Later that night, I happened to check my Task Manager and noticed an unfamiliar process (PMB.exe) running. Hrm. Like any unusual process running on my PC, I decided to look into it a bit. A quick Scroogle search later It was obvious what had happened…
Installing League of Legends also silently installed an application called Pando Media Booster without my knowledge (or at least it wasn’t obvious that it was being installed. Perhaps it was in that ToS that no one can ever quite bring themselves to read.) With a name like “Pando Media BOOSTER”, how could it possibly be bad. After all, who wouldn’t want their media boosted…!
What is Pando Media Booster? (Thanks for Sharing Indeed!)
PMB.exe is a small application that is installed along with some free-to-use software such as League of Legends, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, NBC, etc… PMB.exe basically helps the company off-load the responsibly of sharing their media files, patches or installations directly by turning their user’s machines into Peer 2 Peer clients. (Rather than having pushing you a 600MB update file, which actually costs the company money, the users might receive parts of the file from hundreds of other players.)Is PMB.exe Bad?
PMB.exe isn’t inherently bad and is a valid way for a company offering free or discounted software or media to save some money in operating costs. “Isn’t inherently bad” is assuming that the company that installs this process on your machine has told you what it is and has given you the option of whether you want to install it or not. In my case, I had NO idea it was being installed and was just lucky to have found it the same day. (I’ve recently had to switch to Qwest “High Speed” internet and unfortunately have NO bandwidth to spare.)And unsuspecting user that leaves PMB.exe running on their system is pretty much being forced to seed files to thousands of users ALL THE TIME (PMB.exe has been reported by users to use up to 80+% of their internet connection’s upload bandwidth.) For some users this could lead to their ISP throttling their connection and/or actually charging them extra $$$ for using more bandwidth than they knew they were using.
Conclusion
Pando Media Booster isn’t a virus but might well be considered malware depending on how it was installed on your machine, if you were aware of it and if you were given an option to install it or not. In any event, it is legit malware and getting rid of it is an simple as pulling up your Programs and Features (Windows 7) and uninstalling it. Just be aware that it might get reinstalled with future installations or updates to the product that originally installed it.Then again, if you want to support the company and have plenty of upload bandwidth to spare… Leave PMB.exe up and running. I’m sure they would greatly appreciate it.
Hope this helps someone and clears up any immediate concerns you might have.
Other Companies Reported to Bundle Pando Media Booster With Their Product
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Lord of the Ring Online
Star Trek Online
All Points Bulletin (APB)
Other Games from GamersFirst?
Maple Story
NBC Direct
Flyff
Atlantica Online
Combat Arms
Dungeon Fighter
Games from gpotato.com
Any others? Comment below and I'll add them.
58 comments:
Thanks for the help. Just found it on my machine this AM.
saw the same thing on my comp. thanks for this. uninstalled
Yeah thanks alot for the post, its kinda funny that they would call it a media booster, giving the false intent that you're downloading might be faster, when it actually is just fowarding information through your computer.
I like my bandwidth to be used only by me, not something else that choices whenever it wants to.
Yeah. Definitely annoying. I actually re-installed LoL again to play with the same friend and the 1st thing I checked for was Pando Media Booster. There it was, silently waiting for me to uninstall it!
Anonymous said...
Yeah thanks alot for the post, its kinda funny that they would call it a media booster, giving the false intent that you're downloading might be faster, when it actually is just fowarding information through your computer.
I like my bandwidth to be used only by me, not something else that choices whenever it wants to.
********************************** [SNIP]
IF it works as intended, you should actually bennefit from it while downloading in torrent-style ..
-BUT you have the right to know, and turn it off in case you pay per mb up/down fx. ..
wheather you bennefit or not, often depends of the number of seeders/leachers and if your router is capable of handling the thousands of connections to your peer.
Guess "anonymous" is the kind that download movies by torrent, and won't seed (called "Leacher") ;-)
Got "MY" version of pando media booster by installing "Perfect World", I believe..
