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Brothers, pay attention, we may be stolen by video apps again...

And the cost of having your home robbed will be more severe than before.

If you recently find that the devices in your home, whether it is a TV, computer or mobile phone, are always stuck when watching videos and live broadcasts, uploading files to the cloud or transferring files to others is very slow, and the devices are inexplicably hot, don't rush to blame the network operator or mobile phone manufacturer.

Because of this situation, it is very likely that some apps are secretly taking advantage of you again. . .

It all started when I saw a post on the V2EX forum - a guy found that his home network became very stuck for unknown reasons, so he logged into the router to check the situation. It turned out that a certain IP had established more than 5,000 transmission protocol links and uploaded nearly 30G of traffic in 10 hours.

At first he thought it was the TV that was stealing data, but when his phone ran out of battery and turned off, he found out that it was a video app that had been occupying bandwidth in the background.

And according to feedback from other netizens, many video apps are not clean. When watching a live broadcast, the upstream bandwidth is higher than the downstream bandwidth, which is outrageous. . .

When I saw this post, I was immediately shocked. This is PCDN. It was exposed two years ago.

Simply put, the PCDN technology can turn your mobile phone, computer, TV, router, etc. into "distribution servers" controlled by App manufacturers.

For example, if you download a movie using a network disk or a video app, when you finish downloading, is the movie lying on your computer? If the neighbor next door wants to watch it, his computer may directly pull the cached data from your computer instead of going through the main server that the platform has spent money to build.

In this way, which is equivalent to using your home network resources to help theseAppSharing the bandwidth pressure,Their burden has been reduced, but it is obvious that this behavior of taking advantage of users' network resources and occupying upstream bandwidth is not fair in itself.

However, many people are completely unaware of this - because almost no app will proactively state that it is doing this, including when we download and use these software, there are no relevant prompts.

Moreover, because the uplink network is occupied, the transmission of normal Internet requests is squeezed out. People will feel that there are packet loss and web page lags when playing games at home, and they will immediately blame the WiFi router and broadband operator. However, they do not realize that these "upload bandwidth stealing" apps may be the culprits.

There is no doubt that this is not the spirit of Internet sharing, but rather secret kidnapping. . .

A few years ago, apps such as Baidu Netdisk and iQiyi were exposed for similar operations. Later, these apps realized that they were in the wrong and added an option to turn off uploading in the settings, giving users a choice.

Similarly, after seeing this post by V2, I also went to the APP to check, and sure enough, I saw an option called "Allow network acceleration" in the settings.

I checked on several phones and found that as of the version when I wrote this article (11.0.90), this option was still enabled by default.

I asked customer service what this option was, but they kept hesitating and repeating themselves.

But when I read its User Agreement, I found the explanation of this feature:You agree that we may use new technologies other than server-client transmission technology., and understand that we may use your terminal device information and content access information for this purpose. "

Let me explain to you guys, normal Internet data communication can only be transmitted between "server/client", and PCDN or similar technologies are new technologies in addition to the "server/client" transmission technology.

But in a sense, this might be good - because at least it gives you a switch (although it's on by default).

I looked through the privacy terms of several other video apps. Except for Bilibili, the other apps have similar paragraphs in their terms, but there is no corresponding switch in the app.

Let me first tell you a conclusion: the apps that still turn on the "acceleration service" by default are actually very disgusting.

Let’s not talk about stealing data and consuming electricity.The key point is that operators are now cracking down on PCDN.As long as the operatorDiscoverWhose broadband has suspected PCDN behavior?Just giveThe entire broadbandLocked in a small dark room.

A while ago, I applied for corporate broadband for my company. The salesperson on the other side confirmed with me repeatedly whether it would be used for PCDN, and even asked me to sign a letter of commitment. I took a look at the content and saw that even they would be fined internally. You can imagine what the attitude of operators towards PCDN is now.

This is because the PCDN technology is essentially taking advantage of these operators.

As we all know, since the implementation of the policy of speeding up and reducing fees, home broadband in our country has become super cheap. For example, the 300M broadband I packaged for my hometown only cost a little over three hundred yuan a year, and the 500M broadband package for two years only cost five hundred yuan. If there is an event, the price will be even cheaper. It can definitely be regarded as a universal benefit.

Including the promotional materials released by operators at the MWC Shanghai this time, which was simply jaw-dropping...

But to be honest, the operators also need to make money. Although home broadband has become popular in recent years and the prices have been kept very low, when it comes to corporate broadband, these operators have no intention of being lenient.

