In my recent entry I called attention to the Spazbox.net domain and the strangest thing that struck my eye was the paradoxical Alexa Traffic and the lack of SEM strength. It made no sense.

We speculated it could be IRC, SPIM, or some other source. I mentioned IRC en passant because on the Alexa snapshot of the page there was a reference to IRC on the webpage snapshot.

For those who aren't hip to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) here is the official definition: A facility that allows people -- from many different places in the world at one time -- to chat in real time. The chats, or forums, are typed remarks, and they can be either public or private. This, understandably, is a wildly popular consumer area of the internet. A sort of "ham radio" for the '90s, it offers intimacy combined with autonomy. Many celebrities are also talking to the public at pre-announced times, so IRC has commercial publicity uses, too. Business meetings can be conducted in the same way.

The official definition fails to mention that IRC is a favorite hang-out for script- kiddies, pedophiles, hackers, couriers, warez groups, porn fetish clubs, vampires... you get the idea. (I am sure nice people hang there too.)

PaperGhost, the top gun at VitalSecurity has broken part of the riddle.