"ITH" items

Does anyone know how the server handles ITH items? It has been many years since I've entered the Rogue Encampment and I thought I might dabble in the black arts one more time. Are ITHs handled the same way on Open Battle.net? Are there any known working methods to removing a rune from a runeword while in game even though the server will delete it? I realize there probably are not that many people here that know the answers to these questions, but I appreciate it all the same.

There's a cube recipe (involves Hel) to remove all socketables from an item (though they are destroyed).  What's an ITH (aside from the rune)?

ITH's were items that were made using runes of your choice, but with the use of blocking certain packets you could sell the rune out of the item but keep it stats. This has been patched a long time now and is no longer available. It has been a very long time since I have seen or researched anything regarding Diablo II, so this inofrmation may be somewhat inaccurate, but the basis of how they were made is solid. Selling the rune out of the item, but keeping it stats is how it was done, I am just unsure of the packets that were used.

According to some posts, it seems like these are back.