Pando was an application which was mainly aimed at sending (and receiving) files which would normally be too large to send via more "conventional" means. It used both

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

( BitTorrent protocol) and client-server architectures and was released for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Pando shut down its servers and ceased business on August 31, 2013. As of February 24, 2014, the Pando Media Booster had been hijacked, and unsuspecting persons who installed a prompted update had their internet browsers hijacked, and a virus called the "Sweet Page" browser virus was installed on their machines.

Details

Pando functioned as a normal BitTorrent client and used the BitTorrent protocol to transfer files. Using Pando was very similar to using any BitTorrent client. A Pando upload began with meta-data stored within a file with a .pando

filename extension A filename extension, file name extension or file extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file (e.g., .txt, .docx, .md). The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use. A filename extension is typically d ...

. Also like BitTorrent, this file could be sent via e-mail or published on a website or exchanged with the recipient in some other way (such as via IM). And, like BitTorrent, the downloader had to first install the Pando software. Pando used a 256-bit end-to-end

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the files I send go?
/ref> method to secure communication among peers. The primary difference from traditional BitTorrent file transfer operations was that a copy of the shared file was uploaded to Pando's servers and remained there for a limited time,

seeding The term seeding and related terms such as seeded are used in several different contexts: *Sowing, planting seeds in a place or on an object *Cloud seeding, manipulating cloud formations *Seeding (computing), a concept in computing and peer-to-pee ...

it. In this way, the file remained available even after the original sender went offline.

Features

A non-subscription version was

ad-supported Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

; i.e. it offered to install the SmartShopper

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...

on the computers of its users. A subscription version extended the capabilities. Beyond the features listed below, there were additional service offerings for high-volume publishers and subscription content delivery. Its common features were: * Server-assisted delivery provided increased file availability and delivery speeds. (Subscribers received faster server-assisted speeds.) * Seven days, or thirty days, of file retention on Pando's servers, depending on how users shared. (Subscriptions doubled these retention times to fourteen days or sixty days.) * Statistics about number and time of downloads were provided to the sender. * It was fully supported client software for both the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and the

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

operating systems. * An assortment of software could be added-on to popular web browsers, instant messaging, or e-mail clients. * Users were allowed an unlimited number of uploads. * The maximum file size that could be so transferred by non-subscribers was 1 GB; this was increased to 3 GB with subscriptions.

Pando Media Booster

The Pando Media Booster (PMB) was an application by Pando Networks that publishers of games and software could employ to ensure safe, complete and speedy downloads of large files. PMB was primarily used to download

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

s. Users of PMB participated in a secure, closed peer-to-peer network where users received pieces of the download package from a Content Delivery Network (CDN) as well as "peers, or other active users. PMB was usually packaged and automatically uploaded to a PC without the knowledge of the user. Many times, users would experience drastically slower downloads of these MMORPGs while PMB was being installed. Unlike Pando, PMB could not be used to send files from the user's computer. PMB was only activated to deliver Pando-enabled downloads from commercial sources such as TV networks, software publishers and gaming companies.

Conflicts

The Pando Media Booster (PMB.exe) listened on

TCP port In computer networking, a port is a number assigned to uniquely identify a connection endpoint and to direct data to a specific service. At the software level, within an operating system, a port is a logical construct that identifies a specific ...

s 443 and 563. People who were having trouble getting web servers such as

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

, IIS, or others to work were advised to consider removing the Pando Media Booster. The Pando Media Booster ran at system startup and took priority to other downloads. Slower-than-normal downloading speeds or general network performance issues might be related to the product. These conflicts ceased to be reported in 2013, when Pando shut down its servers and ceased business. But after 2014, when the Pando Media Browser was hijacked, unsuspecting persons who installed a prompted update instead had their internet browsers hijacked and the "Sweet Page" browser virus installed.

References

External links