Anti-Piracy Corrupted Files Conspiracy Theory

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euanandrews

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#24618 29-Jul-2008 10:27

I have just noticed some issues with my new router that are simular to what I had with my old router...

Network disconnection/Wifi signal drop-outs.

This used to happen on my old router, but I found it happened only when downloading certain files...
If I removed the suspected files, no problems, my network would run fine again (after a manual reboot)

This is now happening again with my new Belkin N1 Vision Modem Router...

What I am wondering/suspecting, is if the powers to be, are sending out corrupted files to look like legitimate files, and these corrupted files work like a virus or something and attack and disable the local network?

I know they have flooded the net with fakes etc to combat piracy, and what better way to attempt to prevent someone downloading copyrighted work by downing thier network, making it impossible...and offputting attempting to try again or mabye even other titles...

Anyone seen this behaviour?
Anyone know of this?

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#152335 29-Jul-2008 10:30

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euanandrews

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#152383 29-Jul-2008 12:42

Arhhhhh!

I am under sustained attack!

Or at least, thats my theroy...

With my old D-Link router...I was having to reguarly pull the power and reboot to get the network to run again...
With this new Belkin, that is not working...I am having to restore the factory defaults every time to get it to work again!

I have for now pulled my NAS from the network, to see if this still happens...as that is where any 'offending files' will be...if I am correct in my theory

davide

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#152387 29-Jul-2008 12:50

Well, if you're worried about the fact that some of the files you are downloading may be fakes put there to put a virus on your PC, there is an easy solution... stick to downloading legal content, from legit providers...

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cisconz

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#152389 29-Jul-2008 12:53

TheBartender: Arhhhhh!

I am under sustained attack!

Or at least, thats my theroy...

With my old D-Link router...I was having to reguarly pull the power and reboot to get the network to run again...
With this new Belkin, that is not working...I am having to restore the factory defaults every time to get it to work again!

I have for now pulled my NAS from the network, to see if this still happens...as that is where any 'offending files' will be...if I am correct in my theory

Or maybe the network equipment you have is not robust enough to cope with the amount of data you are putting through it.

We have only found 2 router manufacturers that will reliably handle the VoIP traffic we put through.

Hmmmm

inane

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#152395 29-Jul-2008 13:06

I have seen this sort of behaviour on a number of routers, particularly when I am seeding / download Linux Distro's via a torrent.

How much ram do the various routers your using have?

I have found that my linksys can't handle many connections, in fact orders of magnitutes less than my machine can,

in fact, I have downloaded an ubuntu torrent from over 2,500 peers (getting theoretical max speed across my cable too :) :D) with my machine directly connected to the 'net, however introduce the router in there and it starts to get grumpy with more than 150 connections or less.

My advice would be to look at a full linux based router, as I have heard good things about them and the performance -
and because they are linux based, you have a much deeper level of detail that you can investigate into.

-However-

I also agree with the sentiment of Davide's point, which is,

if you are downloading questionable material, with questionable legitamacy, under questionable pretenses, where you'd be worried about an overbearing, illegal, but oft-proven attack from a completely illegal, monopolising body, undergoing some form of DDos,

then, well. dont.

if you are download legitimate things via a torrent tracker that has also been implicated in tracking torrents of not-so-legitimate torrents then I would suggest the following,

A) the router, - more ram, more detail, better investigative power and control.
B) Encryption is your friend.
C) filters, there are many lists of IP addresses known to be associated with various bodies that think they have the right to police the net, you can always black list these at a router level.
D) do some cyber-neighbourhood watching - do some googling and establish how to investigate whether people on the same subnet/node/exchange/etc. as you are comprimised with malware / etc, go the next step, report their IP addresses to your ISP, or do some other community work,
or alternatively
E) do some googling on the current major threats (malware, self-propagating virii etc.) on the web (their are plenty of places that will give you the stats and the details), try to block those ports.

NZtechfreak

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#152396 29-Jul-2008 13:09

Downloading 'certain files' you say.... Hmmmn, perhaps not downloading these 'certain files' can fix your problem?

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#152400 29-Jul-2008 13:15

Put a tinfoil hat on your router.

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euanandrews

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#152401 29-Jul-2008 13:15

cisconz:
TheBartender: Arhhhhh!

I am under sustained attack!

Or at least, thats my theroy...

With my old D-Link router...I was having to reguarly pull the power and reboot to get the network to run again...
With this new Belkin, that is not working...I am having to restore the factory defaults every time to get it to work again!

I have for now pulled my NAS from the network, to see if this still happens...as that is where any 'offending files' will be...if I am correct in my theory

Or maybe the network equipment you have is not robust enough to cope with the amount of data you are putting through it.

We have only found 2 router manufacturers that will reliably handle the VoIP traffic we put through.

No, thats not it....

This is happening at all times, like right now, I am doing nothing other than cruising the net.

