Miscellaneous Documentation ​

Device Linking ​

"Device linking" is a new Dwyco feature that allows multiple devices to keep the messages on those devices synchronized, without sacrificing privacy.

Dwyco does NOT store your messages or private keys on our servers in order to provide this feature. Messages are synchronized in the background directly between your devices.

For example, let's say you have a phone running Dwyco Phoo and you use CDC-X on your desktop computer. Using device linking, you can link those two devices, and the messages on those devices are kept in-sync. Also, your group of devices will appear as one account to people sending you messages.

Right now, device linking is an experimental feature, and the Phoo app is our focus on providing access to the feature. CDC-X has a stripped down version of the feature included for the adventurous.

How to use Device Linking ​

Device linking is simple to set up. On your first device, follow these steps:

• Pick a "group name" for your devices (it can be anything, but it is better if it is something fairly unique, but memorable. It is even better if it is something other people might not guess.) This is the name you will use on all your devices. (e.g. "janeswonderfuldevices")

• Pick a password for the group. It should be something only you know. This password protects against others adding a device to your group of devices.

• Check the box that says "Enable device linking"

• Then, wait...

If the group name is new, the results should be nearly immediate, indicating the device is now in whatever group name you entered (e.g. "janeswonderfuldevices")

The procedure is identical to add another device to your group. Just enter the same "group name" and password, and click "enable device linking".

New devices must be able to communicate with one of your previous devices to find the group information. This can take awhile, and we recommend leaving a copy of CDC-X or Phoo online while you try to link a new device. If you get the group name or password wrong, the procedure will never complete. If it takes longer than 15 or 20 minutes, and you know that there is another device in the group that is online, you may want to cancel, and double-check you entered the correct group name and password.

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How to Remove a Device from your Group ​

To remove a device from your group, UNcheck the "enable device linking" box on that device. The device is immediately removed from the group and syncing is stopped. No messages are removed. Phoo/CDC-X simply reverts to working as it did in the past without syncing.

Only messages that have been downloaded to the removed device will be available after it is removed from the group (this may be less than what was available to the entire group, since only messages you actually viewed are likely to be downloaded.)

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What happens if I can't access a device in my group anymore? ​

Currently, there is no way to "kick out" a device using another device. The only workaround is to remove all your current devices from the group, and re-add them to a new group with a different name, one by one. Note that having an extra device in your group is fairly harmless if the device has uninstalled the software, or has become inaccessible because of hardware failure or the like.

Profile Review Process ​

Users can select whether to view all profiles, or just profiles that Dwyco has reviewed. NOTE: profile review is only used for the display of profiles, not message or chat filtering.

Dwyco categorizes profiles into two sets: "regular", and everything else.

A profile is "regular" if it satisfies all of these criteria:

• If it has video, the video preview of the profile contains a clear picture of a face. The person in the picture must be clothed and wearing a shirt.

• The name and description in the profile must not contain any overtly adult language.

All other profiles are considered "not regular". Note that since we cannot review them easily, audio-only profiles are considered "not regular".
Click here for examples of "regular" profile displays.
And here for some examples of simple regular profiles.

If You Enable Profile Filtering ​

• CDC-X and Phoo will only display profiles that are "regular".

• In the "recent visitors" tab, only text from "regular" profiles is displayed.

• In the "Profiles" tab, only profile previews for "regular" profiles with video are displayed.

• In the public chat area, the profiles that are not "regular" are displayed as a red upside-down Dwyco logo. Clicking on the red icon will allow you to view the profile.

Note that if you promote a user to "Pal", it overrides the filtering for that user in the public chat area.

CDC-X does not try to filter out profiles if you click on them (we assume you want to see the profile if you are clicking on it, even if it might contain explicit material.)

Details for Creating Profiles ​

• Why isn't my profile visible in the directory or the profile tab?

When you create a profile, it is automatically set to "unreviewed". No matter what is in the profile, it will not be displayed to people that have elected only to view reviewed material. People that have selected the "view all profiles" option can immediately see your profile.

Once Dwyco has reviewed the profile, the profile is marked "reviewed" and either "regular" or not. If it is regular, all users will be able to see your profile.

• How many times can I change my profile?

There is no limit to the number of times you can change your profile. We only review the latest one that you submitted when we do the review process, even if you have changed it multiple times in the intervening time frame.

Privacy Protections ​

• Does CDC-X protect my chats from snooping?

As of version 2.11, the answer is YES.

All one-to-one chats and video/audio streams are end-to-end encrypted.

All messages are sent using end-to-end encryption if they are sent to a version 2.11 (or newer) client. This means that messages (and attached files and other media) are fully encrypted, even when they are stored on our servers.

Information going to and from the public chat servers is encrypted.

Information coming from Dwyco web servers (the "recent visitors" and "profiles" tabs in CDC-X) usually is encrypted. It might not be encrypted if the proper encryption software is not installed on the system (sadly, this happens sometimes.) But this is public information anyway, normally anyone that wants to see it can access it by using CDC-X.

