Pando Media Booster Pandemic (PC Gamer's Might Want To See This)

http://lo-ping.org/2011/07/29/the-pando-pandemic-why-you-might-already-be-infected/

"Does your internet feel tired? Run down? Does it pop out of parties? Is it unpoopular? Well, you probably have Pando Media Booster to blame for your poor internet performance as of late. But what exactly is Pando Media Booster?

Pando Media Booster [PMB] is a P2P program many games stealth install. It will run on start up under Pando.exe or PMB.exeIt uploads without limit from your computerand does not show on tray or task manager. It WILL whore the **** out of your internet bandwidth and capacity – anywhere from 10% to 70% of your current speed may be occupied. This is a method for companies to shove bandwidth bills to the consumer.

Current known list of games:

League of Legends [LoL]

Possibly Heroes of Newerth [HoN]

Vidictus

Allods

Lord of the Rings Online

Maplestory [Any Nexon games in general, it seems]

Bloodline champions (to some degree)

And these are the ones that the company admits to. There will be more.

Fixes:

1. Uninstall from control panel: This is theeasiest, simplest solution.

It will reinstall itself once you run an update from games that utilize it.

If you don't play those games much, this is your solution.

2. Remove it from startup

Type msconfig in Start Menu -> run.

Remove PMB.exe or Pando.exe from startup list.

The Pando will run again once an updater is started, but at least this will minimize 24/7 whoring.

3. Internalize with hosts file

Find output address (Either ip or address) of Pando, this will depend on what game you play and may not be available to you. Open hosts file (Not hosts.txt, just hosts)

Edit with notepad and add line :127.0.0.1 WhateverAddressWas

This will prevent Pando from sending packets out. It will still occupy some CPU, but won't whore as much bandwidth."

If you care about your PC (I'm sure many do) and are a PC gamer, then you should definitely get rid of this before it ****s with your bandwidth, and you start seeing some crazy bills (and slow internet too).

Oh damn I installed the Nexon games :evil:

It is only tied to the download client for League of Legends. I backed up the downloaded files and haven't had the deal with it since. But yeah, removing that thing would be good since it is pretty much malware after it downloads the game.

This has so much to do with SW :roll:millerlight89

This has so much to do with SW :roll:millerlight89

System Wars is highly populated and PC Gamer's along with cross-platform owner's are here. I'm sorry for trying to help out PC owner's, maybe I should just sit back and let their bandwidth get milked to death? Sharing is caring.

pc devs are sneaky as always. thanks for buying our game in return for your loyalty here is a bug for windows.

Yeah the thing is Malware really, i got a warning from my AV when i first played LoL warning me it was using a high upload, so i removed it.

pc devs are sneaky as always. thanks for buying our game in return for your loyalty here is a bug for windows.

dontshackzmii

Apart from the fact that these are F2P games that NEED something like this, so they can update the games...

Apart from the fact that these are F2P games that NEED something like this, so they can update the games...

noxboxlive

No they don't. There are lots of legitimate options. They can do it like other MMOs--share with other users when downloading an update but stop once the game is fully patched. Having sites like FilePlanet mirror the game data is another viable option many MMOs use. Yet another option is to get the game added to Steam (which recently added F2P games) and have them handle the server side of things.

I don't mind a game sharing data when downloading updates, but having it continue to do so 24/7 is unacceptable behaviour. Pando Media Booster is malware.

[QUOTE="noxboxlive"]

Apart from the fact that these are F2P games that NEED something like this, so they can update the games...

garrett_daniels

No they don't. There are lots of legitimate options. They can do it like other MMOs--share with other users when downloading an update but stop once the game is fully patched. Having sites like FilePlanet mirror the game data is another viable option many MMOs use. Yet another option is to get the game added to Steam (which recently added F2P games) and have them handle the server side of things.

I don't mind a game sharing data when downloading updates, but having it continue to do so 24/7 is unacceptable behaviour. Pando Media Booster is malware.

I said they need 'something' like this, not the malware that they are sending out. but some like it thats better.

This has so much to do with SW :roll:millerlight89

Wait...I thought I already uninstalled that crap.

Well, I already removed it from startup programs, and I don't play any of those games, so it wasn't doing me any harm. Gone now though, thanks for reminding me.

So that was it.

I was looking through my start ups this morning and I saw that, I was like eh? what the ..... is this?

I deleted the start up entry. Didn't know it was a bandwidth hogger. Thanks TC

[QUOTE="millerlight89"]This has so much to do with SW :roll:RavenLoud

Yeah not sure why he isn't thanking the TC. Anyway, I don't think heroes of newerth has it, I can't seem to find it to uninstall.

its installed with the mmorpg fiesta as well.

Thank you, had no clue....

My internet has been acting up lately. Hope removing this will fix it. Thanks TC.

This has so much to do with SW :roll:millerlight89

Well I did play Lord of the Rings Online, but I can't find PMB so I guess it was uninstalled when I deleted LotRO.EliteM0nk3y

they started to use it around 6 months ago.

[QUOTE="millerlight89"]This has so much to do with SW :roll:gameofthering

i could write a book about a funny story on that...

Thanks TC, my internet has been acting weird lately and i found this pando thing on my pc, didn't even know it was there.

HoN does not use this. Where did you get the information that HoN uses Pando Media Booster?red12355

It said "Possibly Heroes of Newerth" in the source, I just copied it onto there. It's possible that it installs Pando on some occasions or something of the sort. Either way, you're better safe than sorry, right? :)

[QUOTE="red12355"]HoN does not use this. Where did you get the information that HoN uses Pando Media Booster?XVision84

It said "Possibly Heroes of Newerth" in the source, I just copied it onto there. It's possible that it installs Pando on some occasions or something of the sort. Either way, you're better safe than sorry, right? :)

Well, i can confirm it doesnt use pando. LoL does, it even tells you before the install.

Are there anymore known sources for this thing? i just found it on my PC and i dont play any of those games.

ahh now it makes sense

Are there anymore known sources for this thing? i just found it on my PC and i dont play any of those games.

Sotonian_Rebel

All nexon games, also D&D online has it

I played some of those games and no data packets were downloaded or sent out outside of updating process :]