/cheers
-and thanks for the post/research :)
Where do I start... So for the past week I have been getting 280-500ms ping, up from my usual 31-62ms. Download speed of 1-3 Mbits (compared to a solid 5.5+), and upload speed is barely there. For over a week, I have banged my head against the wall, snailing through video games and having to basically quit playing, for the games I play are just too frustrating when everything I do reaches the server nearly half a second later. Us gamers know this makes gaming frustrating, and ultimately pointless.
This caused my neighbors, my wife, and anyone connected to my network to catch a daily lecture on proper internet activity, and a visit to inspect their PCs in efforts to clear up the problem which cost me time and money. I replaced the Ethernet Card on one computer, and as most PC builders know, this cost me a HEAP of frustration in discovering nothing I did fixed the problem. My ISP graciously came to replace my Internet box. The problem persisted. I then discovered the problem was only present when my computer was running. This was a breakthrough. Being so "experienced" had led me to assume it must have been the Internet, or my neighbors PCs. Come to find out it was this MENACING program that had decided to upload data to other users WIDE OPEN. As soon as I opened the program and saw the option to Limit Upload, I went BINGO. Uninstalled and all is well. Mine was installed with Dungeons and Dragons Online. Are you ******* kidding me?? How unethical. Malware is the word. I just got owned, and had my face put on a t-shirt by a legitimate company. Sadly nowadays, this is all too common.
@SorenM - "I like my bandwidth to be used only by me" I thought it was really funny, when I saw that I thought the same thing. Lol ;) I too acknowledge this practice makes a lot of sense, however as the poster as well as you have said, it makes no sense when it does it secretly. And I do believe it is for the purposes the poster stated; to secretly use people and save money. If they would have had the program test my upload speed, and automatically cap to half of the available upstream, they might have gotten away with it too. And I'm sure it's mentioned somewhere in the ToS? I sure would hope so. All they had to do was ask! I would have capped it at maybe 20 kb/s (out of maybe 60 available) and let it run for a few months to help out. This program seriously cost me a LOT of trouble! And for those that pay for that bandwidth, there's no telling how much it would have cost one of us. The company is waiting for legal trouble and I'm surprised. This happened to me once before too! I just never found out what was doing it, and I must have ran across it accidentally and uninstalled it, wondering what it was, but never attributing it to the problems with the Internet. As you can imagine having used and built computers for over 12 years, you can imagine how embarrassed I was when I discovered that this was the culprit. I was too confident in myself, to examine what was being ran on MY machine because I haven't gotten anything malicious in many years. It's sort of automatic to assume the problem must be from the ISP or a neighbors PC. That confidence is what hurt me. I will think twice next time ;)
Sorry to hear that you had so much trouble. I was lucky to find mine pretty quickly, but I've been in your shoes plenty of times before. Just happy to hear that you were able to fix your problem. Nothing like pinging 600ms in Battle Field 3...
SON OF A... No *wonder* my internet has been so slow the last little while! I have been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out WHY my bandwidth was so bad in fits and spurts over the last couple months, and this is it. GRRRR. And I never even really PLAYED league of legends, installed it and tried it out but forgot about it for the most part. Hrmph.
That's how it was for me. I was more mad that I didn't know it was installed and had no idea what it was doing to my connect than I was about the program itself.
i read th ToS of LoL and PWI and there is no reference to Pando so thats suspicious.
Ivan MB
BEWARE: I went to add/remove programs and as soon as I tried to uninstall, I received the following anti-virus alert and notification that the file was quarantined: C:\Program Files\Pando Networks\Media Booster\uninst.exe Trojan.Agent.
It's actually PMB.exe that gets installed with games. Pando.exe is a different software that's used to send big files.
Pando Media Booster (PMB) is an application used by game and software publishers to ensure safe, complete and speedy downloads of large files.
PMB will not download files to your machine without your express permission. When you download a file with PMB you participate in a private, secure peer-to-peer cloud. PMB only shares small pieces of the file you downloaded with other users.
