Heads up: NCsoft's pushing Pando Media Booster
By
Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2012-04-11 09:40 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
NCsoft has a FAQ about it already:
Pando Media Booster F.A.Q.
https://help.ncsoft.com/app/answers/...-booster-f.a.q.
Edit:
Apparently it is also found in Lineage II, as well as Aion.
Edit2:
I have a monthly bandwidth cap from my ISP, if this EVER causes me overages, I'm going to sue NCsoft for it. I'm sure that the lawsuit could easily become a class-action lawsuit that would cost NCsoft more than they are saving with this crapware.
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That's just terrible.
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Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
I don't play those games, but that sounds insane to me. TOTALLY.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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I should note that Aion's going "Totally free to play" - today, in fact, if I recall the email correctly. Which means they're going to be cutting costs. They're already down to three servers as it is - so forum access is quite likely a victim of that more than Pando (which has been installed with the launcher for a while now.)|
Originally Posted by je_saist
Also as of note, the logins to AION's forum and feedback services have been shut down at the time of this posting, indicating an attempt by NCSoft to stem the backlash from what is no doubt going to be a highly upset AION playerbase.
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Edit: Yep. Found the email:
Play Aion® 3.0, Truly Free™
April 11, 2012!
na.aiononline.com gives "down for maintenance." From facebook:
Today is the day you have been waiting for! Aion: Ascension is here! Once the server maintenance is completed you will be able to download the patch and start exploring the new content! The estimated time for when the servers will go up is 3 PM Central. Watch here for updates on the time frame!
... so, no conspiracy to "avoid backlash."
Edit: Hey, look, they're back.
the only game i have played (shortly) that used the pando media booster was Asda Story 2, i didnt play it for long though cause the game is terrible lol, but i never experienced any problems with the pando thing even after an uninstall and i regularly do a clean for that kind of stuff and nothing came up
I've seen Pando used in a number of F2P MMOs to handle downloads. Honestly, the paranoia is both gratifying to see (people actually paying attention to what's running on their machine) and somewhat comical since you are implying that NCSoft is intentionally installing something bad on your computer so you can continue to play their game (as well as spending money in their item shops).
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
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I regularly monitor my bandwidth usage and running processes. I will NOT install either AION, Lineage, or any other game that uses Pando. Therefore, it is a loss to any company using it.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
I've seen Pando used in a number of F2P MMOs to handle downloads. Honestly, the paranoia is both gratifying to see (people actually paying attention to what's running on their machine)
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
somewhat comical since you are implying that NCSoft is intentionally installing something bad on your computer so you can continue to play their game (as well as spending money in their item shops).
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Have you played Aion? Are you currently playing Aion or Lineage? Have you shown any interest in it at all?|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
I regularly monitor my bandwidth usage and running processes. I will NOT install either AION, Lineage, or any other game that uses Pando. Therefore, it is a loss to any company using it.
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If not, why are you complaining?
If so, you've had it on the system for a while now - it's not new.
I've never seen Pando use bandwidth except when I'm patching a game that uses it for patching and when the patch is done, so is Pando. Yes it's like Bittorrent but it's no different that Blizzard's BT implementation in WoW, you are only part of the peer cloud when you are downloading.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
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Tempus unum hominem manet
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When I tested it, by default it did not seem to do that. It can be configured to do that, but on my system that option was off by default. It ran only when I attempted an update on Aion on my system.|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Worse, the NCsoft installer doesn't turn off said program when not in use. Instead it allows the P2P client start up with the OS loading.
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Also, the notion of an "incoming port" is not quite so problematic if you happen to be behind a firewall or filtering internet router with NAT. That just won't work at all unless you actually configure your firewall for the proper port mapping. Which gosh darn it no one sent me any instructions for.
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I was (and stress "was") intending to try AION once it went free to play. Not anymore.|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Have you played Aion? Are you currently playing Aion or Lineage? Have you shown any interest in it at all?
