So you want to build a botnet, think real hard before you do that…

So you want to build a botnet?  There are some good things about botnets that are interesting.  On the other hand there are negatives such as spending a great deal of time in prison definitely a negative.

Now, let’s think about why a Botnet might be useful, other than criminal intent.  A Grid Computer is somewhat like a Botnet, a Beowolf Cluster is like a Botnet, both of which are used for good things.  Here you might want to experiment with the idea of using several computers put together and then offloading some calculations or processing between the computers.

What kind of OS do you use?  Likely you wouldn’t use a GUI interface, but just a command line OS, this is sometimes called Just Enough Operation System or JEOS.  A free operating system from Microsoft called Micro-Framework could meet this goal.

Since we assume that you are actually not the type of person who would like to go to prison for several years, the idea of actually creating a real botnet that might use your friends computers is not something you want to do.  Seriously, it was cute in the 1990s to do that, but now, you will go to jail if caught, or face an expensive legal process.

What your Botnet looks like is an enterprise system, where you would have a single or small group of computers that “push” out and install software remotely on desktop systems, or laptops when they show up on the network.  This is a good thing and is a job that you get paid to do, vacations and lots of meetings discussion mission statements. 

Now that you have been thinking about creating connected computers, this is great!  How do you find out about these kinds of jobs?

A person, like you if you got this far in the article, might want to check the Bureau of Labor Statistics and check out this page:

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/Computer-and-Information-Technology/Network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm

Here as of May 1, 2012 there will be an increase in these kinds of jobs of 28% over the timeframe of 2010-2020, which compares to the average increase in jobs of 14%.  Not bad.

What kind of tools do you use?

There are open source tools, and you can do your own searches for those tools to create a connected network

For Microsoft, you would start with Dreamspark.com and download the Windows 2008 R2 Server, which can also be used as a client.

To get hands on training with networks that are fully set-up check out:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb467605