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story category FCC Asks Comcast About Traffic Shaping
Begins formal inquiry into practices...
(old news - 09:07AM Tuesday Jan 15 2008)
tags: Fileswapping · bandwidth · cable · Comcast
Tipped by armyrebel4 See Profile
On the heels of FCC boss Kevin Martin's statement that he'd look into Comcast's throttling of upstream BitTorrent traffic, the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to the cable giant. A coalition of consumer groups recently urged the FCC to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of traffic, though Comcast will be arguing that their traffic shaping practices constitute "reasonable network management."
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Current FCC rules make it perfectly reasonable to employ such technology if you're doing it to protect your network.
"We look forward to responding to the FCC inquiries regarding our broadband network management," said David L. Cohen, an executive vice president at Comcast, in a statement. "We believe our practices are in accordance with the FCC's policy statement on the Internet where the Commission clearly recognized that reasonable network management is necessary for the good of all customers," he added.
Consumer group the Free Press issued a statement that Comcast's practices are anything but reasonable:
"Blocking more innovative competitors doesn't constitute reasonable network management. The FCC needs to make it clear to these companies that blocking consumer access to the Internet will not be tolerated. The longer the FCC waits, the more these companies will continue to invest in blocking technologies similar to those used in China to censor the Internet. Chairman Kevin Martin should nip this in the bud."

Related:
  1. Vuze Wants FCC To Act On ISP P2P Throttling
  2. Comcast Unfazed By Traffic Shaping Media Heat
  3. Comcast Tells FCC To Butt Out
  4. Comcast Scraps P2P 'Bill Of Rights' Idea
  5. Comcast Gets Investigated While Cox Gets Free Pass
  6. Comcast Begins Testing 'Protocol Agnostic' Network Management
  7. Comcast, Cox, Trot Out Their Worst 'Bandwidth Hogs'
  8. Beating Comcast's Sandvine On Linux With Iptables
Forums » FCC Asks Comcast About Traffic Shaping
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Cabal
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1 edit

Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

Net Neutrality refers to ISPs double dipping on charging/extorting fees for both users paying for their connections and web sites paying for prioritization of traffic according to origination and destination. It does not refer to protocol-based QoS. It does not mean a flat, unmanaged, unQoS-ed Internet. By repeatedly and deliberately misusing this phrase, its importance is being weakened.
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by Cabal See Profile :

Net Neutrality refers to ISPs double dipping on charging/extorting fees for both users paying for their connections and web sites paying for prioritization of traffic according to origination and destination. It does not refer to protocol-based QoS. It does not mean a flat, unmanaged, unQoS-ed Internet. By repeatedly and deliberately misusing this phrase, its importance is being weakened.
I agree. Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
--
Saving the world keeps me busy. However, I find Earth very primitive from my home planet of Krypton.
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school



Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

You bet.

I end up using BitTorrent on colocated servers which I operate to update the virtual machines installs of CentOS.

The only quick way to download a CentOS DVD is via BT. The other providers would take hours / days for a download. With BT, I can max out my servers 100 MBPS line while performing the download.

There, a legit purpose for the usage of BT. Anything else supergirl?
fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

Well.. since this only affects Comcast users UPLOADING on the network and not your ability to download on the comcast network from legit sources, as your data center, then you should have nothing to complain about today, huh?

Bit-torrent on the upload on a residential "no server policy" is not welcome according to the TOS everyone agrees too.. I see this as a moot point and a waste of time.. as I'm sure Comcast is as well. Any more non-news today?

funchords
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2 edits

Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by fiberguy See Profile :

Bit-torrent on the upload on a residential "no server policy" is not welcome according to the TOS everyone agrees too.. I see this as a moot point and a waste of time.. as I'm sure Comcast is as well. Any more non-news today?
Once ...
... Again

P2P applications are nodes. Nodes are members of a Peer-to-Peer architecture.

