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Will use d3doverrider to force triple buffering instead of complaining about mouse lag in every PC game thread ever
(01-21-2010, 09:14 PM)
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To all LOTRO players: delete Pando Media Booster!
#1
Pando Media Booster that comes with the LOTRO downloaded uses up all of your effective upload bandwidth as it seeds files to other clients. It comes with the LOTRO downloader and I never recall being prompted to allow it to use my bandwidth.
My post to Turbine. I'm really pissed off at the moment.
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Will use d3doverrider to force triple buffering instead of complaining about mouse lag in every PC game thread ever
(01-21-2010, 09:28 PM)
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#3
Originally Posted by Clever Pun:
Thankfully, my credit card information was out of date on their site and my account was suspended...that means at least I didn't pay for the month of play. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 09:29 PM)
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#4
Yeah, this stupid fucking program is exactly why I immediately canceled and uninstalled my "return to LotRO" trial crap they sent me recently.
You know how I found out about it? Playing TF2 and having pings of 300 when I normally have pings around 20. Opened my task manager to see if anything I didn't recognize was giving my network the business and sure enough, there it was. That was probably two days after I'd downloaded and installed the LotRO client. It would have just kept on going and going and going, ruining my online experience even in the game it came packaged with, nevermind every other online game had I not uninstalled the fucker. After I realized where it came from, I immediately uninstalled LotRO as well and sent an e-mail thanking them for such a powerful incentive not to return to LotRO regardless of how much free experience my character was getting. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 09:40 PM)
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#9
Found a post in the Tech Support Forums from a Turbine rep dated Sep. 9th, 2009:
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Member
(01-21-2010, 09:40 PM)
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#10
Originally Posted by ag-my001:
I know a couple other games use this Pando crap to deliver content, but maybe a heads up that it would use as much of my damn bandwidth as it could get it's hands on full-time until I slapped it off my HDD would have been nice. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 10:12 PM)
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#15
I saw that DDO installed this on me. I managed to get it removed without it ever doing anything. Shitty practice though, installing a game should not be installing anything that runs on startup. Being that it is not invasive drm it just means that turbine do stupid things to their customers.
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(01-21-2010, 10:26 PM)
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#16
That's kind of shitty. Unless this was mentioned in big red letters somewhere it's downright underhanded.
What a silly way to squander customer appreciation/trust. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 10:32 PM)
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#18
Originally Posted by Chrange:
That said, i also do hate it, and usually just use the third party sources. Well, i did when I played |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 10:41 PM)
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#20
*yawn* This thing's been around for near six months. Why you wouldn't delete the downloader after you finished downloading the installation is beyond me.
Way to overreact about nothing. What do you do about WoW's BitTorrent based patching that does essentially the same thing? It's even configured by default to continue running even after WoW's closed and/or patching has finished. :-p |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 10:44 PM)
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#21
Originally Posted by Chrange:
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Member
(01-21-2010, 10:55 PM)
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#22
Originally Posted by Giolon:
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:02 PM)
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#23
Originally Posted by Giolon:
Also, this sort of thing if the easiest way to get patches out to most of the game's population quickly. Let's use WoW for an example, as everyone else has. It's patch day and millions of people want to play but they get prompted for a patch. The Blizzard downloader opens and they all download from Blizzard servers with no P2P. That's a few million people on 2 different server farms (US and EU). That's not good for the servers and people's download speeds. Yes, there are patch mirrors, but relatively few know about them. Enable P2P for all of them and they download things much faster and save Blizzard lots and lots of bandwidth (which costs money), sharing of it across all the downloaders. And anyway, my ISP doesn't count Uploads towards my cap, so this doesn't really hurt me in any way. EDIT: As an aside, and more related topic. I think Turbine saw Blizzard's system for distributing patches and tried to copy it to save themselves some server costs, but used a really ineffective method. But you also have to think about LOTRO's smaller playerbase, and if someone wanted to download a patch but no one else was also downloading it to upload the data to them they'd be screwed. You can see why they made the decision to keep it seeding after patching has been finished but obviously they pissed people off.
Last edited by Orbitcube; 01-21-2010 at 11:06 PM.
