Return to Main IndexGreetings dear readers. I've tried 'please' before, so now I'm telling you, READ this FAQ before you e-mail me any questions else you won't get a reply, it is that simple.
General chit-chat, brief reversing discussion or information on most topics is always welcome, please don't be offended if I don't reply or you receive only a 1 line acknowledgement. Below I've tried my best to answer the very common questions which seem to repeatedly manifest their way into my inbox. Please use your common sense and check firstly that the answer to your question is not available through a search engine or by using the search facility on my site, its in your interest, believe me. If you don't see exactly what you are looking for, then there is a high probability I can't help.
Q1. "I really need a crack for <insert program name>" or "I want to download <such and such application>" or "I'm having a problem with a crack for <such and such program>", can you please tell me what to do / where to find what I am looking for?.
A1. OK, I'm desperate now, do not ever send me these types of e-mails (EVEN IF you see the software featured as a tutorial), I don't ever respond to them (unless they relate to my services page). The less of these e-mails I receive the more time I can spend helping those with genuine reverse engineering queries, so I'm begging you, don't send this to me or I might re-incarnate a lamers e-mail page of sorts ;-).
Q2. The program author has updated his software's version number so I can't follow your tutorial OR I've found an error on one of your tutorials....., what should I do?.
A2. The program version problem is the bane of all reverse engineering tutorials, I'm afraid there is little I can do about it as a lot of my tutorials were written in 1998/1999 and my time does not permit me to be continually updating (very sad, but true). Try applying the technique I describe from the older version with the new one, maybe the author didn't learn anything, if he did, do your own research and send me your results so I can post an addendum. If I've made a mistake then please send me a correction.
Q3. I have tried to reverse <insert program name> without success, can you please take a look for me?.
A3. This type of e-mail will no longer get a detailed response because my time really is very limited, although some have found I do help when I can see someone interested in reverse engineering and not just "how do I crack a specific target". I can be convinced of the former if you indicate some of the approaches you have tried, the targets URL etc, etc. Please don't pin your hopes on me doing all the hard work for you, I may be able to answer specific questions, but I'm not going to trace your apps for you and provide all the answers.
Q4. Are you (or have you ever been) a member of a (cracking / warez / hacking) group? and could you just crack a few small things for me / hack this particular www site / join my new group?.
A4. I currently remain only a member of 1 group (MEXELiTE), which I should add (for all the copyright gurus reading this) has been idle since 1997, you dig law it enforcement agencies?, we haven't cracked anything to fund international terrorism for over 8 years. In the past I have been in several other groups (my times in the now defunct SiEGE were some of the best). As of the new millennium I have cut completely my contacts with the warez scene (although I maintain good friendships with members of various groups), I've not benefited in anyway from them and have absolutely no desire to collect law suits or 4 year prison terms, think very carefully yourselves before you do partake in such activites, or you might end up being a PWA statistic or FL statistic or worse still, a DOD statistic.
I am NOT a hacker, never have been and never will be, in fact hacking doesn't really interest me. So please don't ask me how to break into servers or your friends Hotmail account etc, because I won't and can't do it.
Q5. I've found an error on one of your tutorials.....(any other associated problems relating to tutorial comprehension).
A5. Sadly to err is to be human, and therefore I've probably made more than my quota of mistakes :-). Please send me an e-mail detailing the nature of the problem and any correction or request to fix, I will do my utmost to change it (e.g. Virtual Gibbs :-) ). As you can appreciate when I wrote these older tutorials some details were very rushed in my desire to post content ..... since late-1999 I have checked my theories a little more rigorously.
Q6. Why don't you place all of your site in a single zip file so I can download them all and read them offline?.
A6. I did think about whether or not I wanted to do this, the SandMan does yet Fravia doesn't. I've decided against it for now for 2 reasons, the first is a simple matter of administration, the second is that there are tools already available on the web for "site grabbing" and you could probably use one of those.
Q7. I've written a keygen/tutorial, will you display it on your site?.
A7. Yes. I welcome all keygen sources/tutorial submissions (thank you in advance) but I might perform some selective editing :-) (cuts will include endless lists of greetings and gratuitous publicity for your warez group (legally I have to do this), of course if your essay is outstanding and your greetings discrete, they will survive my editing axe).
