BBC iPlayer - BEWARE!!

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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:53 am

It seemed like a great way to catch up on any programs I'd missed, but the BBC iPlayer has been nothing but trouble. If you do download it, be aware that it runs a P2P program in the background that can stay open even after you shut the main program down. Worse still, I've been watching my task manager and I can see it (KService.exe) jumping from about 10% to 99% and freezing my system every few minutes (3 times in the time it's taken me to write this much). So beware, keep an eye out if you do decide to use it.

It froze 4 times during writing this. I know I'm an idiot, but I have one last program to download, then I can disable it, watch it and delete the whole lot.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:29 am

Is it a Windoze system?
Why do all the "great little apps" always want to hog all your resources, take over your raw sockets, phone home, and bloat and slow and crash your system? Who are all these idiots coding this crap?
(The question of the last couple of decades....) Thanks, Bill. Evil or Very Mad

Thanks for the heads up.
I wonder if Steve Gibson's "Socket Lock" program would stop the little bugger??? I don't know how the app works. Does anyone know if this might work?

http://www.grc.com/dos/sockettome.htm
Well, anyway, I locked my sockets with SocketLock yesterday, and everything seems to be running ok on WinXP MCE. And I feel better knowing that my PC will be harder to turn into a Zombiebot.

Master Baiter Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 101

The ol' kservice.exe file.

I came across this when I made the mistake of using Sky TV's download service. I've heard its also in a channel 4 one too.

Essentially, all the services use Kontiki - why broadcasters use this heaven only knows. There are enough complaints about it so amazing Auntie Beeb chose it.

However, the sky one left two files (plus an entry in the registry) - following explains it better than I can. Would suggest you check for these extras as well.

http://idunno.org/archive/2006/11/01/243.aspx

I chose to get rid of the thing as soon as possible - thanks though, i now know to avoid the "Beebs BotNet".