Servers are members of a Client-Server architecture. This is pretty basic stuff. Only the people that drink the weak cool-aid cannot understand it.

AND FINALLY, Comcast itself has said that BitTorrent is welcome on their network.

Who is wasting whose time with this old misinformation?

PS: eDonkey does have a server that assists with searching and providing location services for firewalled nodes. That is a true server. A BitTorrent website (a server) provides half of that functionality for BitTorrent, and a BitTorrent tracker (also a server) provides the other half. In these three cases, these are truly servers. But the regular user just being part of a P2P network (be it file sharing, telephony, distributed computing, or whatever) is not a server.
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fiberguy
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

: sigh :

.. I don't care WHAT you call it.. if you have a piece of software running on a machine that is serving a file to the request of another client and it's doing so on it's own, it's a server.

If it walks like a duck...

I do give you credit for your very creative ways of spinning things to meet your needs and to fit your views. The problem is, you are still wrong.

In the end, it doesn't matter how YOU want to see and describe something, it's what you agreed to, and what you are saying in your posts ... well... what ever floats your boat. Sorry life is so rough for you.

funchords
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by fiberguy See Profile :

: sigh :
.. I don't care WHAT you call it.. if you have a piece of software running on a machine that is serving a file to the request of another client and it's doing so on it's own, it's a server.
So despite all of my examples, both from accepted and authoritative Engineering sources, historical references, and Comcast's own statements regarding P2P on their network -- I'm wrong simply because you say so.

Whatever.
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon USA
Are you affected by Comcast's RST forging? How to test it! -or- Read my original report.
fiberguy
My views are my own.
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

No.. what you're doing is spinning and mis-applying terms to best suit your needs. That's why you are wrong.

Ever heard of context? You said node... you know that a node means different things based on it's application.. so please.. be like Avis and Try Harder.

gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall

join:2002-04-07
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4 edits
said by supergirl See Profile :

said by Cabal See Profile :

Net Neutrality refers to ISPs double dipping on charging/extorting fees for both users paying for their connections and web sites paying for prioritization of traffic according to origination and destination. It does not refer to protocol-based QoS. It does not mean a flat, unmanaged, unQoS-ed Internet. By repeatedly and deliberately misusing this phrase, its importance is being weakened.
I agree. Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
Bit torrent went legit several years ago, with legal downloads and many many licensed corporate customers.

The start-ups using the technology are able to profit from advertising and selling products and services, and not greedy triple and double dipping into our wallets like some company's ...

I buy my media and get some for watching advertising, and yes, I need bit torrent.

Just because we have a government that permits this network abuse/blocking ATM, doesn't mean it will last ...

Using a loophole to patch up faults in a network architecture, or instead of expanding infrastructure is IMO fraudulent to those networks customers and contrary to the whole reason we have network neutrality. They are using it to prop up their business artificially. I consider a network architecture faulty if 2 persons could degrade the connections of thousands ... also if everyone else in the country/world is able to have far more capability's without resorting to this chicanery or half-hearted attempts at upgrade.

I bet as soon as the merger conditions (2 years agreed to follow network neutrality) are met, or comcast wins this, ATT will also be doing this to prop up their failing antient copper. Filtering and blocking/forging packets are just more numbers for the bean counters, it artificially inflates the amount of traffic of customers they can transport.