Q8. Are you a member of the HCU?, who do I contact about joining? and who is +ORC?
A8. As far as I know, the HCU is no more and has been this way since 1999 (the organisation ceased being in somewhat acrimonious circumstances). I have never been connected with it since I have never attempted any of the yearly "strainers" which were needed to pass to gain admission. Unless someone can convince me now of the untold benefits of joining I stand by my judgement that it wasn't ever worth doing so. I've not the faintest idea who +ORC is and frankly no interest in tracking him down, you can read the details regarding +ORC-stalking on my own +ORC page, one suspects the truth is likely to be an anti-climax and I maintain the page only as a tribute to times long since gone.
Q9. I just can't stand your artwork/background and site layout, its crap/garish/slow to load/unnecessary/difficult to navigate/and your HTML skills suck pond water, can you change it/revert back to the old style/shoot the artist/learn how to use PhotoShop?
A9. In short, no. Unless you send me some wondrous artwork that immediately convinces me to change :-), you'll have to live with my rather conservative tastes (and btw I have shrunk most of my GIF's & JPEG's to make the site load quicker). Oh yes, and I already know the background sucks, so send me an improvement.
"If you don't like what you see, you don't have to read" - Old Chinese proverb.
Q10. I've noticed that you are hosting some essays from other reverse engineering sites, don't you feel thats akin to stealing?.
A10. I've not actually been asked this question yet, but I will address it. Where possible I always ask for permission to host material which is not my own, and when I do, I acknowledge its source. I've yet to find anyone who has refused or doesn't state openly on their site that the information they host can be used as such. Of course, for most of my readers the question is really this, when does borrowing these documents become leeching or stealing?, well look around my site, I think I've done a lot of hard work myself (something acknowledged by the owners of sites I've used), yet you must ultimately judge for yourselves.
Q11. Hey!, how do I make a reverse engineering page / cracking site like yours?.
A11. I guess I can only really offer you some very basic advice. I started out writing my HTML with just Norton Commander for DOS (although I'm now using PageMill). I recommend getting a relocator from places like cjb.net/surf.to/tsx.org etc. Next decide on a theme and choose carefully your provider, (definitely try and avoid the free ones if you can). Consider how much time you can devote to your web page, especially if you hope to rely on others contributing, in my experience the vast majority of visitors will only ever leech. Aside from that, try and avoid large images (or shrink them), a page of 40k or more will annoy visitors on a slower connection. All sites take time to establish themselves and if you want to survive or have a life you better avoid placing cracks and tools on your own account :-).
Q12. I'm a <software author / protectionist> and I've found my <software / licensing system> cracked / featured on your site, I'm upset this has happened and I should like you to <remove the document altogether / remove the incriminating parts / drop dead in a ditch this instant>, can you help me?.
A12. I dislike censorship in all of its guises, however if you can present to me a legitamate reason why something should be removed I'll almost certainly do it, note that a threat of a $500,000 law suit is not a 'legitamate reason' (are you listening Macrovision?).
Q13. I downloaded <such and such program / tool> from your webpage and it doesn't do <what I want / what it should / what I need it to, to crack automagically such and such app>, please tell me what to do now.
A13. I'm sorry, but if your answer isn't in the manual or available from the author, then I can't help. Unless of course you wan't to pay me (and well) to be your technical support hotline.
Q14. Why must I contribute to your site to be able to access the FLEXlm SDK's etc.
A14. In short, my experience of the last 8 years tells me that the reverse engineering scene has abandoned its 'information and knowledge sharing' ethos. This seems to be due to a combination of commercialism (crackers being bought out by protectionists or wanting payment for their cracks), egotism and group scene competition, a further consequence is that less capable newbies fill the void left behind. I'm tired of providing for underserving leeches that contribute nothing, thus rightly or perhaps wrongly I've closed my public doors to reflect the changing winds; do not let this deter you from asking me for assistance though.
Now if you can't find the answer to your question in this FAQ, by all means e-mail me ;-).
If I am able to help you and request some files for examination please make VERY sure that I will actually be able to install and use them, there is nothing more frustrating for me than software that either refuses to run or isn't supplied with all of the dll or whatever files it needs (as has happened on several occasions). Please don't send any files larger than 10Mb to my Hotmail account, I will probably ask you to set up your own FTP or in exceptional circumstances you might like to send me a CD.
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