No other files can be shared on your computer via PMB and your computer is never used as a relay nor for storage of content you did not wish to download.
Any virus warnings you receive about Pando are a false positive. We work closely with anti-virus companies to resolve these wrongful reportings.
Pando Media Booster is PMB.exe, not Pando.exe. Pando is a separate, unrelated software that is used to share large files over email and IM. You can learn more about Pando.exe here: http://www.pando.com
How much bandwidth PMB uses is entirely up to you. That, and a number of other features, can be controlled by going to Control Panel and double clicking PMB. We give users many ways to control how PMB works on their machine. You can:
* set it to turn on at Windows Startup,
* turn it off manually,
* set an upload speed limit,
* uninstall the application from your machine once the download has completed.
We strive to make the process of using PMB easy and hassle free for both users and publishers. You can find some useful links below that will help you better understand and use Pando Media Booster:
For more in depth assistance, see the FAQ: http://www.pandonetworks.com/pando-media-booster-support-faq#11
Details about PMB and how to change its settings:
http://www.pandonetworks.com/pando-media-booster-support-faq
Links to solutions and troubleshooting steps for common PMB issues:
http://www.pandonetworks.com/games/help
If you are having trouble with PMB or have a question that is not covered in the FAQ, you can email Pando Support directly at:
downloader@pandonetworks.com
or post in our forum:
http://www.pando.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=36
Your first post wasn't actually taken down, it was caught by the blogger.com spam filter. I checked the spam folder and published the original comment. I'll let you decide if your 2nd comment should be removed.
I've also updated title of the post to reference pmb.exe instead of pando.exe. If I recall, I pulled the name straight out of my task manager, but it's been a long time.
In response to your comment...
I don't think anyone has a problem with your company directly. The issue is with companies (such as League of Legends and Dungeons and Dragons Online) that utilize your application (gaining all the benefits that you outline in your comment) without adequately notifying the end-user of what's going on and how it ultimately effect them.
You mentioned many features built into Pando Media Booster to give users control over bandwidth usage and whether its running at all. Unfortunately, these features are completely useless if users aren't even aware that it was installed on their system.
Consider the default settings for Pando Media Booster seem to start it up every time windows boots and some people have complained about it severely affecting their gaming latency and bandwidth usage. You can certainly understand where they might have a problem with it.
With that being the case... It sounds like many users go weeks, months or possibly even years with your application running quietly in the background of their system while it "only shares small pieces of the file you downloaded with other users". In the mean time, their internet performance and bandwidth limits suffer or even end up costing them ISP fees due to overages.
Either way... This post isn't necessarily attacking Pando. Its only purpose is to try and help people who find this strange little process running in their task manager called pmb.exe and are wondering how in the world it got there and what its doing to their computers.
The whole issue could be easily remedied by companies that use pando (ultimately reap the rewards in reduced bandwidth costs themselves) to be a little more forthcoming when installing this on their customers' computers.
Thank you for the response, and please do delete one of the comments since I don't have access to do so.
I was not implying that your post is an attack, I simply wanted to clarify and address a few of the things you pointed out in your blog to avoid confusion.
It's up to the game publishers to decide how visible they make PMB during installation and most of them spell it out very clearly. League of Legends has actually made changes recently to the LOL downloader making it even more visible that you are installing PMB: http://i43.tinypic.com/1ebfps.jpg Turbine also clearly states that PMB is being installed: http://i43.tinypic.com/ziolrr.jpg .
We do recommend all publishers to make the installation of PMB as explicit as possible.
All the information about how to control and alter PMB's features and bandwidth usage can be found in our FAQ: http://pandonetworks.com/pmb-faq . Our help page ( http://www.pandonetworks.com/games/help ) is linked from all game downloaders we provide our customers.
However, we understand that this is not always apparent to users. I can share with you that our team is reading the comments posted by gamers on game forums and are working on making significant improvements allowing users with greater visibility and much easier controls.