If not, why are you complaining? If so, you've had it on the system for a while now - it's not new. |
I'm also wondering how long it will take the same twits to apply the same patching process to City of Heroes. A NCsoft directive can move that system from Lineage and AION to this game. That is why I'm speaking up NOW instead of AFTER it is done.
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It isn't incoming traffic that I'm worried about. Additionally the problem is between my cable modem and the NAT. As far as I know, my traffic limits my ISP is monitoring goes in both directions, and by the time it gets to my router, it already counts as "usage".|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Also, the notion of an "incoming port" is not quite so problematic if you happen to be behind a firewall or filtering internet router with NAT. That just won't work at all unless you actually configure your firewall for the proper port mapping.
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Is it wrong not to want to know what is running on my computer and what those programs are up to?
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You have to consider the source.
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Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
... so, no conspiracy to "avoid backlash."
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If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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I'm trying very hard to avoid comments like that. There are things I'll go to Sai for - specifically linux related. But if he's putting out incorrect information, I'm going to counter the information where I can with correct information, not distract from the problems with personal snipes. |
Originally Posted by Texas Justice
You have to consider the source.
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I'll let others form their own conclusions about the individuals. Trying to keep personal opinions about others to myself (and, on occasion, my ignore list) since they do nothing but turn a thread nasty. And I don't want to be a reason for someone to think the boards are a hostile place.
Noted.
I'll just leave it with what I said earlier.
EDIT: Of course, I'm having to apply that line to more and more posters of late.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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I assume you mean incoming traffic? Assuming that Pando doesn't use any NAT transversal techniques (ugh, I hate NAT...), the increased amount of incoming traffic you'll receive will be largely inconsequential (likely lost in the regular noise that gets puked across the entire Internet constantly).|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
It isn't incoming traffic that I'm worried about. Additionally the problem is between my cable modem and the NAT. As far as I know, my traffic limits my ISP is monitoring goes in both directions, and by the time it gets to my router, it already counts as "usage".
Is it wrong not to want to know what is running on my computer and what those programs are up to? |
Is there any actual evidence that Pando is spyware, or does anything at all beyond acting as a proprietary bittorrent swarm?
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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No, but Pando was pretty blatantly highlighted by the NCSoft installer: it wasn't stealth installed. And it only seems to run with the installer when updating applications by default unless you give it permission to run at boot time, so it doesn't seem to be running stealthily at the moment either.|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
It isn't incoming traffic that I'm worried about. Additionally the problem is between my cable modem and the NAT. As far as I know, my traffic limits my ISP is monitoring goes in both directions, and by the time it gets to my router, it already counts as "usage".
Is it wrong not to want to know what is running on my computer and what those programs are up to? |
If you want to actually see what's using network bandwidth on your system at any particular moment, one thing I happen to run on my system is Netlimiter. There are others, but I just happen to own the commercial version. The free version shows all running processes and the net bytes transferred and bandwidth being used by all of them. I think the free version can also set rate limits per process.
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Again, I'm not concerned with -incoming- traffic. Once the files are downloaded, it won't download to my machine more. However, my ISP calculates traffic in both directions. Having this program on constantly streaming to other people offloads NCsoft's costs to me. That stinks.|
Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
I assume you mean incoming traffic? Assuming that Pando doesn't use any NAT transversal techniques (ugh, I hate NAT...), the increased amount of incoming traffic you'll receive will be largely inconsequential (likely lost in the regular noise that gets puked across the entire Internet constantly).
Is there any actual evidence that Pando is spyware, or does anything at all beyond acting as a proprietary bittorrent swarm? |
There isn't a way to block it from going out to the Internet without disabling it.
I'm not objecting to it because it is spyware, it isn't. I'm not objecting to it because of the amount of incoming traffic, as once I get the files I don't download them again unless they change.
What I am objecting to:
- The program as it does run outside of the launcher.