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:09 PM)
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#24
Originally Posted by Wallach:
The point is - Blizzard utilizes the same methods of continuing to use your upload bandwidth without explicit permission even while the game is not running. This is nothing new to MMOs, and Blizzard's been doing it far longer than LOTRO. Turbine's got a whole forum post stickied and linked to from their own FAQs about PMB and whether or not it's needed once the installer download is complete (it's not). ag-my001 was kind enough to provide some of the contents of that post. ThExodu5 didn't even seem to try to do any research or information gathering before simply flying off the handle. I'll say that the PMB installation's default to run at computer start up is dubious at best, but I can't believe anyone could honestly call it malicious. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:15 PM)
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#25
Originally Posted by Giolon:
I can never recall a time when the Downloader ever seeded in the background. Blizzard mentions in their Downloader FAQ that it will never seed after the all necessary files have been downloaded. So you're incorrect.
Originally Posted by Excerpt from worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/blizzarddownloader.html:
Last edited by Orbitcube; 01-21-2010 at 11:19 PM.
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:15 PM)
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#26
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 (emphasis mine):
Originally Posted by LOTRO Installer:
Last edited by Giolon; 01-21-2010 at 11:24 PM.
Reason: cleanup
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:20 PM)
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#27
Originally Posted by Orbitcube:
And the Downloader and the Updater are most certainly not the same. Check out your Public\Documents\World of Warcraft folder (on Vista/Win 7). You'll find separate Downloader and Updater files.
Last edited by Giolon; 01-21-2010 at 11:44 PM.
Reason: Corrected mentioned path.
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:22 PM)
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#28
Originally Posted by Giolon:
EDIT: Want me to pull up a quote?
Originally Posted by Giolon:
I also suggest opening the Blizzard Updater application because if you did you'd find that you can't run it because it requires a patch file to run, which is what I said it does which applies the patches to the game files. I did say that they were interchangable terms, but I was referring to the terms people use for the Downloader.
Last edited by Orbitcube; 01-21-2010 at 11:28 PM.
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:24 PM)
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#29
Originally Posted by Giolon:
My personal beef here is that once I am NOT a part of that download anymore, by default it continues to use me as essentially a permanent seed for that file until I find it and smack it. That is a really terrible choice, and one that is really not very visible to the end user until they realize their bandwidth is being choked (because this thing also does not seem to throttle whatsoever by default). Visibility is a big factor as far as reception goes to the end user. Of course they're going to be pissed off when they discover basically every default setting the program has is done at their expense rather than to their benefit when very little is communicated to them during the install process. Especially with bandwidth caps from ISPs becoming more and more common, I don't blame people for being upset in a circumstance like this. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:28 PM)
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#30
I had the same problem with the Dungeons and Dragons client that installed this onto my system. Liked DDO for about an hour then uninstalled it as I was quickly bored. Started noticing a slow down in connection and found out it was the Pando Media Booster.
I really hate that thing. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:43 PM)
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#31
Originally Posted by Orbitcube:
Now, go open up the WoW Launcher, Hit Options, then hit Downloader Preferences. By default the "Download after exiting World of Warcraft box" is checked - this is what allows and causes the downloader to continue to download (and seed) patch files for the next patch even after you close WoW. If "Download while playing World of Warcraft" is not also checked, it will only even start downloading after you close WoW (great for those who's bandwidth is hampered by even the throttled downloading). You can't run the Updater without a file, but you can run the individual downloader files at will. Check out that directory I mentioned previously to try them out. I'm with anyone saying that the PMB in Turbine's downloaders could be better configured by default to be more consumer friendly, but it's hardly worth screaming "Fuck You, Evil Corporations!" about. You should be paying close attention to anything you download and run from the internet - regardless of who put it out. |
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Banned
(01-21-2010, 11:48 PM)
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#32
Originally Posted by rhfb:
I used Utorrent all the time back when I played WoW, and never had speed issues with it. Bliztorrent, on the other hand, would CONSTANTLY report I had an outdated driver (I didn't) and throttle back speed as a result. I always had to go somewhere else to get the patches if I wanted them that day. There's no excuse for companies to do it this way now, when they used to be able to serve up patches just fine. Oh there's more players downloading now? Tough shit - there's also more players PAYING then, and paying MORE. Set up more servers. Get more bandwidth - whatever, just make it work and stop using my bandwidth. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:49 PM)
