index.dat ???

[bassvax]

All right guys and gals...Ya know when you're whacking the cookies and other internet tracking files from your work pc and you get to the cookies folder and everything deletes except for the "index.dat" file. Is there a way to access this puppy? I've tried to no avail. I'm sure it's listing the url's in there also and someone with the know-how could access it. What's the proper viewer to read them with besides ascii? Any suggestions out there besides the obviuos...(don't go to non-work sites). Thanks for your insight http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Jerry

[scada]

The index.dat file hold the "map" of file names of cookies and other cached web pages.

What happening is when you have a cookie or other web page cached on your computer. It is renamed ( for security reasons) and Index.dat is updated with both the old and new names. When you open the temp. internet files folder or cookie folder. The names of the files you see displayed inside are NOT the "real" names of those files. Instead what happens is Explorer takes the real name (which is hidden from you) reads index. dat to find the ORIGINAL name and then displays that in the window. which is why you can't delete this file ,it's alway held "open" by explorer.

You can open it with notepad, but I would advise you to just leave it be.


Hope this helps


http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by scada (edited 12-01-2000).]

[bassvax]

Thanks for the education there Scada. By the way how did you arrive at that name? We use SCADA systems to monitor our pump stations throughout the city for the water and wastewater treatment plants. Anyways, so I take it the index.dat file only houses current (or most recent) urls so I shouldn't worry too much about the snooping factor. It is odd that on my own pc urls are encrypted from my viewing. Oh well...thanks again http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Jerry

[scada]

The story is they do that because the location of the files is well know. And if the File names wheren't changed then "evil" people could run programs and snoop on you at will. (Microsoft's way of saying it's for your own good).


I choose the nick "scada" because the company I work for sells, supports and offers training on scada software (Intellution,OSI...no Wonderware) and automation network devices.

Funny, we were just talking today about some wastewater treatment plant personnel we are going to be training on Intellution's IFIX.

[tdewolf]

Index.dat is exactly what it says it is, an index. It basically maps cookie ".txt" files to their respective site urls. If you want to see what sites the cookies belong to, just open the Temporary Internet Files folder. There's no renaming for the purpose of hiding here, it's just a shell namespace extension implemented by Internet Explorer to make it easy to see what's in the cache. You can also find index.dat in the temp files and history folders.
To delete index.dat just go to MS-DOS mode and delete it!

[This message has been edited by tdewolf (edited 12-02-2000).]

[trevmartini]

A lot of companies have both versions of browsers installed, IE and Netscape. Find out which one your company uses as a default, likely IE. If you are lucky there will also be Netscape installed on your profile or it will be available on a shared drive somewhere in the company. This is where it gets fun. Most companies will set the second browser disabled under Windows NT and will not allow the program to launch. Heres a tip, rename your Netscape shortcut (or Realplayer or game etc) to 'calc.exe'. The mindless lockdown software will assume you are trying to launch the calculator and will allow it. If you are simply denied access to the net try renaming the ie shortcut to calc.exe You should use the one that is not the default as the Internet cops in your company won't be smart enough or will be to lazy to realize you have Netscape and dat files in a different place. If you run into Novell Border Manager you can overwhelm it by simply speed clicking on the browser icon and closing the locked windows, eventually you will break out and be on your way. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[trevmartini]

Whoops! Forgot one rather important step, when you rename the shortcut you also have to use explorer or whatever to find the target the shortcut points to and rename that calc.exe in other words find the netscape.exe in the folder of the application and rename as above. I work for a bank so if we can bust out anyone can http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[gfheiche]

Thanks for the useful information.
Using start/find all files named “index.dat”, I got 2 files:
A 16kb file in windows\cookies and
A 2,160 kb file in windows\local settings\temporary internet files\content ie.5.
There was no problem eliminating the 16kb file in ms-dos.
But I can not find (and hence eliminate) the 2,160kb file neither in ms-dos nor in windows explorer. I checked in view/folder options all files are set to be shown.


Originally posted by tdewolf:
Index.dat is exactly what it says it is, an index. It basically maps cookie ".txt" files to their respective site urls. If you want to see what sites the cookies belong to, just open the Temporary Internet Files folder. There's no renaming for the purpose of hiding here, it's just a shell namespace extension implemented by Internet Explorer to make it easy to see what's in the cache. You can also find index.dat in the temp files and history folders.
To delete index.dat just go to MS-DOS mode and delete it!

[This message has been edited by tdewolf (edited 12-02-2000).]



[This message has been edited by gfheiche (edited 12-15-2000).]