Right now the wifi connection is completley unstable...only way to fix is to restore factory defaults again.
I have diconnected my NAS, but its looking like that is not making a difference...
My laptop has only just had a fresh install recently as has nothing on it, so the issue cant be there...unless...
I am wondering still...if an offending file on my NAS, has attacked my network, and mabye infected my laptop as well (possibly also the desktop)...

I am getting to the stage where I will reformat and reinstall my laptop and desktop again to cover all bases, and keep the NAS dissconected to test my theroy....alot of stuffing around though!

Obviously if I am correct, I will have to find the offending file/s and remove them to prevent this cycle from happening all over again...although I can narrow it down to recent downloads.

Lots of stuffing around/hassle to test a theroy that may be way off base...although I have seen particular files do this to me in the past, so actually a possibility.

inane

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#152403 29-Jul-2008 13:20

the linksys linux wrt54gl is quite good apparently :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G

As a side note, the various agencies that have planted virii and vairous fake files have also been linked to "compression bombs"

From Wikipedia: A decompression bomb is a type of denial-of-service attack, in which a small compressed file expands to an enormous size, requiring large amounts of system resources and possibly causing the software or the entire system to hang. All major web browsers are vulnerable to the attack, which may be launched merely by visiting a malicious website using the standard gzip transfer encoding.^[1]

euanandrews

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#152405 29-Jul-2008 13:33

Those who have said it in regards to downloading 'questionable content'...I know, I understand the risks, and I am not complaining...more just trying to find the root of my problem and resolve it.

Hence my question, has anyone else expereinced this or something simular?

inane

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#152427 29-Jul-2008 14:24

see my first reply for others with similar issues

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euanandrews

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#152460 29-Jul-2008 16:47

I am fighting a running battle here!

Just been clearing out my downloads folder....thought bugga it, get rid of them all, do a proper clean out....and man!
- I had 6 torrent folders/movies on my NAS device that refused to delete, 'in use'...I ended up killing every program running to get access and delete them...
- My old desktop was spitting the dummy masively...resources going through the roof, everthing slowed to a snails pace...
- The router was not responding to manually pressing the buttons on its front panel, as well as the router LCD screen was frozen/hung in an incorrect state, displaying a connection that was no longer there...this is on top of both the wifi and ethernet networks failing at times...
- The laptop is reguarly losing the wifi and also the ethernet network connections

It appears my saving grace has been my old ME desktop, as that could still connect via ethernet...but my XP lappy was losing its connection to both wifi and ethernet...

So the steps I am taking to defeat this monster are as follows:
- Delete all downloads
- Reformat and reinstall OS on both laptop and desktop
- Restore factory defaults on router

The fact some torrent folders/movies gave me so much grief to remove/in use...adds to my belief they are the source of my problem, and now I am just doing a clean sweep to make sure there are no traces left elsewhere to reinfect...if that is whats happening?

bradi

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#152561 29-Jul-2008 21:44

Dude, slow down... people (including me) have a tendency to get overly paranoid about strange PC behaviour when downloading "questionable" material (hey I thought it was a demo/pre-release trailer/etc :) ) anyways...

When in doubt try the following :

1. Get another pair of eyes / brain to look at the situation and give an opinion
2. Focus on one thing at a time (i.e. network drop outs)
3. Remove / unplug / disconnect / turn off / kick until it doesn't move anymore anything that you don't need to troubleshoot the issue
4. Try to replicate the issue
a. on another PC
b. with another user account
c. on a different OS / browser / program
d. with absolutely nothing else running (safe mode, Live CD or WinPE if poss)
5. If you are still getting no where, cold shutdown, reboot, rinse and repeat

If you are none the wiser after the above steps then a full format and re-install (off net, with clean media) will at least give you a clean slate to start the process again.

Things that have helped me get to the bottom of "wtf" issues in the past are

Autoruns from sysinternals
Eset NOD32 / Spybot / Rootkit revealer
Wireshark
An absolutely "insane" amount of logging
*lots of patience* for the "hang on what the heck is that, cmd -> nslookup, cmd -> tracert" moments when you think Google has hijacked your PC... it hasn't... yet.... <g>

I can definately recommend a Cisco DSL router for "eye opening" insight into what's bouncing off or through your router - although configuration is not for the faint hearted. A cheap alternative would be a linux based router (pretty sure there are live "firewall" distro's kicking around).

NOTE 1: I would think your NAS is Linux based and uses SAMBA for CIFS (its not the best at closing file locks).
NOTE 2: Unless you inflict WMV files on yourself, then pretty unlikely a movie contains anything nasty.
NOTE 3: Peer Guardian (or a similar plugin for your BT client) is worth it's weight in gold (how much does software weigh?)
NOTE 4: TURN OFF DHT!!! Geez people, do you really want to advertise to everyone what your downloading!!!!?

Hope you sort it