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#33
Originally Posted by Giolon:
just because you don't have a bandwidth cap doesnt mean its not going to fuck over other people in countries where there is little choice. |
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Cool Smoke Luke
(01-21-2010, 11:54 PM)
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#35
Great tip OP thanks for pointing that out
Ignoring the troll in this thread, Its easy to see how this could be installed and running on Hundreds of thousands of Computers without the primary owner of the Internet access knowing about it. (how many kids that don't pay the bills have downloaded the free trial on the family computer..seriously) Its shady business and should be illegal. |
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:56 PM)
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#36
Originally Posted by panda21:
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Member
(01-21-2010, 11:59 PM)
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#37
Originally Posted by Giolon:
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Member
(01-22-2010, 12:22 AM)
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#39
Originally Posted by panda21:
The LOTRO downloader says exactly what it's going to do: use Pando Media Booster to download and upload installer files. Fantastic! I don't feel they're obligated to say when that's going to happen (i.e. always). The OP went under the false assumption that it would stop when he finished downloading/installing. It didn't. Lesson learned. Whenever I decide to install anything I assume it's going to try do everything it can to attach itself to start up and run at all times and consume as many resources as possible - so I always check. (One nice thing about Vista was that it would trap anything trying to install itself to run at system startup and allow you to block it. Win 7 doesn't feature that anymore :( ). As I said before, everyone should be vigilant about what they install and allow to run on their computers - no matter who or where it came from. Start taking some responsibility for your own actions and stop expecting others to be looking out for your own welfare. Edit: I'm pretty much done here. In addition to everything else I've posted, I'll say I agree with the OP's sentiment that Pando Media Booster should be uninstalled as soon as you're done downloading the installer files. The game doesn't need it to be present. It's only used to retrieve the installer files. There's simply no reason to leave it lying around whether it's running or not.
Last edited by Giolon; 01-22-2010 at 12:54 AM.
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Will use d3doverrider to force triple buffering instead of complaining about mouse lag in every PC game thread ever
(01-22-2010, 12:31 AM)
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#40
Everyone knows that no-one reads the ToS when installing applications on a PC. Furthermore, installing an application that can completely cripple an internet connection and cost the user real money in bandwidth charges is extremely immoral practice, in the name of saving Turbine bandwidth charges.
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Member
(01-22-2010, 12:35 AM)
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#41
Originally Posted by TheExodu5:
[IMG]http://i50.************/a14w15.jpg[/IMG] You can't even try to claim they hid it from you. It even says directly above that as the first line of text that it's installing Pando Media Booster. See all my comments about taking responsibility for what you install on your own computer. |
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と呼ぶがよい
(01-22-2010, 12:42 AM)
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#42
I think it's a bit of a over-reaction. Since, don't other MMOs like eve online use that very same program? although, i admit, i would've being even more pissed, if that kind of situation happened on my internet connection.:lol
I think the last time i installed LOTRO, i uninstalled that program, right away. |
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Member
(01-22-2010, 12:44 AM)
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#43
Originally Posted by Giolon:
It serves for a terrible user experience, and sticking a bunch of text in a two rows tall box to explain its going to suck your bandwidth dry until you uninstall it and remain hidden while it does it doesn't excuse them. As someone living in Canada on the same ISP as the OP I'd say the rage is still very justified. |
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Member
(01-22-2010, 12:46 AM)
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#44
Originally Posted by Giolon:
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(01-22-2010, 12:53 AM)
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#45
Originally Posted by vazel:
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Member
(01-22-2010, 01:04 AM)
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#47
Originally Posted by vazel:
It doesn't specifically say all the time but the wording allows for it, I suppose.
Originally Posted by vazel:
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Member
(01-22-2010, 01:06 AM)
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#48
Oh I see, you have to scroll down. :\
Originally Posted by Revolutionary:
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Will use d3doverrider to force triple buffering instead of complaining about mouse lag in every PC game thread ever
(01-22-2010, 01:11 AM)
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#49
Originally Posted by FoxSpirit:
So all LOTRO users are expected to go to the Technical Support forums on the LOTRO site before even installing the game? |
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Member
(01-22-2010, 01:31 AM)
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#50
Originally Posted by Revolutionary:
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