The Age of Compooters
Disclaimer: I'm pretty ****ing drunk right now
I vaguely remember 9/11; I think I was in 5th grade. I do remember we got to leave school at some point in the late morning and go home. My Mom had also gotten off work and I remember us all sitting in the living room watching CNN or some news channel and being pretty speechless. Then she told us we were allowed to go do whatever we want -- to take our minds off the tragedy apparently. I wasn't really sure what was even going on but I tried to pretend I was coping normally and went up to my room and "played" on the computer.
My oldest brother was always a computer whiz. I believe I got my first PC when I was 10 or 11. It's hard to remember the details of those early days. I started out playing random games like Wolfenstein and trying to mimic everything my oldest brother did. He was learning about 3D modeling software and always chatting on forums. I sort of did my own thing in regards to creating mods for Wolfenstein 3D. When I became engrossed in that I literally had no idea what my older brother was doing. But soon, I got bored, and I started to snoop on his projects. I discovered he was involved in something referred to as "FXP". A simple acronym for file transfer protocol.
I learned he was spending a lot of time on a private forum called KK. The community still exists to this day, but after years of trying to gain access -- and successfully getting an account -- I no long remember my credentials or have anyone to vouch for my authenticity. I used IRC to create my own connections, as the groups were a lot more open back then, and I soon discovered a new exciting underground community. During my early years I took up the easiest roles as a "scanner" or a "filler". That meant you were either scanning ports on vulnerable computers for hackers to exploit, or you were using your internet connection to spread warez. In fact, in the very early days you would use "pubservs" -- public FTP servers that had anonymous access capability -- to distribute games/movies/etc. Once you gained access you could create hidden folders that started with /.. / that the sysadmin wasn't able to see unless they looked very closely. It was a turf war in a sense when you discovered a "pubserv" because multiple FXP groups would tag folders with their name. It was against etiquette to download from one groups "pubserv" and simultaneously steal it and use it as your own to spread content.
After while I realized you were a nobody unless you could hack -- so I naturally learned the skill set required to scan and exploit my own "boxes". A box was any computer that could be used for remote scanning of potential exploitable computers or servers that you could host content on. When I was new I was amazed that hackers could have so many boxes that they lost track of how many they had or how many were still accessible. It didn't take long before I was in the same boat though. When you had excess servers you shared them with your other group members so they could use them to spread warez or scan for other exploitable computers. During that time, I didn't realize it, but I was what was commonly referred to as a "script kiddie". Despite my pretty regurgitated knowledge, I did manage to hack a few universities and some web hosts with a ton of servers.
There was always drama in "the scene" though. I remember going through multiple aliases within a couple years. My group admins would protect me and allow me to continue to operate as long as I agreed to change my nickname. This was due to other groups realizing who I was in the past or which group I had decided to leave to join another. I didn't really care as long as I was making steps towards the top.
In fact, the "FXP" scene is the lowest form of "the scene". As I started to learn more about couriers and top sites I became less and less interested in hacking and spreading the warez and more interested in being part of a release group. So, when I was a bit older and more experienced -- probably around 15yrs old -- I managed to get in contact with someone who ran a top site and offered leech access, for a price. I convinced my oldest brother that having 0-day access to releases was super important, and he gladly paid the montly fee to get a leech account on a "rented" top site. Since I was the one who set it all up, he allowed me to use his account. This greatly benefited me because I could use his access to spread warez to servers in the FXP community. I was essentially seen as a god because very few people had access to actual top sites in the FXP scene. This allowed me to move up very quickly to groups with much more talent, even though I had to change my nickname once again.
Once you got on one top site, especially if it was good and had some affiliates, it was much easier to get on other top sites as a "courier". This was very similar to the FXP scene but instead of spreading popular content days after the fact, you were responsible for moving hundreds of gb's everyday of all of the latest stuff -- no matter what it was. So, my brother and I began to "trade" (move warez) together and get access to more and more top sites. If you're able to build a reputation it becomes so easy to get on more top sites that you actually have to start being picky and turning down which ones you want to support because your sources are so fast you can't afford to use your download credits on mediocre sites. Most sites gave you a ratio of 1:3 so for every gb you uploaded you were able to download 3gb. This made it difficult in the beginning if you had one site that was super super fast and had content before the others, because you could never hope to upload enough to that site to give yourself credits for enough download capability to support filling your other sites. They had leader boards where only the top 20 couriers were allowed to stay, so if you didn't make the upload requirement your account was deleted and that was that. However, if you had leech access on a 0-sec topsite you were able to download as much as your heart desired. Normally they discouraged you from trading to other top sites, but if you were smart enough you could get away with it and use that as a source to get your foot in the door as a trader on other sites with very fast speeds, and then slowly build up your "portfolio" if you will so that you can maintain your 1:3 ratio on all the sites you've joined.
The first few years, we only had access to "rented" sites. That is, top sites that were hosted on servers that were just rented from a server company and multiple servers were linked together to increase the hard drive space and speed capability. Eventually, my brother and I learned that these were the bottom of the barrel in terms of top sites. Most legit release groups avoided these rented sites and only affiliated with sites that were completely private. That is: hosted at a business, a university, or deeply hidden within a server company so that it appeared to have its own internet connection. We quickly realized that if you wanted to be someone in "the scene" you had to be in a release group, not just a courier.
At some point in that era, I had actually joined an XXX group that was responsible for hacking porn sites and releasing their videos and images to the rest of the internet, immediately after they were posted on the XXX site. I made a name for myself because I transformed the usual process of downloading the image sets, individually renaming the files, and uploading them to be released simply by using .BAT files to automate the renaming and zipping of the images. After I beat a competitor group to releasing the images -- my first night on the job -- the members of my new release group forever had my back.
Years had passed since my brother and I had first joined top sites, become lowly couriers transferring gb's between rented sites, and finally had our third or forth shot at making it big.
It was after my freshmen year of college. I was on house arrest -- a story for another time -- and I had tons of free time on my hands, obviously. My oldest brother was already a real adult working a full time job and getting the income and some of the responsibilities that come with that. I had found us another top site that offered leech access for a monthly price. However, this one was different. This was no ordinary rented top site. Once we got access to this site we were able to make contacts that knew some of the most legit courier groups and release groups in the scene. After a lot of talk in IRC channels and private chats -- that is what the scene is all about after all -- my brother learned what it would take to be a part of one of the most respected and fastest TV groups in the scene's history. Due to his willingness to spend time and money on recording and cutting TV episodes, he was vastly rewarded. At the same time, I used my knowledge and connections to increase our ability as a courier. It didn't take long before we had to split into two separate personalities in the scene. I'm fortunate that he allowed me to continue to share his account on top sites that his release group gave him access to. If anyone in the scene had found out, we would have been immediately banned and black listed from any other groups or sites.
The rest of the story is pretty long-winded and moot unless someone has a genuine interest. My brother and I eventually started our own private top site that was located in Romania. By that time he had started his own TV release group with my help, and I had managed to join one of the top 5 courier groups in the scene -- with his help. We were a pretty great but frictional duo and had a good run for a long time.
About a year or two after we peaked my brother got engaged and I was completely engrossed in getting my engineering degree and spending time with a girlfriend. That's pretty much all it took to end our reign in "the scene". It was exciting and invigorating but in the end it was just another hobby that wasted too much of your time for very little gain.
Edit: if you know nothing about "the scene" you can get some idea watching
www.welcometothescene.com
Last edited by hOoLiGaNNNNNNN; 12-17-2016 at 04:26 AM.