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Microsoft conscripts upload bandwidth in Windows 10's latest Insider update (GB/mo cap alert!)
ComputerWorld ^ | Aug 31, 2016 | Gregg Keizer

Posted on 08/31/2016 10:24:52 PM PDT by dayglored

Say hello to "Windows Update Delivery Optimization"

Microsoft today updated the Windows 10 beta, switching on a controversial technology that commandeers users' upload bandwidth to shift some responsibility for updating from the company's own servers.

Build 14915 was released earlier Wednesday to participants in the Windows Insider "Fast" track.

The notable change highlighted by Dona Sarkar, the software engineer who acts as the public face of Insider, was the enabling of Windows 10's "Delivery Optimization" technology.

Delivery Optimization, formally dubbed "Windows Update Delivery Optimization" (WUDO) by Microsoft, was part of Windows 10 from the get-go. But it was only switched on as of the November 2015 upgrade, which was pegged as 1511. Insider builds of Windows 10, however, were exempt until now.

...

...Any customer whose device is tapped for WUDO delivery has given Microsoft access to their upload bandwidth... This appropriation of bandwidth has led to criticism, most of it focused on the fact that WUDO was enabled by default. To opt out, users must modify Windows 10's preferences.

(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: bandwidth; microsoft; windows10; windowspinglist
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To: dayglored

Happy Win 7 user here with all updates turned off. MSFT can take Win 10 and stuff it.

The whole idea that MSFT is allowed to take “stuff” from our computers is ridiculous. There’s no accounting.

My Internet access is on a pay as you go basis. MSFT is, in effect, making me pay for them harvesting my data. Outrageous!


21 posted on 09/01/2016 7:55:41 AM PDT by upchuck (2 Timothy 3:13: But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.)
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To: dayglored

“Optimization” == STEALING my hardware cycles and bandwidth to distribute their spyware. Hmmmm. I do not think that word means what you think it means.


22 posted on 09/01/2016 8:27:00 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: upchuck
MSFT is, in effect, making me pay for them harvesting my data.

Sheesh! Who do they think they are, the goobermint?

23 posted on 09/01/2016 8:28:54 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: dayglored

so the difference between WUDO (Windows Update Delivery Optimization) and WUSA (Windows Update Standalone Installer) is that WUDO shares bits upstream of your LAN whereas WUSA only makes localized updates available within the confines of a LAN?

Another one step forward and three steps back for Microsoft!

For years I struggled with keeping multiple machines updated on a metered connection and wished for something like WUSA where I could download once and then distribute internally. Microsoft is working with the technology but does so not as a partner but as some sort of pseudo-benefactor. Their attitude is increasingly that we aren’t intelligent enough to take care of our own gear and consequently they have to save us from ourselves.

Thanks for the alert.


24 posted on 09/01/2016 8:38:04 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: dayglored

You can be assured that this is secure as all Windows operating systems are.
No one minds having strangers using your computer to upload Microsoft updates...... or maybe depositing files as some hacker somewhere will figure out how to do so and do so onto millions of pc’s at once.

Microsoft Windows 10 spyware and now using your computer to share files. They are like some creepy guy looking into your window all the time.


25 posted on 09/01/2016 10:00:10 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: catnipman

At least using Bit torrent is voluntary. Socialism is deceitful and ultimately gives you no choice.


26 posted on 09/01/2016 10:29:03 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves. Socialism is governmental theft!)
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To: dayglored

So, in other words, Windows 10 will now become a computer hog when updating. Am I correct?


27 posted on 09/01/2016 11:27:19 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Cuckservative: a "conservative" willing to raise another country's ideology in his own country)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
> So, in other words, Windows 10 will now become a computer hog when updating. Am I correct?

I don't know about it becoming a "hog", but it does become a "server" for the Windows Update downloads -- transferring them from your computer to other computers. And it becomes a client of other similar computers that have been turned into ersatz "servers".

If all the computers are on the same local network (LAN), this has implications in network bandwidth (depending on how your switches are configured), disk bandwidth, and CPU usage.

If your computer is transferring the updates to computers out on the internet (that's the default), this has implications on your internet connection usage (billing), especially if you're charged per GB and/or have a "cap" of only so many GB per month.

If your computer is on the --receiving-- end of an internet transfer of updates, in addition to the usage/billing, there are security implications since you're basically downloading content that will execute with administrative privilege and install directly into your computer's operating system. I'm sure there are checksums and so forth that presumably would stop content that has been tampered with, --BUT-- by the time that check happens, it's already on your computer.

All in all, I think this is a bad idea. The opportunities for trouble are manifest.

28 posted on 09/01/2016 12:17:19 PM PDT by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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