I thought you would want to know about this. I am disgusted by two pieces of software that I have recently downloaded to try. They aim to deceive and inconvenience users in a major way. The two pieces of software are Hotphrase (www.hotphrase.com) and iGetNet (www.igetnet.com). Both pieces of software do at least the following: 1. Install their files in the systems folder of Windows (e.g. Hotphrase uses Windows\System (W9x) or Windows\System32 (NT/2K/XP), and iGetNet uses Windows\System); 2. Name their files in such a manner as to also try and hide them and deceive the user (e.g. Hotphrase name their files "javasae.dll" and "java2.33.dll", and iGetNet name their files "Winstart.exe", "bho.dll" and "rsp.dll") – there may be more names, these are just the ones I could find after looking for a long time. They have NO files that are in their real names; 3. They do not mark the files in any way so that the owner can be identified - only a skilled computer user could work it out; 4. Neither of the two plug-ins contain an un-installer – again, only a very skilled computer user could get rid of them; 5. They both delete the BHO registry keys of other software that I have on my machine (e.g. new.net) – I gave neither of them permission to do this – this is outrageous. Further, both of them are unstable and often crash or hang IE. Who knows what else these programs get up to. We need to stamp this sort of software out. Regards Joe

hi joe, they may be trojans and or malware spyware. to be sure go to www.thepublicworks.com security section and link to pcflank and do their free port and trojan test. make note of the ports and trojans associated with open ports. then link to wilders.org and download a free 30 day trial copy of Trojan Hunter, or Tauscan and scan your computer. also you may want to link to Regprot and download their free registry monitor and from Sysinternals their free port and process monitors (TDImon, and Process Explorer). if you plan on deleting these softwares do so by using the add and delete program from your control panel. if you have Ad-Aware or Spybot downloaded, scan your machine for adware and or spyware. for more info on trojans you may also want to link to Simovits Consulting. all the best, murve