its been answered multiple times in multiple places. i'm not sure why people seem to gloss over the answer.

i'll repeat exactly what trap_jaw said:

LimeWire has a authorization feature to create private networks within gnutella. It's deactivated by default but somebody might have activated it in the source code. This will cause older LimeWire versions to display that box.

and then later it said that the code was removed from newer versions, so it shouldn't pop up anymore in the next version.

i have absolutely no clue why you think a text file could be executed and become a keystroke monitor, nor do i have a clue what people would even enter into these popup boxes, because limewire has no username or passwords.

I didn't say 'text file', I said '.dat' file, which is a system file and executable - it was named 'SThumbs' & has anybody else found it? Its 'hidden' in Windows, so not visible unless you look.
You need a username & password to get into this forum.

>I didn't say 'text file', I said '.dat' file, which is a system file and executable - it was named 'SThumbs' & has anybody else found it? Its 'hidden' in Windows, so not visible unless you look.
You need a username & password to get into this forum.

.dat files are not executable. executables (for windows, atleast) are .exe, .bat, and .com, and on NT+ .cmd. .dat files are typically text files in some binary representation, useful for storing compressed data.

i didn't say these forums, either. i said LimeWire.

OK so i humbly beg forgiveness, a .dat is not an .exe, but it showed up in my downloads folder immediately after i had entered username-password in a pop-up box. I didn't download it, and Limewire has a few .dats in other folders, but this wasn't a Limewire file. When i accessed it, its properties were 'hidden' and 'system' and I got the warning "these files are used by the operating system and by various programs". Since i didn't download it, and it wasn't a signed windows file either, i said 'bugger that' and deleted it. HAS ANYBODY ELSE FOUND IT? This could be nothing but someone has activated the old private network and are using it to annoy others P2Pers, but i'm not taking any chances. When the boxes pop-up, hit 'Alt-F4' to shut it off.

i'm glad someone else finally found it! if you can find out about it, people with all different OS will be happy to hear it - its bedeviling EVERY system, win mac or linux. sux!!

when i saw it it had no text just scrambly non-text stuff, but didn't exist on my computer for very long.

good luck with it, i think its in good hands now.

thanks for clearing that up! & i havn't had any popups for the last few days either

My computer crashed last time I was trying to post and somehow I posted a quote and nothing else. I was actually trying to say I get these boxes asking for usename and password frequently, BUT they are not from IP addresses I am downloading or uploading with, nor are they IP addresses on my connections tab. They seem to come up after I have done a search with extensive hits. My queston, is how do you access this feature? I can't imagine it is only availabe thru source code, as too many people seem to have it turned on.

STraNge ........I've found these two files on my computer ( .mdt-flag and .mtd-stamp) since these pop up have started. Although I never gave out my user name or password, I did type in mumbo jumbo (ie: dfdjdsfj and akjd;flja) for user name and password, (just messin with the recipient). Norton found these two invisible files because they started with a "period" ".", which are not allowed in the beginning of Mac file names, cause they are used in the programming.

Nas
Mac G3 266 8.5
LW 2.73

Interesting... I thought I had seen files that started with "."

I check around and found a file ".com.zerog.registry.xml" and a folder ".limewire" both in preferences. I figured the "period" was just to keep them at the top of the list.

I've never seen a pop-up window, though. Just thought I'd mention it since I also use Mac, OS 9.1.