Apart from anything else, the picture below is the form I filled out when I applied for broadband for my new office a while ago. You can see that the same 500M broadband is sold for a few hundred yuan for personal use, but it will be several times more expensive when sold to enterprises:

And this is just ordinary broadband. It will be more expensive if you use a dedicated line with independent transmission lines, equal upstream and downstream, and higher stability.

A while ago, because I wanted a faster upload speed, I asked the salesperson in Hangzhou how much an "Internet dedicated line" with equal upstream and downstream speeds would cost.

The other party replied that Hangzhou is already very cheap, but if you want a dedicated line with 500Mbps upload and download speeds, the annual package fee will be still 12,000 yuan.

And do not give public IPv4 addresses - those who have studied the Internet should know what I mean by this sentence.Twelve thousand a year, only 500 Mbps, and there’s not even public IPv4!

For ordinary small businesses, it may be enough to grit their teeth and get a dedicated broadband line.

However, for video platforms with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of users, if they want to ensure that so many people can watch videos online at the same time without lags or buffering, the bandwidth demand is simply not at the same level as that of small businesses. If they rely entirely on purchasing dedicated lines themselves, the expenditure will be enormous.

Moreover, their expenditures are all “upward expenditures” - because in essence, they are uploading the movies and TV series in their servers to each of our devices.

Just look at the financial reports of those video platforms and you will find that bandwidth expenditure easily accounts for a large part of the total cost, sometimes as high as 60 to 70 percent.

Therefore, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, many video platforms have come up with the idea of ​​"PCDN" to transfer part of the bandwidth pressure to us.

There are even some "PCDN aggregation platforms" that have emerged due to such demand: some people have dozens of broadband lines at home, all of which are plugged into "PCDN node devices", and actively sell traffic to video platforms to make money.

It is indeed very smart, but the operators are obviously at a disadvantage. After all, most of our home broadband is monthly or annual subscription. They will definitely not be happy if video platforms try to squeeze out the home broadband.

Therefore, in recent years, domestic operators have also come up with some anti-fraud measures, including identifying whether users are using PCDN. If abnormal traffic usage is detected, the speed will be limited.

Previously, a large number of users reported on the Black Cat complaint platform that Henan Unicom's broadband had arbitrarily limited or reduced speeds. Consumers said that without their knowledge, Henan Unicom opened a "PCDN service" that limited the broadband upstream rate to 5Mbps:

This internet speed is like downgrading directly from the high-speed train to the motorcycle, causing the WiFi to be limited in speed and even WeChat voice calls to be stuck...

To be honest, this situation seems a bit outrageous when I think about it.This was supposed to be a game between video platforms and operators, but we, the ordinary users, were also dragged into it.。

andWhether you are actively making money or passively letting the platform "take advantage" of the computing power of your phone, the outcome is the same.forThese two peopleTake the blame！

If you ask me, if the video platforms feel that their revenue is not good, shouldn’t they reflect on why no one subscribes to memberships? Is it because the quality of the content is too low? They could have been as tough as Netflix - although the price has been raised every year, there are still audiences who pay for it.

If PCDN is really going to be implemented, shouldn't we proactively explain it to users and provide some incentives? It really doesn't look good to eat meat and drink soup at the same time.

As for the operators, I think they are even more shameless——If you have the ability to set this price for enterprise broadband, you must also have the ability to make video platforms pay for it.。

If you operators are really capable, you should go and compete with the platforms when the video platforms are not buying into your ideas and are trying to find loopholes.

In the end, no action was taken against the platform, but instead the upload speed of ordinary consumers was locked.The only person who pays the operator but does not have the right to use his own broadband at full speed。

Anyone who sees this will have to say it's abstract, family members.

Judging from the current situation, it will probably take some time for video platforms and operators to come up with a solution that everyone is satisfied with.

What we can do at this stage is to protect ourselves - first of all, we must strictly monitor these apps that secretly use PCDN in the background. If the permissions are not absolutely necessary, we must resolutely not give them; when these apps are not in use, we must never allow them to be in the background.

Whenever you have time, you can take a look at the "User Agreement" of each app. If you see paragraphs like "network acceleration" or "new transmission technology", be careful.

You are also welcome to share apps with PCDN function and how to disable it in the comment section.

In my opinion, the technology itself is not guilty. The PCDN technology is actually quite cool. Its concept is a bit similar to neighborhood mutual assistance. You help me pick up a package and I buy you snacks. This not only makes things convenient for others but also does not waste resources, making everyone's network usage more efficient. Isn't this the sharing spirit of the early Internet?

But why has it become so distorted now?

Written by: Fat Tiger

edit：Milo & Noodles

Art editor: Mr. Yang

Image and information sources:

Yunqi Community
www.v2ex.com

Weibo @Black Cat Complaint

Xiaohongshu, Communication People's Home