a period of 3 (three) days. Then we could be able to tell you whether the mentioned computer is yours or only coincidentally similar one.

I do have these issues and have noted from views of other threads in the discussion list that I am not the only one with similar problems.

Few links to such threads would be appreciated too...

I have tried most of your recommendations. Desperation will force me to try the rest as I am on a limited income and require the computer to earn a fair amount of my money. As far as links to complaints go, they are too numerous to cite. Please look at the message boards. Just got to "home" and take a look around. I have anecdotal reports from the Internet that many people have quit the project. The numbers cited are too immense for me to cite or believe and I will not do that. I also tried to call Mr. Lebofsky and even checked out his resume. I was unable to reach him as it was Friday afternoon.

I appreciate your recommendation that I shut off my PC for three days. It is probably well-intentioned but financially unwise as my wife and I both make a substantial part of our living from this PC and Internet connection.

May things go well with you friend. I suspect the problem can be "cured" best by purchasing another computer and not loading any old files from this one to that one. This means my wife and I lose four books in progress and about 10 gig of article archives. FYI, my wife and I earn part of our incomes from journalism and writing. It seems I have lost effective use of this machine and dare not transfer any files until and unless the problem can be resolved. I can at least copy all data files to a machine that is no longer connected to the Internet. That is salvage at its best. I have done so and will try what you proposed but have tried several of the approaches you suggest but not all. Perhaps there is hope.

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Unhappy customer

I also see usage of my CPU that is unexplainable. [...] I would certainly welcome advice as to why, I keep finding my information linked with this. Please advise.

You could try to close and exit all applications you are able to find and then check how many free RAM is remaining to the system and how many is used by the rest of applications. Sysinternals' Process Explorer tool will help you a lot. And additionally to the applications, recommended by Ageless (did you try any of them?), you could try their Autoruns and RootkitRevealer tools.

I have tried most of your recommendations.

Man you are fast!!! And the results??

But let's start at the beginning.

What exactly did you install at the time?

Seti Classic?

BOINC?

When was this approximately?

Where did you download it from?

How many PCs did you load it on (if network) and have you gotten rid of it on all those?

When you made a backup, did you omit that the BOINC/Seti directory needed to be backed up?

Have you run an updated Anti Virus program? (AVG is free)

Have you run an updated Anti Spyware program? (Spybot, Adaware, Hijack This)

Bruce,

You should post the answers to Ageless' questions as quoted in this post, especially the Hijack This. He has even offered to look at your Hijack This log to see if the problem(s) can be identified. There are also free help forums that specialize in studying Hijack This logs and give free information on fixing certain problems.

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Despite the fact that my posting appears to have been deleted, it appears that at least a few have read portions of it.

You posted your first post in a sticky post that said "Don't think about leaving your SPAM on these forums. These forums are moderated."

That first post is still in this thread. For all to see and read here at the beginning of the thread.

Only one post was deleted, and that was my own post, the one originally in front of that. I changed the name of the thread, deleted my own message and destickied the thread so it's a normal thread amongst the other threads. It's got my name on it, because I started it. But all the other posts are still available in this thread.

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I'm rather naieve on BIOS.... if a Seti.B virus or the like sits in, would a reset, removing the cell-battery or the jumper pull not erase anything in the CMOS part?

I'm sorry for bringing some confusion here. I invented Seti.B two days ago as the only possible reason/solution to Bruce's problem. The only issue my idea did not solve - how could some virus, able to communicate with UCB, fit into the CMOS ;-)

Peter

Bruce could only be talking about classic Seti, but as he is only whinning and threating and not (at least looking like) willing to solve his problem (if any), I'm loosing my fun :-(

I hope I got all this right since there are a lot of posts in this thread, but I have some suggestions which might help on this since Bruce Cottingham says he cannot find BOINC or SETI anywhere by searching the files on his computer.

He also says a comupter with same processor and a similar user name is sending data to seti@home and four other projects as shown in the boincstats page referenced earlier in this thread.

Since this is a common processor and he says his name is fairly common this could be anybody. There is no way others trying to help here can identify Bruce.

that host is:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53GHz Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)

Bruce if you could,

Bring up windows XP task manager
if you don't know how, right click on some blue space on the windows task bar, just below the "start" button works well, then select task manager.
Look at the processes tab
Do any programs running under "Image name" show as BOINC.... or as ....windows_intel86, if so what are the exact names.

Also look at the CPU column and which two progams have the highest numbers ?

Another test would be to search for "client_state" which must exist somewhere on your hard disk in order for any of the BOINC programs to run. One of these must run first before the SETI@home BOINC application can run. If found what directory is it in ?

Also search for any programs ending with "windows_intel86"

It is possible to install BOINC in another directory not named BOINC

It is possible to install BOINC in another directory not named BOINC

Yes, a while ago a virus spread BOINC, which didn't point to the obvious \\BOINC\\ folder, but ran out of \\System32\\

Yet this was a 4.xx version of BOINC.
The person who spread it was caught and his credits were deleted. Seti is still blocking those that are infected.

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Bruce if you could,

He might, but as you can see, he is not willing to cooperate, only to write (as a professional writer (as he states)). So I'm pretty sure we will never get any detail from him.

Where did the fruit cake come from? Come on own up who lost there's?

If its not on your computer then its not doing anything, now run along and go be a pain somewhere else as no one is going to take you seriously here

Edit: All I see is people trying to help and you throwing back into peoples faces

Edit2: Go ahead and file any kind of law suit you wish the software is open source so its easy to tell that its not doing anything it should not be doing (pretty sure BOINC staff can be confident at nothing happening)

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