I actually have a similar ethernet dongle (if not the same one). I don't remember where I picked it up, but it was definitely in the late WinXP or early Win 7 days. It was great back then because of the catch-22 of needing internet for drivers and needing the dongle for internet. This really was a blast from the past, and I didn't realize this was such a niche product.
A reasonable walkthrough of the decompiled SFX installer & payload is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IfJSGWIrCo
I actually have a similar ethernet dongle (if not the same one). I don't remember where I picked it up, but it was definitely in the late WinXP or early Win 7 days. It was great back then because of the catch-22 of needing internet for drivers and needing the dongle for internet. This really was a blast from the past, and I didn't realize this was such a niche product.
In case you missed it, your post has gotten more engagement on hacker news than substack, 142 commets as of now.
Please link/cite your sources, doing so makes it easier for others to learn from your work.
This is great fact-checking