On a more personal level, I am a gamer too and I understand where you're coming from. I just want users to know that we're actually listening to them and at the same time correct some common misconceptions. If anyone has specific questions or comments not addressed in our FAQ please contact us at community@pando.com and we'll be happy to help.
I installed Pinnacle VideoSpin and Pando Media Booster got installed the same day. I also installed some other stuff that day, but Pinnacle VideoSpin is the prime suspect.
I've been moving the files on a bunch of stuff and when I had to uninstall some things, I found this program and Googled it to make sure it wasn't a necessary program before uninstalling it. This article was really useful. Thanks!
Happy to have helped!
all games from gpotato use pmb, as well as 60-75% of all other free-to-play mmorpgs as their "client downloader". So far as im concerned, it is amazing to use as a download client however you should uninstall it immediately after your download is complete.
i got 1 virus and 3 virus websites that was blocked before it downloaded on my pc...
I'm pretty sure all Nexon games use PMB. I have played Maplestory and Dragon Nest and both contain PMB.
Star Trek Online uses it, but it is the first thing mentioned in their ToS (that's how I found out about this program actually!). The STO install was very upfront about the install of PMB, thankfully.
APB(All Points Bulletin) also uses Pando Media booster. I think all the other GamersFirst games also use it. I found this out actually before looking this up. My brother had a rootkit and I used TDSKiller to get rid of it. During the scan TDSKiller actually recognized PMB as malware and deleted it. This corrupted APB and my brother had to reinstall it. If it considered it a threat it might leave an opening that hackers could get through. Who knows, but I didn't appreciate not being told it was being downloaded on my PC.
so should i uninstall Pando Media Booster (PMB.exe)?? ,, if i did, will it also remove LOL from my pc as well?
Mate, just read first article. Pando Media Booster isn't bad if u have upload to spare. It's legall, and i love to share. Pando Media Booster left RUNNING.
Pando Media Booster is legal and if you enjoy sharing and are "aware" that it's on your system, you're a saint for leaving it running.
The problem is the the 3rd parties that actually load it on your system (almost without your consent) and aren't clear about the ramifications it might have for you...
I noticed that streaming video from abc.com got really slow a few weeks ago, having been just fine for a long time before. Long story short: I found PMB.exe in my installed files. I came on to this blog and saw all the complaints, so I uninstalled PMB. My streaming isn't as good as it used to be, but it's 95% back with PMB gone. I suspect the remaining issues are related to the old hardware in that computer.
I don't care if you can turn everything off in control panel or if PMB has some good uses. The fact that it installed with default setting "make your connection slow as snot all the time" is rediculous. [note: my PC that got it is used almost exclusively for streaming TV shows. My best guess is that FOX, ABC or NBC (or maybe Xfinity) installed it as part of some initial download.]
I had realized this and knew it was from LoL. Just had no idea what it did. When my internet begins to troll stopping this program will help. I will still support the company, just not all the time.
Thank you very much for clearing this up.
how link I download is??
So is it okay to use PMB to install STO and then uninstall PMB and play the game?
Yes. Most games only use PMB to help download your client and to help other with theirs. Once it's completed it's task, I would highly recommend getting rid of it. If you have bandwidth to spare and are aware of the downsides, leaving it installed to help out the game company could be your good deed for the week.
SGI's Pangya and OG Planet's La Tale use that too.
SGI(gamerage) probably has all games except Trickter using Pando.
Thank you very much for this tip, mister Fox. Lineage 2 from NCSoft also uses this, but at least they announce that they are doing so. Maybe the collective rage cry hasn't gone unnoticed?
Now I will finish downloading the game and immediately uninstall the program.
Aion now requires this program to do updates
Perfect World,Forsaken World and Runes of Magic also have it
Thank you for the advice.
I add that game free to play called War Of Immortals, on the following website :
http://woi.fr.perfectworld.eu/
Bye ;)
Thanks for the article. I got my copy through D&D. I was troubleshooting my network connection and was curious as to why my upload data rate was at max. I killed PMB in task manager and my upload rate dropped to zero. I uninstalled it as I don't play anymore.
