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Team FTL

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:45 pm
by Nathan_P
As the title goes, they're back. Are they up to there old tricks again??

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... =&t=149135

Given that 2.4m points and 34k WU gives only 70 points per WU I would not be hopeful that they had changed there ways.

Oh and i checked when they all started submitting WU- all of them started on the same day, 23rd November

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:48 pm
by k1wi
604 WUs a day for the 'anon' user is suspicious...

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:13 am
by road-runner
I dont know what there tricks were before but that is way to many WUs for the PPD on Anon user...

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:24 am
by Grandpa_01
road-runner wrote:I dont know what there tricks were before but that is way to many WUs for the PPD on Anon user...
They used game hacks on PTP networks to install F@H on peoples computers and folding for FTL without the people knowing about it. The trojan or what ever you want to call it installed the classic client using a single thread, that explains the high wu count and low score. And it was and is not very good PR for Stanford even though they had nothing to do with it. It looks like somebody may have started using it again. :ewink:

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:39 am
by Jesse_V
From this page: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-main#ntoc10 "Please only run Folding@home on machines you either own or on which you have the permission of the owner to run our software. If there is any doubt (eg you want to run on computers at work), we suggest you get written approval (eg get your superior to sign a letter giving authorization); we have found that written documentation of this sort is important if there is ever any dispute of whether permission was indeed granted. Please do not assume that permission is granted by the owner. Any other use of Folding@home violates our end user license agreement (EULA), and just isn't a good idea in general. We will attempt to contact the donor if there is some suspicion of a EULA violation. Many donors use their email as their donor name and this is helpful. If do not have any information on hand and we have been presented with a sufficiently strong case that there was a EULA violation, we will zero the points of the donor and not allow clients to run under the name of that donor. This decision can be reversed if there is sufficient information to exonerate the donor. The donor should contact one of the Pandegroup members or Forum Moderators at our forum (http://foldingforum.org) to get in touch with us in such a situation."

If there is indeed a EULA violation, I hope a PG member notices this...

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:09 am
by Grandpa_01
I have no doubt they will notice it FTL use to be a power house team until a few of there members went astray PG found out and zeroed their points and banned them. It looks like they may have started up again. Here is the old main thread about FTL viewtopic.php?f=47&t=6221&hilit=team+ftl

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:56 am
by Jesse_V
Grandpa_01 wrote:I have no doubt they will notice it FTL use to be a power house team until a few of there members went astray PG found out and zeroed their points and banned them. It looks like they may have started up again. Here is the old main thread about FTL viewtopic.php?f=47&t=6221&hilit=team+ftl
Thank you very much. That's just the link I was looking for. I finished reading the ENTIRE thread, and it seems this situation could be a lot more serious than I had initially thought. However, we need more evidence. Does anyone know if they are again using their piggyback installation again, and if so, can we carefully check it?

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:32 am
by Joe_H
Looks like the other numbered team mentioned in that thread has also gone active again in the last couple months as well. 163214 by number, no name given. Legitimate this time, or not?

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:49 pm
by VijayPande
We're looking into this. We take trojans very seriously but we also don't want to be rash in case there possibly is a reasonable explanation.

If there is anyone from this team on the forum, please contact me so we can hear your side of it.

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:50 am
by 7im
Time for a monthly update...

Team FTL now has more active users (EOC stats) than all but one other team. All this since October 2011. MAKE GO BOOM!

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:02 am
by Jesse_V
From this page, http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/createteam.pl it looks like you enter an email address when you start a team. I remember entering mine when I started our team. Assuming they entered one to retrieve the team password, can't the PG use that to shoot them an email and ask them what's going on? If this is reasonably possible, we might be able to resolve this situation much easier that way.

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:36 am
by Grandpa_01
Here is your answer http://teamftl.blogspot.com/

I am not sure what they are doing but it appears people can opt out if they choose to they have 1497 folders and 987 have produced points in the last 7 days. It appears that most or all make a choice to fold because they most have different names. We do not know what method they are using to recruit folders but from looking at the stats it may be legitimate. To me because of there history it is doubtful but possible.http://kakaostats.com/t.php?col=11&t=14 ... ter=active

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 8:02 am
by Joe_H
Well, with the single largest user on FTL being "Anonymous" which is usually assigned when no name is given at all, it still looks a bit hinky. And some of the other names are not looking all that "chosen".

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:27 am
by Jesse_V
Grandpa_01 wrote:Here is your answer http://teamftl.blogspot.com/
I appreciate this link. Although it becomes argumentative at times (not sure I could remain neutral if 100 million points were zeroed out) I would highly recommend that people read it. Based on the material presented within, I'm leaning much more on the innocent side of the spectrum now. Its unfortunate that the actions of a few caused devestation to so many, but the PG had a difficult decision to make and I think they made the best one under the circumstances. Clearly FTL's leaders have put large amounts of efforts with coding setup programs and spreading the word across the Internet and a few outside their control just took things too far. I'm hoping they've learned and moved on in a more legit direction. As the blog implies, they may have just been under default settings till now.

Re: Team FTL

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 10:37 am
by MtM
FTL... :roll:

And reading his blog caused a big :lol:

His last entry is from february 2010?

@Jesse_V: Notice the thread title of the previous thread... there is nothing good about FTL and taking the blog as source of information is not something you should do.

The blog and the former thread alone should have made that clear already, I would advice you to read it thoroughly.
Joe_H wrote:Well, with the single largest user on FTL being "Anonymous" which is usually assigned when no name is given at all, it still looks a bit hinky. And some of the other names are not looking all that "chosen".
8-)