I keep hearing that someone running KaZaA, or another file sharing program, is a reason for speed drops, etc. Is this really that big a problem?

"What is not generally well-known is that the upstream cap can also affect the downstream speed -- if the upstream is saturated by uploading (e.g., sending a large PowerPoint file to the boss, or running a Napster or other public service), the downstream will drop to about the same speed. This is due to a weakness in the basic TCP Internet protocol, not Cable or DSL per se, and not the service provider.

Cable Internet is more vulnerable to this problem than DSL. Unlike DSL, where each subscriber has a dedicated connection to the head-end (DSLAM), the Cable Internet upstream path to the head-end (CMTS) is shared by all subscribers on a given cable segment. If that upstream gets saturated, which might be caused by only a relatively few subscribers, downstream speeds take a big drop for all subscribers on that segment."

Quoted from »cable-dsl.home.att.net/#Asymmetry

From a question in the forum by pianotech and a link provided by hobgoblin

For information on how to disable file sharing in many common P2P applications, see Adelphia's eSafety page on disabling P2P file-sharing:
http://www.adelphia.com/esafety/disable_p2p.cfm

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by KeysCapt edited by MacLeech
last modified: 2005-08-20 18:38:32