Network Shim found on Asus computers
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Content filtering, proxies or well many things internet wise where going odd with my new ASUS. I figured out what it was. Any ROG laptop, computer or motherboard (if you use the drivers from asus) from Asus is coming with QoS Network Shim pre-installed and configured called GameFirst (or GameFirst II or GameFirst III). I haven't seen anyone else report on this but, I think it's a big deal. I can understand why the program may be available, possibly even pre-installed (preferably not) But, configured and sifting all your network traffic through it is a big deal. There is no information really about this program online.
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This sounds a lot like SuperFish from Lenovo. How anyone could think a network shim was okay before that is beyond me. How anyone would still be doing it today after Lenovo got busted is insane.
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It's to play games on. Not ask questions about.
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Seriously though, is a driver change all that's needed or is there something more nefarious lurking in there?
Having an inbuilt QoS system seems a bit creepy to me. -
Has anybody reached out to Asus to figure out what it is yet?
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@nadnerB said:
Seriously though, is a driver change all that's needed or is there something more nefarious lurking in there?
Having an inbuilt QoS system seems a bit creepy to me.Sure a driver change is all that is needed. Now the better question, does one exist without GameFirst?
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Go straight to the NIC manufacturer's website?
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@dafyre said:
Go straight to the NIC manufacturer's website?
This doesn't always work. Sometimes the end integrator requires the chip manufacturer to put a code that requires the use of proprietary drivers.
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@dafyre said:
Go straight to the NIC manufacturer's website?
Lenovo made that impossible. No idea here, but when Lenovo had a shim they made sure there was no driver available except for their own.
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Welp... No more Asus products for me!
That sucks too, cuz I like their Android & Windows Tablets.
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@dafyre said:
Welp... No more Asus products for me!
That sucks too, cuz I like their Android & Windows Tablets.
I say the same for Lenovo, because I really like my Yoga 2 Pro, heck the whole Yoga line both Ideapad and Thinkpad (though the Ideapads are actually much better in my opinion).
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@Dashrender said:
@dafyre said:
Welp... No more Asus products for me!
That sucks too, cuz I like their Android & Windows Tablets.
I say the same for Lenovo, because I really like my Yoga 2 Pro, heck the whole Yoga line both Ideapad and Thinkpad (though the Ideapads are actually much better in my opinion).
I moved into the "never again" category with Lenovo last year
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@dafyre said:
Welp... No more Asus products for me!
That sucks too, cuz I like their Android & Windows Tablets.
I say the same for Lenovo, because I really like my Yoga 2 Pro, heck the whole Yoga line both Ideapad and Thinkpad (though the Ideapads are actually much better in my opinion).
I moved into the "never again" category with Lenovo last year
I haven't gotten there yet - but I completely understand why you say that.
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Definitely disappointed in ASUS for this, they have been one of my favorite brands for consumer hardware for a while.
This positive bias makes me want to give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that they could have had mostly good intentions on this - since it's on ROG hardware only, I can see the software being intended to prioritize gaming-related network traffic or something benignly dumb like that.
Hopefully they will inform us of its purpose in their apology post explaining how they've disabled it by default or something like that... A man can dream, right?
But yeah, they will be last on my list of hardware vendors when I actually get around to upgrading my PC now.
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It seems that anything "Gamer" related has it installed.
http://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/B85PRO_GAMER/ -
@nadnerB said:
It seems that anything "Gamer" related has it installed.
http://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/B85PRO_GAMER/It's generally easy to sell to gamers based on slick marketing and the market's desire for performance above all things often means that they have short memories and don't hold vendors accountable for bad behaviour. So the risks to Asus are low, in a year no gamer will care and Asus can do this again. One of the many risks of dealing with consumer grade equipment.
