Bandwidth sharing

AdBolish costs nothing because, while it's installed, it shares a slice of your PC's idle internet bandwidth through Massive, a partner network that relays other people's public web traffic. You agreed to this when you installed AdBolish. Here's what it means day to day.

What it does and doesn't do

• It shares idle bandwidth when it can. Only one Clearware app shares on a PC at a time. If you have another Clearware app installed and it's already sharing, AdBolish counts that as sharing too.
• It keeps running after you close AdBolish. The Massive agent starts with your Windows sign-in and keeps sharing until you turn it off, sign out of Windows or uninstall.
• It doesn't touch your data. It doesn't read your files, your browsing, or the domains AdBolish blocks and allows.
• AdBolish doesn't filter it. The agent's lookups belong to the traffic it relays for other people, so AdBolish lets them through untouched and never counts them in your charts or Realtime log. This needs the protection service, like system-wide filtering does.

Where to see it

• The status pill at the bottom of the sidebar: Sharing, Starting…, Paused, Paused · error, Off, Off · stopped in Massive or Unavailable.
• Settings ▸ Bandwidth exchange ▸ Exchange status shows the same thing.
• Massive's own tray icon, next to the clock, is also an on/off control. If you stop sharing there, AdBolish doesn't start it again behind your back.

Turning sharing off

You can turn sharing off at any time: Share idle bandwidth in Settings, Share idle bandwidth in AdBolish's tray menu, or Massive's tray icon. Because sharing is what pays for AdBolish:

• Blocking pauses. Once sharing has been off for about two minutes, AdBolish stops blocking ads, trackers and malware. Your internet keeps working: lookups still pass through AdBolish, just unfiltered. The tray reads Paused: bandwidth sharing is off.
• The dashboard pages are replaced by "Bandwidth sharing is off", with Turn sharing on in Settings.
• New protection settings are refused, such as turning protection, system DNS routing, a blocklist or SafeSearch on, or adding a custom block.
• Your way out always works. Turning things off, pausing, allowing a domain, restoring your DNS settings and quitting are never refused.
• SafeSearch and YouTube Restricted Mode keep working if you'd already turned them on.

Turn sharing back on and blocking resumes within a few seconds.

Stopping for good

Uninstall AdBolish (see Uninstalling). That stops the Massive agent and removes it from your PC.

What usually goes wrong

• "Sharing could not be started … Check that Massive is installed and running, then try again." Turn Share idle bandwidth off and on again. If Massive's tray icon shows it stopped, start it there.
• A full window says "AdBolish needs Massive running to stay free." No sharing engine can run on this PC right now. Start Massive from its tray icon, then click Retry. Until then blocking is paused, and the tray still works for pausing and quitting. How to uninstall AdBolish explains how to leave instead.
• The pill says Off · stopped in Massive. Sharing was stopped from Massive's tray icon. Start it there, or turn Share idle bandwidth on in Settings.