Microsoft PC Manager, Spoofed by the Chinese?
Posted by: Corporal Punishment on 11/22/2022 08:57 AM
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People have been writing in and postulating on the web that the new beta of Microsoft's PC Manager is somehow a spoof by the Chinese - the simple answer is. No, no, it isn't.
Second - If somehow a Chinese company did spoof the entire domain of Microsoft, this would be worldwide from page news. Granted, it would take a lot to knock Elon and Twitter off page one - but that would do it.
The confusion seems to be twofold.
First, installing the program will get a User Account Control Screen - in Chinese. This seems to be freaking people out, but this is a beta that was first released in China. So this makes sense.
Second if you PING pcmanager.microsoft.com, the IP will resolve to chinacloudapp.cn. This is also freaking people out. But, if you look into it, everything is correct.
If you look up Chinacloudapp.cn you will see that the IP comes back to 21vianet.com. 21vianet.com is owned by Beijing Century Internet Broadband Data Center Co. and then to on Alibaba's CDN. 2Vianet seems to actually be the backbone of Alibaba's CDN
https://who.is/whois/chinacloudapp.cn https://who.is/whois/21vianet.com
After looking deeper and with a little Google help, searching will eventually lead to Microsoft's Azure Development site in China. Microsoft announced in 2020 that 21Vianet was Azure China, which squares the circle.
"Microsoft Azure, operated by 21Vianet (Azure China), is a physically separated instance of cloud services located in China. It's independently operated and transacted by Shanghai Blue Cloud Technology Co., Ltd. ("21Vianet"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing 21Vianet Broadband Data Center Co., Ltd."
To sum up, Chinacloudapp.cn is on one of the cloud accounts that Microsoft uses, which is hosted by Alibaba's CDN (Content Delivery Network) by 21Vianet, which is officially Microsoft's Azure China hosting. While this is unusual for most companies, it is rather usual for Microsoft.
Now, why Microsft didn't name the server microsofts-china-cdn.cn -- we don't know. Maybe they will now. Or maybe it has to do with geopolitical climates- the thing we Geeks try to steer clear of. Either way, the software, hosting, and history are on the level.
All that said -- you can download Microsoft PC Manager for yourself and give it a try. We were impressed.
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Second - If somehow a Chinese company did spoof the entire domain of Microsoft, this would be worldwide from page news. Granted, it would take a lot to knock Elon and Twitter off page one - but that would do it.
The confusion seems to be twofold.
First, installing the program will get a User Account Control Screen - in Chinese. This seems to be freaking people out, but this is a beta that was first released in China. So this makes sense.
Second if you PING pcmanager.microsoft.com, the IP will resolve to chinacloudapp.cn. This is also freaking people out. But, if you look into it, everything is correct.
If you look up Chinacloudapp.cn you will see that the IP comes back to 21vianet.com. 21vianet.com is owned by Beijing Century Internet Broadband Data Center Co. and then to on Alibaba's CDN. 2Vianet seems to actually be the backbone of Alibaba's CDN
After looking deeper and with a little Google help, searching will eventually lead to Microsoft's Azure Development site in China. Microsoft announced in 2020 that 21Vianet was Azure China, which squares the circle.
"Microsoft Azure, operated by 21Vianet (Azure China), is a physically separated instance of cloud services located in China. It's independently operated and transacted by Shanghai Blue Cloud Technology Co., Ltd. ("21Vianet"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing 21Vianet Broadband Data Center Co., Ltd."
To sum up, Chinacloudapp.cn is on one of the cloud accounts that Microsoft uses, which is hosted by Alibaba's CDN (Content Delivery Network) by 21Vianet, which is officially Microsoft's Azure China hosting. While this is unusual for most companies, it is rather usual for Microsoft.
Now, why Microsft didn't name the server microsofts-china-cdn.cn -- we don't know. Maybe they will now. Or maybe it has to do with geopolitical climates- the thing we Geeks try to steer clear of. Either way, the software, hosting, and history are on the level.
All that said -- you can download Microsoft PC Manager for yourself and give it a try. We were impressed.
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