As a practical matter, snooping by someone looking at your Internet traffic will be very difficult. Keep in mind, your messages are not encrypted by CDC-X once they are stored on your device. You must use whatever encryption is provided by your operating system to provide security for your messages stored on your device. Keep your device secure, and you have a reasonable level of privacy with CDC-X.

Also note, CDC-X does not try to hide your IP address. If that kind of privacy is important to you, any of the VPN offerings available online can be used with CDC-X with no problems.

Abuse Reporting ​

There is one administrative account used by Dwyco:

Dwyco (#5a098f3df49015331d74)

There are no other administrative accounts! Anyone claiming to be a "Dwyco employee/admin, etc." that doesn't have id #5a098f3df49015331d74 is a phoney and should be reported to us. The Dwyco admin will never ask you for your passwords, credit card numbers, and so on. However, some Dwyco software is for adults 18 years of age and older, and you may be asked to prove you are over 18 years of age. See below for details.

Reporting Problems ​

Dwyco programs incorporate an IGNORE (also called BLOCK) feature that will take care of most of your problems with offensive material being sent to you. USE THE BLOCK FEATURE PROMPTLY when you receive something you find offensive. You should report immediately any messages you receive that imply someone is interested in incest, sexual assault on animals, or child pornography. Also, report persistent harassment (for example, someone you have blocked in the past bothering you multiple times.)

Some Dwyco apps have specific "report" menu options that you can use to make reporting a message or user easy.

To report a problem with another user (not a tech support problem) it is simply a matter of sending us the message you received from them. You can do this by using the "report" menu item on the message. That way we can authenticate your complaint. DO NOT SEND CUT AND PASTE MESSAGES VIA EMAIL. We cannot authenticate messages sent to us via email.

If an app does not have a "report" menu item, use the "forward" function to forward the message to Dwyco.

Please note: Dwyco cannot read or monitor private messages sent using our apps, because of the security and privacy features built into the software. Therefore, it is important for users to let us know when they think there is a problem that needs our attention.

Virus Scanner False-alarms ​

• A Virus checker says there is a problem with cdcxdwy.exe!

This is a false-positive. There are no viruses, malware, or other mysteryware in CDC-X. Installing CDC-X (running cdcxdwy.exe) is very safe because it makes no modifications to your system files and does not use Administrator privileges. Dwyco digitally signs Windows and MacOS software, and your OS can verify it was created by Dwyco. If you get a complaint from your virus checker, the best thing to do is delete the version of cdcxdwy.exe you downloaded, then visit www.dwyco.com and redownload a fresh copy. Dwyco has no control over software downloaded from other sites, so it is best to get it directly from Dwyco.

More Virus Scanner Details ​

Some virus checkers think the CDC-X auto-update system "acts like a virus" because of the way it works. Some Norton and Microsoft virus checkers simply block CDC-X because it is relatively new (their so-called "reputation based" checking.)

Here is an explanation from Norton:

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Clarification-on-WS-Reputation-1-detection/td-p/232155

Please, if you get a warning from a virus checker, just forward us the message. We'll contact the maker of the anti-virus and resolve the issue with them.

Colors in the CDC-X Directory ​

A favorite question is "How do I know someone is online?". That question was interesting back in the day of 14.4k modems when people had to go to a lot of trouble to be online. In today's world, people aren't really "online" per se. It is more reasonable to ask "is this person more or less likely to answer a message I send to them."

Colors ​

Red - The user has been seen very recently somewhere in the system. People that you have "promoted to pal" are automatically checked for this status.

Purple - The user has been seen in the same chat server you are in, somewhat recently.

Pink - The user has been recently seen by the system, and there is a new message to view from that user.

Blue - There is a new message from that user.

Black - this is the default color if none of the above is true.

Fonts ​

Italic - The user has recently been active, which means they have typed something in the chat or just recently logged in.

Bold - Indicates you used "promote to pal" on that user. The reason bolding is used is because sometimes there is no place to put an icon to show that someone is a pal.

How does "Make me invisible" affect the user list? ​

When you enable "Make me invisible", your profile will not be visible in any public directory listing. Also, your name will appear as the normal black font in other peoples' user list (i.e. it will appear as if the system has not seen you recently.) Being invisible does not affect your ability to send and receive messages.

How does "Ignore" or "Block" affect the user list? ​

If you "ignore" or "block" a user by adding them to your block list, your profile becomes invisible to them. Also, all messages to or from them are blocked. Please note: "blocking" is a two-way street. If someone blocks you, they become invisible to you.

Old Dwyco Software ​

You may have noticed that ICUII (aka Icu2) was turned off February 9, 2012.

ICUII chat software for Windows was based on Dwyco's core technology. Newer versions of Dwyco software can still recognize and process ICUII data, including messages.

If you were a user of ICUII and older Dwyco software like CDC32, what does this mean to you? ​

• I have a lot of messages I want to keep and view

There are options you have in this area:

If you want to import old messages, contact cdchelp@dwyco.com and we can help. Previous software such as "Powerbrowse" and "Account import" in CDC-X probably don't work anymore, and we have discontinued support for them.

• Do I have to pay to use Dwyco software?

Nope. Dwyco software is free to use as long as you like.