pc constantly uploading

[camalbitboy]

Hi All,

I've noticed over the last couple of days that my network usage is constantly at 1Mbit/s this is even the case at boot and before I manually open anything.

I assumed that it was windows upgrades but when I got the network meter gadget it showed that it was all upstream traffic!

I went through the running processes killing all but essential ones, but it is still uploading stuff. AVG free and windows says I'm virus free but this can't be right.

Any ideas how i can track down what is uploading?

Cheers
Cam

[Blackmage]

No p2p/torrent running? Do you have steam?

[camalbitboy]

No p2p/torrent running? Do you have steam?

No p2p stuff on this pc, purely used for gaming so apart from games has very little on it.

Does have steam but when I close steam the upload keeps going and I can't see any steam processes running.

[Biscuit]

are you on windows 7? if you are i think you can specifically see which process is using your traffic sing the network monitoring tool

[camalbitboy]

Ah thanks for that. Resource Monitor does give details as to whats using it all up. PMB.exe pandos MEdia Booster is the process and it looks like it got installed with LOTRO.

Seems that it runs as P2P software to help others download LOTRO!!! All without ever asking you or letting you know. Pretty pissed about that but will do more research to check thats the truth.

Cam

[abaxas]

Ah thanks for that. Resource Monitor does give details as to whats using it all up. PMB.exe pandos MEdia Booster is the process and it looks like it got installed with LOTRO.

Seems that it runs as P2P software to help others download LOTRO!!! All without ever asking you or letting you know. Pretty pissed about that but will do more research to check thats the truth.

Cam

It will have asked you, and you said 'yes'.

Hard to complain about a program that is doing exactly what it said it would do, especially when you agreed to it.

[camalbitboy]

It will have asked you, and you said 'yes'.

Hard to complain about a program that is doing exactly what it said it would do, especially when you agreed to it.

The only question that was asked was whether I wanted to have the turbine launcher running in the taskbar. I said no to that and it doesn't run.

If it is asked in the t&c's then technically you are right, but who ever reads those? Also they supply no options to disable it.

If it was made clear that installing LOTRO would involve a P2P software install that would hog all my bandwidth with no option to turn it off, I sure as hell wouldn't be installing it.

[camalbitboy]

Found a quote that has the details about this.

"So, just to verify, I just ran the current LOTRO installer on my personal laptop. The very first line of text on the very first screen of it says:
The LOTR Online Downloader is powered by Pando Media Booster.

The textbox directly below it says:

Originally Posted by LOTRO Installer:

This Downloader uses Pando Media Booster to download The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™. When you use this Downloader you install Pando Media Booster and participate in a secure, closed peer-to-peer network where you receive pieces of the download package from a Content Delivery Network (CDN) as well as other active users (peers). In addition you send pieces of the download package installer to other peers participating in the secure peer-to-peer network. No other files can be shared on your computer via Pando media Booster and your computer is enver used as a relay nor for transient storage of content you did not wish to download."

I feel that this is very dubious wording as I would accept this asit implies that the P2P software is only used whan you are downloading. "When you use this Downloader you install Pando Media Booster and participate...."

Well when I used the downloader I was happy to use it, but nowhere does it state that it will run ad infinitum after that hogging all my bandwidth, hitting my traffic ceilings and causing my connection to be throttled every single day.

Did eventually find that you can alter the settings for PMD in control panel to stop it launching at boot. This is what I would expect the default to be, I don't mind seeding when downloading, or even at time of my choosing, but to hide it away like this is taking the piss.

This has caused one hell of a lot of complaints on the LOTRO forums and on other games sites that also use PMD.

[camalbitboy]

Just to make matters even worse unticking the "Start Media Booster when I start Windows" in the tool they supply does nothing. After 2 reboots to check the PBM.exe is still autorunning on boot and taking up all my bandwidth. This software, and how its been snuck onto machines, is just shocking.

[stevie lee]

I'm running LOTRO on my computer, as is my sister. We have uninstalled pando from control panel. it only seems to be need when downloading the whole game from scratch, patches and updates dont use it and we've had no problems since we uninstalled it last october.

so i would recommend uninstalling Pando and forgetting it ever existed.

[jim]

Why don't you just firewall it?

[camalbitboy]

My point is that i think its damn cheeky for Turbine to put a P2P client onto your machine that gobbles your bandwidth up even after the download process has finished. They have hardly made it clear that this will be the case.

The average user wouldn't even notice their bandwidth getting used, or find it easy to find out which process it was. There is nothing installed to the programmes folder, or an entry under the LOTRO folder, and the controls for PMD are in the Control Panel adn don't work correctly.

When you install a game it should just work without any unwelcome side affects.

[jim]

Thing is, a heck of a lot of software does that. Cheeky, no doubt, but not unsurprising. I seem to recall that according to a forum member Skype either does, or has done, at some point in the past.

With game download P2P software I would upgrade it from unsurprising to expected.

[Dareos]

well, now that upstream traffic is now being managed on Virgin, this could cause some issues, something to keep an eye on , thanks