History 1860

“ ...messages received from any individual, company, or corporation, or from any telegraph lines connecting with this line at either of its termini, shall be impartially transmitted in the order of their reception, excepting that the dispatches of the government shall have priority. ”

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_ne···#History
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nasadude

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said by supergirl See Profile :

I agree. Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
awesome! I didn't know we had a user on the forum that is qualified to tell us which applications are OK and which are "bad". I really hate wondering if some application I am using is "bad" or "good" - I don't want to be using something if it's "bad".

just as a side note, you might want to know the MPAA has been known to use BT to distribute files; you should let them know they are using "bad" software.

supergirl

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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by nasadude See Profile :

said by supergirl See Profile :

I agree. Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
awesome! I didn't know we had a user on the forum that is qualified to tell us which applications are OK and which are "bad". I really hate wondering if some application I am using is "bad" or "good" - I don't want to be using something if it's "bad".

just as a side note, you might want to know the MPAA has been known to use BT to distribute files; you should let them know they are using "bad" software.
Bittorent has a "bad reputation" I typed. I've read that here and other places. I've looked at torrents--never found a legal file. It might be getting better but still has the stigma of illegal downloading/sharing all over it.

As far as CentOS, don't see any Bittorent download links there. »www.redhat.com/f/pdf/corp/trademark1.pdf
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hopeflicker
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

links at bottom

»isoredirect.centos.org/centos/4/isos/i386/

»dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/bittorrent/
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dot_null
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3 edits
said by supergirl See Profile :

I've looked at torrents--never found a legal file.
»www.legittorrents.info/
»www.publicdomaintorrents.com/
»www.legaltorrents.com/ (currently in private beta)

Not necessarily directed at you: Bittorrent is just a protocol, it isn't a centralized network like "Kazaa". The content on each individual tracker varies depending on who runs it.

Should we block (excuse me, delay) all port 80 traffic just because there are a few sites out there which serve up pirated content via HTTP? No, that would be absurd! The same premise applies with BitTorrent.

espaeth
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by dot_null See Profile :

Should we block (excuse me, delay) all port 80 traffic just because there are a few sites out there which serve up pirated content via HTTP? No, that would be absurd! The same premise applies with BitTorrent.
I don't agree with blocking BitTorrent per-say, but that argument isn't really valid. If you were to apply the 80/20 rule to http and BitTorrent traffic, the 80% in http would be legal. I don't think anyone is foolish enough to make the same argument for BitTorrent.

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1 edit

Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by espaeth See Profile :

I don't agree with blocking BitTorrent per-say, but that argument isn't really valid. If you were to apply the 80/20 rule to http and BitTorrent traffic, the 80% in http would be legal. I don't think anyone is foolish enough to make the same argument for BitTorrent.
I am not making the argument that the majority of content transferred via the BitTorrent protocol is legitimate. My point is that infringing content could just as easily be transferred via SMTP/FTP/SFTP/HTTP as it could be over BitTorrent. You could just as easily set up a FTP server to transfer pirated content as you could a BitTorrent tracker.

At the end of the day it's still another protocol, just like SFTP, FTP, HTTP, etc. Just another tool (protocol, in this case) that can be used for good or bad. Like a knife, for example. A knife could be used to make a sandwich or to kill someone. BitTorrent is quite similar in that respect, it can be used to distribute legal content or pirated content.

Much the same way we don't prevent the sale of knives on the off chance they may be used to murder someone, Comcast shouldn't impede BitTorrent traffic just because the potential exists for copyrighted material to be transferred.

That's all I'm saying. In my opinion, Comcast should just provide a dumb pipe and that's it. No deep packet inspection, no blocking, no purposeful delaying of traffic. Just a basic connection to the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

supergirl

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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

Gee, you can watch all the pron you want a YouPron.

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1 edit

Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by supergirl See Profile :

Gee, you can watch all the pron you want a YouPron.
What? Who has said anything about porn in this thread besides you?
jwalker1196

join:2007-10-02
Houston, TX


1 edit
quote:
I've looked at torrents--never found a legal file.
WTF?

OpenOffice.org and a whole load of open-source software is distributed via torrents because it is an efficient use of bandwidth! BitTorrent is a brilliant way of taking the load off of servers which need to disseminate alot of content quickly but don't always have the resources for that kind of bandwidth. Meanwhile we have bandwidth unused. It's a great idea. Just because alot of ppl do illegal things with a technology does not make the technology bad. Where do you stand on gun control, I wonder? Are you one of the "if guns didn't exist we wouldn't have crime" people?