Aion uses it too however NCSoft Launcher explicitly states that it's going to be installed before one can install Aion. HOWEVER there is a "hidden" option of bypassing PMB install still being able to install Aion (and most probably other NCSoft games aswell). Here's the "trick" (Taken from https://help.ncsoft.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8932):) ->
How do I configure Pando Media Booster for a single NCsoft game?
-Start the NCsoft Launcher.
-Right-click the game that you wish to modify.
-Select Properties.
-Find the checkbox labeled Use Pando Media Booster for downloads and enable or disable the checkbox for your preference.
-If you chose to disable Pando Media Booster for an NCsoft game, you will receive a prompt to confirm the change. Select Yes to proceed or Cancel to continue using Pando Media Booster for the selected game.
-Select OK to close the Properties window.
-Restart the NCsoft Launcher to ensure that all downloads are using the proper settings.
Cheers :)
I got this from downloading "Rusty Hearts" rustyhearts.perfectworld.com/
this is the most succinct article i've seen about PMB.exe, so thanks for that! i wouldn't have noticed it if malwarebytes didn't keep blocking it every 20 mins or so as a potential threat, hence the research.
Thanks. I'm glad it was able to help a few people understand what it is even if they don't choose to remove it.
Seriously fucked up this should be installed with permision only.
free to play or not, Not everyone has mid range or high end connection.
I would't really be bothered if i had mid range connection like 30/30
but i have 15/1 connection so kept lagging every once in a while for no reason :|
Star Wars The Old Republic is another one that installed PMB
Atlantica Online, Combat Arms, Dungeon Fighters, all use PMB. Add them to the list if you like.
Thanks. Added them!
Thanks so much. I had installed LoL recently and realized that everything was running slower. So I uninstalled and there wasn't much of a change. Just found it PMB my processes in Task Manager and it was taking up 50+ CPU. My laptop is 8 years old and it can't handle the extra work so this really helped.
pando media booster cost me 10$ this month thanks fully I'm aware of my habits and was able to minimise the damage now I just need to get rid of this crap and I suggest to all do the same
im going to keep this running. i seen it in the startup processes and was wondering what it is. now ik and im happy to share some of my upload bandwidth for other people to play free to play games.
I did re-install LoL a while back and noticed that they mention this a bit more clearly during installation. Kudos to Riot. I think its great that you're willing to share your bandwidth. Unfortunately, not all of us have unlimited amounts to share unknowingly. If the service is disclosed properly, each individual gets to make that determination for themselves, as it should be.
When I installed league of legends, I must have installed this too, however I can not find it in my installed programs. I have uninstalled league of legends, but am not sure what other programs it may have installed alongside it. Please help!
I have a problem while installing it with my Pinnacle studio and it keeps saying failed to install pando I don't know where to find a nother downloading link for pando so please help Thanks
good job, got this installing pwi- even tho after 2 months never used it once. pando media booster? sounds like its your computer/internet connection that gets boosted. i found pmb.exe 2 min after computer rebooted after some win-updates reset. usually... ok always when the computer boots to windows (don't have to check linux for any crap :) i'm just saying) i start the task manager to see whats running/shut down any offending, unecessary programs. so pwi/pmb.exe got no free bandwidth from me. :o
To the Pando Rep: I find all your professional talk a bunch garbage and have done everything to uninstall this and it will NOT go away. I can't even delete it from my control panel!! I am so mad and will NEVER use, buy or talk positive about PMB as you call it, and I wish I would have seen this when I loaded LOL because I would have NEVER allowed it on my computer......... PMB has been nothing but a PIMA ( pain in my @$$). Thanks for making me very upset, frustrated and if I ever come across anyone who does crap like this to get people to download there program I'm going to KTA!! Seriously it really sucks and I have wasted a few hours to get rid of this scumbag app...... Thanks for nothing. Mark
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