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New.net
Online Advertising
New.net
New.net is a company that sells domains in alternate
top-level domains not supported in the official DNS system, and publishes
NewDotNet, an application that makes use of these domains. The top-level domains
New.net provides include: .shop, .xxx, .club, .ltd, .inc, .travel, .tech,
.sport, .family, .law, .med, and .mp3. Of these, .travel and .xxx are in
conflict with official TLDs later authorized by ICANN to be implemented by other
registries. It should be noted that New.net's domains are not authentic TLDs, but are actually third level domains under the new.net domain name space (e.g.,
example.shop is really example.shop.new.net).
Alleged Spyware
New.net distributes NewDotNet, an
Internet Explorer plugin for
Windows that enables the browser to access sites that use these unofficial
domain names. It is commonly considered
spyware. It
can be installed by users intentionally, but is also quietly bundled in a number
of apparently harmless programs, including
Audiogalaxy, Babylon, BearShare, Go!Zilla, Grokster, iMesh, and KaZaA. Older
versions of NewDotNet displayed unsolicited
pop-up ads.
Recent versions instead redirect search queries to the New.net search engine --
a common spyware behavior which permits the operators to mine search results. It
is also considered a
security risk because the update component downloads arbitrary code from the
New.net server.
Several different versions of NewDotNet exist. Early versions installed
themselves into the Windows directory as a
DLL named "newdotnet"
followed by a version number, and had no uninstall option. More recent versions
create a folder in "c:\Program Files". A version introduced in
2002 (since
discontinued) included a pop-up advertising component.
The program functions by inserting itself into the Winsock
system, which can in some situations disrupt network connectivity. A typical
symptom for dial-up systems is that the user is able to dial out normally but
cannot access the Internet. Nothing about an
alternative DNS root requires the installation of new software, but one
possible explanation for using a browser plug in would be to avoid running
public recursive resolvers. New.net also have instructions for setting up your
own recursive resolver to query new.net domains but they put these instructions
in the isp information section of their site.
Well-known and generally trusted anti-spyware programs like Ad-Aware and
Spybot are
usually effective at removing this software, however newer versions of Ad-Aware
no longer remove it after a lawsuit was filed against Ad-Aware by New.net
(New.net, Inc. v. Lavasoft, 356 F. Supp. 2d 1090, C.D. Cal. 2004).
More recent versions of NewDotNet can be uninstalled using the standard Windows
"Add/Remove Programs" control panel or an uninstaller in "C:\Program Files\New.net".
Manual removal, if performed incorrectly, can completely disrupt the computer's
ability to access the internet.
Technical information
New.Net creates a DLL called newdotnetV_VV.dll (V_VV represents a version
number). This DLL runs silently on start-up. All DNS entries pass through it.
New.Net can be successfully uninstalled with standard Windows Add/Remove
Programs tool. However, simply deleting the DLL causes the internet connection
to be broken. This can be fixed by downloading the removal utility at the
netdotnet website, which is accessible here:
New.net remover (Procedure 4)
External links
Home | Up | Keystroke logging | AntiVirus Gold | Bonzi Buddy | C2.LOP | CoolWebSearch | HuntBar | Internet Optimizer | PSGuard | SpyAxe | SpyTrooper | WorldAntiSpy | XXXDial | Zango Messenger | Phone Home | Claria Corporation | Cydoor | New.net
Online Advertising, made by MultiMedia | Free content and software
This guide is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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