Roster

Technical: Why it Has to be Olson's Posts

Technical explanation of how Usenet works and how the evidence identifies the poster in this case

From:

http://unclebobs.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/70460267...151033703#1151033703

Originally posted by CanadaSue:
Tellingly from the entry. The first few sentences are from a list of DISADVANTAGES of web - usegroup interface, the rest is as stated:

***Web-to-Usenet gateways often offer a searchable archive. One of the advantages of Usenet was that posters knew their material was only being read by the readership of their group and would, in a week or two, have disappeared forever. This particular type of semi-public, semi-private conversation was unusual and very useful.

On the positive side:

Web-to-Usenet gateways lower the entry barrier to Usenet, making it easier for non-technical people to become involved.
Web-to-Usenet gateways often offer a searchable archive, making the vast amount of knowledge in Usenet more easily accessible.***

From:

http://unclebobs.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/70460267...671033703#7671033703

Originally posted by CanadaSue:
Initially had it explained to me as follows & the person who sent me the explanation told me to post it here. A few other people later sent me variations of the same explanation, differing only because of differences in individual language use - the technical details were identical. Grab some other messages & try it:

***Here's the deal.

Before there was a Web, and even before there was an Internet as we know
it, groups of system administrators would get together and send email
privately between them. Someone came up with the idea of creating a news
bulletin service, which evolved into what is currently called "Usenet".
It consists of different newsgroups, where people would post news and
eventually other items of interest, ranging from discussion of scientific
topics to hobbies, and yes, even commercial sales and sex ads.

In essence, they were forerunners of the message boards we use today.
However, they were not posted in a single centralized location as with a
place like UB's or TB2k. Instead, you would post your message on your
local server, and it would be copied over phone lines (at first) and
the Internet (later on) to all the other systems in the world.

This system is what Olson used to post his messages. The groups he chose,
like alt.sex.wanted, are part of Usenet. He would post them on his local
server and they'd get spread to other servers.

Each message has headers that can tell you something about the person who
sent it. How much it tells you depends on the system and how smart the
person was about covering his tracks, if he chose to do so. Unfortunately
for Olson, he was not very smart at all.

Now, in 1995, a guy started a company called "Deja News", with the goal of
archiving these Usenet messages so they could be searched and used for
reference. (There's a lot of useful stuff there, not just the lurid crap.)
This company fell into trouble and eventually the service was shut down.
Later, Google bought the archives and resurrected this search service as
Google Groups. They also expanded it by buying archives from people who had
them on private servers.

This is where these messages are now: on Google groups. But even though
they are now on the Web, they were NOT originally posted there.

Here are some of the headers from one of the messages posted by "Uncle Buck",
showing how you can learn things about the poster from them:

>>> Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-xit-09!supernews.com!
newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!snoopy.risq.qc.ca!news-out.nuthinbutnews.com!propagator2-sterling!
news-in-sterling.newsfeed.com!news-in.nuthinbutnews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!wn14feed !wn13feed!
worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi .com!rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail

I mentioned before that these messages get copied from place to place...
this shows how this message eventually got to google.com through many other
sites. All of them would have seen the message.

>>> From: "Uncle Buck"

Olson as he chose to identify himself. He's admitted that this is his email
address.

>>> Newsgroups: alt.sex.homosexual

The newsgroup.

>>> Message-ID: <9fV2a.101145$HN5.364205@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>

Each message has a unique identifier, tagged with the name of the host
where it originated. This message came from att.net originally.

>>> NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.245.50.205

Now, this is important.. because it is the IP address where the message
originated. There's a service that can tell you the physical location of IP
addresses... it only works for certain address ranges, but it does for
AT&T.

http://geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm

Type "24.245.50.205" into there and you'll see that the location is Hudson,
Wisconsin -- where Olson lives. Too obvious to be a coincidence.


Now, there are MANY of these messages, using various email addresses that
Olson used in the past; with different IP addreses corresponding to where
he was living; and even with references to where he would be traveling.
Some of them go back to 2000, which was before Olson took over TB2K or
anyone cared about him.

There are only three possible explanations:

1. Olson wrote the messages.
2. Someone hacked Google.
3. Someone has hated Olson so much, and for so long, that they engaged in a
deliberate 7-year campaign of creating perfectly forged messages and
spreading them around Usenet, waiting patiently all this time before doing
anything.

Option #1 is the only one that makes any sense.***

End message.

And a link about Usenet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet