Audiogalaxy Spyware, Have I found something?

[Wolfmist]

I use Zonealarm (free version). I also have Att broadband internet. Anyway I get continually pinged every few minutes from various IPs, often several times from the same one.

I was looking over all the IP's and pinging them with a program called VisualRoute. Its a whois program with a map. I pinged this one IP address which is 64.245.58.68
anyway here's what it came up with :

| 6 | | 12.122.5.222 | gbr3-p00.cgcil.ip.att.net | Chicago, IL, USA | -6.0 | 12 | -x- | AT&T ITS |
| 7 | | 12.122.2.206 | gbr4-p30.sl9mo.ip.att.net | St. Louis, MO, USA | -6.0 | 14 | x-- | AT&T ITS |
| 8 | | 12.122.2.41 | gbr1-p70.kszmo.ip.att.net | - | | 20 | -x- | AT&T ITS |
| 9 | | 12.122.1.94 | gbr2-p60.kszmo.ip.att.net | - | | 23 | -x- | AT&T ITS |
| 10 | | 12.122.2.113 | gbr4-p20.dlstx.ip.att.net | Dallas, TX, USA | | 31 | ---x- | AT&T ITS |
| 11 | | 12.122.2.110 | gbr1-p80.auttx.ip.att.net | - | | 32 | -x- | AT&T ITS |
| 12 | | 12.123.133.21 | gar1-p360.auttx.ip.att.net | - | | 30 | x-- | AT&T ITS |
| 13 | | 12.124.219.26 | - | ?Middletown, NJ 07748 | | 37 | --x--- | AT&T ITS |
| 14 | | 64.245.55.12 | - | ?Denver, CO 80204 | | 27 | x-- | Inflow |
| 15 | | 64.245.58.68 | n39.audiogalaxy.com | ?AUSTIN, TX 78753 | | 35 | -x- | Audio Galaxy, Inc. |


I cut off the first 5 hops for privacy reasons.

I use audiogalaxy, and I had used it a few hours before I did this check. I know audiogalaxy has spyware, but I didn't know it contacted your computer when not using the audiogalaxy program.

So here's what I want to know. Keep in mind I'm not too knowledgable about this stuff. Is this kind of thing normal? I mean without zonealarm, could Audiogalaxy have gotten information off my computer through some piece of hidden spywhere?

Wolfmist

 

[Kingslayer]

Yes Audiogalaxy watches all the time. It's nothing new, it's been on various sites for a week now. The owner of audiogalaxy openly admitted it and even explained what is being tracked. Either way, I would look for a different alternative.

 

[Wolfmist]

Could you please provide me with a link to one of these sites?

 

[Sleeping Tiger]

Here's an article on the spyware stuff:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49960,00.html

I never knew!

 

[Wolfmist]

This stuff really gets to me. I hate the Idea of someone making money off of my personal information.

At least we are compensated by being able to use free software like Kazaa and Audiogalaxy.

Still I think its wrong to do this stuff without making it clear in the beginning rather than putting it under the rug at the end of an agreement.

Thanks for the link by the way.

 

[PsycoPhreak]

You'd be surprised at the amount of 'spyware" is out there...even in programs that are trusted.....

there is a program that allows you to scan...and remove ( at your option ) any spyware on your system...

It's called "Ad-aware" and can be DL'ed from here

 

[Wolfmist]

Yes I have used that many times. Its a great program and I have nothing but praise for it, but it does not remove all spyware.

Something to note, there were a few threads within the past week talking about the morpheus preview edition having spyware.

Morpheus claims it does not have any, but people were reporting that when they went to certain websites (like compaq.com), it would re-route them to a certain advertising site briefly before going there. I can confirm this, as it happened to me, as well as made many site to take much more time to load.

Morpheus sucks, don't get it. I know our options are small but they lied straight out.

 

[Kingslayer]

I'm sorry. I totally misled you. I was confusing Morpheus and Audiogalaxy. I use them both myself.

Morpheus PE is the one out now with the redirecting spyware. It was the owner of Morpheus that came clean and told everyone what it collects.

To the best of my knowledge, the lastest edition of Audioglaxy has the spyware removed. The hits you are seeing on your firewall may be people trying to download from you.

 

[Wolfmist]

I'm sorry. I totally misled you. I was confusing Morpheus and Audiogalaxy. I use them both myself.

Morpheus PE is the one out now with the redirecting spyware. It was the owner of Morpheus that came clean and told everyone what it collects.

To the best of my knowledge, the lastest edition of Audioglaxy has the spyware removed. The hits you are seeing on your firewall may be people trying to download from you.

Would that still be happening even if I wasn't connected to the AG satelite?

 

[Kingslayer]

Umm NO!

 

[SNIPER1M]

Morpheus's parent company is Audiogalaxy. Morpheus PE has no spyware that could find. Beware of clicking anywhere that fricking monkey.
Kazaa on the other hand is owned by a notorious ***** of spyware. Who last month broke off the relationship with Morpheus so he could restructure Kazaa to be a user fee system. AND HE DID THIS BY SENDING A TROJAN HORSE TO PEOPLE LOGGING ON, WHICH USED NETWORK TO PROPAGATE ITSELF THROUGHOUT THE MORPHEUS NETWORK. All Morpheus uses received a message that Morpheus users are required to upgrade their software. This shutdown Morpheus without any prior warning to Morpheus. The upgrade was a service switching downgrade to Kazaa.

 

[Gilgamesh]

What is Cydoor or Gator?

 

[Wolfmist]

I'm not sure about about Cydoor, but Gator is supposed to me some program to help with online forms and other online things. Its really just spyware. I see Cydoor as a cookie in Ad-aware. Thats all I know though

 

[Gilgamesh]

all this is scary **** i don't trust any program right now and i haven't fill a form with my real name or address just to think what they will do with it.

 

[Wolfmist]

Yeah it does suck. I remember reading that the reason it is not made illegal is because our government believes that it will be good for the economy by causing revenue. But while it lasts, the are just turning the other way until we make it a big enough issue. We live in a capitalist world.