MS: “All your base is belong to us”. Using your bandwidth to update other PCs.

Published on July 31, 2015 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

This is really a corker. What? Does MS think it’s SETI now?

So, according to Neowin, W10 response has been huge…more than 16 upgrades per second. So, they knew ahead of time this would happen, or at least hoped it would and MS prepped by acquiring 40Tbps with all the major CDNs.

BUT (you’re gonna love it): In order to ease the load on their servers and allow users to upgrade faster therey invented Windows Update Delivery Optimization. This works like a torrent hosting installation files on local PCs then propagating them on either your LAN or the internet.

No permission asked and no notice they’re using your bandwidth (they pay the CDNs but not you…YOU pay) to update other users. MS in allocating YOUR network resources without your permission, and without compensation…hence the title of this piece.

Comments (Page 1)

AceMatrix

on Jul 31, 2015

Yes , I had read about this a few days ago and it made me bristle a little. I have this phobia about my personal privacy , so I'm glad it's not just me who is troubled by this revelation. -- Ace --

ElanaAhova

on Jul 31, 2015

But if its part of the user agreement, that 'permission' has been granted.

AceMatrix

on Jul 31, 2015

ElanaAhova

reply 2

But if its part of the user agreement, that 'permission' has been granted.

Interesting point ElanAhova. I've often wondered if many people even bother reading the EULA. Perhaps Microsoft felt comfortable exploiting this fact of human nature. Just saying .... -- Ace --

DrJBHL

on Jul 31, 2015

I wonder how long your update is delayed if you say no, and I wonder what else is transmitted? Still doesn't touch the question of compensation for your bandwidth and also...why wasn't this mentioned BEFORE 7/29?

DaveRI

on Jul 31, 2015

If anyone else slipped this type of activity onto computers, buried in a license agreement or not, it would most likely be tagged "Malware."

gmc2

on Jul 31, 2015

Am I wrong to assume that this won't happen with a secure (password) protected wifi?

psychoak

on Jul 31, 2015

Win10 is installing a super node, it may or may not be blocked by your firewall, it's like Skype, or using Bit torrent. It can be blocked, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is.

Jafo

on Jul 31, 2015

gmc2

reply 6

Am I wrong to assume that this won't happen with a secure (password) protected wifi?

Yes...

davrovana

on Jul 31, 2015

Wow. What a terrible precedent.

starkers

on Jul 31, 2015

In order to ease the load on their servers and allow users to upgrade faster therey invented Windows Update Delivery Optimizatio

Oh Yeah? A faster Upgrade eh? Dunno where they get that idea. I've been downloading the 'install from USB/Disc tool [which includes Win 10] for the last 15 hours and it is only 9% complete.

If that's faster I'd hate ter see wot fechen slower's like. Goin' at a snail's pace, init!

Maybe that's cos I got more going up than coming down?

And before anybody reminds me that I'm not convinced about upgrading to Win 10, the idea is that if/when I have decided to do so, I'll have a 'once-downloaded' media installation that'll service all my machines instead of having to update each individually. It also allows for a clean install rather than an over-the-top upgrade, which I'd prefer anyhow.

DaveRI

on Aug 01, 2015

starkers

reply 10

Goin' at a snail's pace, init!

Sounds like they've got you "specially" pointed to be serviced by the one guy in the world with Win10 and a 56K dial-up modem.

Daiwa

on Aug 01, 2015

Wow. Just Wow.

starkers

on Aug 01, 2015

DaveRI

reply 11

Quoting starkers,

reply 10

Goin' at a snail's pace, init!

Sounds like they've got you "specially" pointed to be serviced by the one guy in the world with Win10 and a 56K dial-up modem.

And then at 11% I get this error: "Something Seems To Have Gone Wrong" and it just stopped downloading. A moment later the window closed and wouldn't reopen again.

Oh well, it's not like I need it urgently. I had no plans to install Win 10 in the immediate future, so maybe I'll try again when every man and his pet snake are done downloading it.

benmanns

on Aug 01, 2015

starkers

reply 13

And then at 11% I get this error: "Something Seems To Have Gone Wrong" and it just stopped downloading. A moment later the window closed and wouldn't reopen again.

Oh well, it's not like I need it urgently. I had no plans to install Win 10 in the immediate future, so maybe I'll try again when every man and his pet snake are done downloading it.

mh i downloaded the final iso with help of MediaCreationTool that microsoft openly provided.

paste - very quickly
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Havent found the time to install it yet though...
Im still waiting for Microsoft to notify me that my update is ready - its great to be an insider and then be pushed at the end of the wave.

I have to quote this:

there is a reason for that... but its not the speed or cortana nor edge

BlackSmokeDMax

on Aug 01, 2015

Seems this only works after installing Win10, meaning if you haven't installed yet, you have no worries. Also, you can turn off that sharing. The nasty bit is that it defaults to on. Tsk tsk, MS.

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