- That my ISP does monitor P2P traffic (and actually throttles it).
- That I get billed for overages beyond my Internet service plan.
- That some manager at NCsoft will likely impose this garbage on me, despite the fact that I'm already a paying customer.
Edit:
I'll add that Pando is not currently on my machine (I have not installed either Lineage or AION, and will never will now). My main concern is when this dreck will be made mandatory for City of Heroes.
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Proof or Paranoia?|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
What I am objecting to:
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Wanna take bets now?
"The side that is unhappy is not the side that the game was intended to make happy, or promised to make happy, or focused on making happy. The side that is unhappy is the side that is unhappy. That's all." - Arcanaville
"Surprised your guys' arteries haven't clogged with all that hatred yet." - Xzero45
My ISP has a $2/GB overage for internet usage. I don't have an option to go to a competing ISP, as the ISP in question has a monopoly on Cable Internet in the entire province. This ISP is known to use P2P throttling software.
As far as directives from NCsoft. I'm sure everyone in this thread can provide examples.
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Well, given #3, #2 seems like its actually a good thing. #1 is more of a technical trivia issue: I doubt you'd be any happier if it was somehow compiled into the launcher.|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
What I am objecting to:
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Also, the software appears to have its own rate limiter built into it. You can set that from the control panel and limit its maximum bandwidth to something low if bandwidth usage is an issue.
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Quote:
I'm not talking about you downloading, I'm talking about other people connecting to you to download from you. In the Pando control panel item, you can also configure a limit for how fast it can upload in "Advanced connection options" (1 KB/s is the minimum).|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Again, I'm not concerned with -incoming- traffic.
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Quite frankly, the real problem is that any ISP charge people for total downloaded, instead of actually promising an amount of data they can provide at any given moment. It's a backwards system designed to milk the maximum profit possible (just like what the cellular industry does). Still, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people are on an unmetered connection.
NCSoft, if they continue using Pando, should follow Blizzard's move and allow the user to easily opt out of the P2P portion.
Edit: [censored] you Arcanaville!
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Actually, seeing that I can set the launcher to exit after launching the game, I'd be happier (not completely happy, an opt-out would make me completely happy about it).|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Well, given #3, #2 seems like its actually a good thing. #1 is more of a technical trivia issue: I doubt you'd be any happier if it was somehow compiled into the launcher.
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Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
NCSoft, if they continue using Pando, should follow Blizzard's move and allow the user to easily opt out of the P2P portion.
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More along the lines of capped than "metered" (at least to me - I can, and have never hit even on my heaviest movie/ISO/game update/beta download months, download up to 250gb before I get charged on Comcast.) That's fairly common, from my understanding - at least among the bigger ISPs. It's just a question of where that cap sits.
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Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
Quite frankly, the real problem is that any ISP charge people for total downloaded, instead of actually promising an amount of data they can provide at any given moment. It's a backwards system designed to milk the maximum profit possible (just like what the cellular industry does). Still, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people are on an unmetered connection.
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got a rude surprise when I opened up the NCSoft launcher on a Windows installation a few minutes ago. NCSoft is now requiring the installation of the Pando Media Booster for it's AION release game.
If you are not familiar with the Pando Media Booster I suggest a quick Web Search and note that both Google and Bing have immediate related searches of Pando Media Booster Spyware and Pando Media Booster Malware. I would also note the searchable backlash from players of Riot Game's League of Legends, many of whom were on limited bandwidth allotments and were unable to play the LoL game due to the Pando program actively chewing through limited bandwidth.
Also as of note, the logins to AION's forum and feedback services have been shut down at the time of this posting, indicating an attempt by NCSoft to stem the backlash from what is no doubt going to be a highly upset AION playerbase.
Given NCSoft's behavior I feel it is important for Paragon Studios to get the message that Pando Media Booster is Crapware, we don't want it, and that any possible plans to introduce the program into City of Heroes needs to be terminated, say, right now.