My corporation uses torrents to distribute software updates to all our workers, and we all get the updates the same day using bandwidth much more efficiently than if it came off a server.

Hell, even the RIAA and MPAA "leaks" things as part of viral marketing campaigns. Saying legal torrents can't be found is nuts.

Transmaster
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= supergirl See Profile]
Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
So you are telling me NASA which uses bit-torrent to disseminate some of it larger freeware app's doesn't need bit-torrent.

I use bit-torrent in order to watch Documentary programing from England, most notably Time Team which is unavailable in any form Stateside. In fact Channel4 which airs Time Team refers people bit-torrent sites to view programs they have missed the site I use is very careful to pull any such program when it becomes available on DVD.
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LeftOfSanity

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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

said by Transmaster See Profile :

= supergirl See Profile]
Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
So you are telling me NASA which uses bit-torrent to disseminate some of it larger freeware app's doesn't need bit-torrent.

I use bit-torrent in order to watch Documentary programing from England, most notably Time Team which is unavailable in any form Stateside. In fact Channel4 which airs Time Team refers people bit-torrent sites to view programs they have missed the site I use is very careful to pull any such program when it becomes available on DVD.
So why don't they put money into upgrading their infastructure so they could stream it or just host it, rather than relying on everyone who uses bittorrent?

IMO, Bittorrent is used for legal stuff, it just makes it so anyone can bypass the costs of hosting their own stuff. They just put it on the backs of the providers.

bahcomcast

@vianet.ca

To add to this point:

Big Media control the traditional channels of distribution. You can't just put out a movie and have it stocked on the shelves. This is a Barrier to entry that the MPAA and RIAA want to keep. It keeps young independent and creative minds out of "their" space.

What comcast is doing is helping to prevent young upstarts from having access to the global consumer market and forcing them to go through traditional oligopoly channels.
fiberguy
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

Want to be an upstart? Step one,... purchase bandwidth.. step two, don't think you're going to run a business on a residential service line that CLEARLY.. hear that? CLEARLY says you are not allowed to.

Seriously guys.. what is so hard to get about this? .. are we in horizon of the next generation who has the opinion that they can do what ever they want and not follow rules and agreements? Was there a generation of parents who mis-informed their kids of what's right and wrong or what?

Every day, here, all I read is where a majority of people seem to think that rules are made for someone else and not them.

Craziness

@tds.net
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1 edit
said by supergirl See Profile :

said by Cabal See Profile :

Net Neutrality refers to ISPs double dipping on charging/extorting fees for both users paying for their connections and web sites paying for prioritization of traffic according to origination and destination. It does not refer to protocol-based QoS. It does not mean a flat, unmanaged, unQoS-ed Internet. By repeatedly and deliberately misusing this phrase, its importance is being weakened.
I agree. Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
Some people use BT for LEGAL stuff like downloading shows of there favorite bands Like Dave Matthews Band and some others. who are YOU to say THIS?

funchords
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said by supergirl See Profile :

Bittorent has a bad reputation as a bandwidth hog and illegal downloads. Instead, buy your music, buy your porn, and buy your movies. Would you really need Bittorent if you did that? Nope.
And we ALL could read our E-Mail at "Blazing" fast speeds.
--
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Are you affected by Comcast's RST forging? How to test it! -or- Read my original report.

Bilbu

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There are also many geographical areas that restrict the flow of music, movies, software to ensure that no "cultural contamination" occurs. ie you can only listen to the music your President agrees with, you can only watch movies that the "Council for Wholesome Youth Education" thinks are good for you. BT and TOR are a way round those restrictions.

Is Supergirl saying she agrees that people should be arrested and incarcerated because they want to watch an uncensored version of a movie freely shown in the USA and in civiolized countries that they cannot get locally becausee "El Presidente" says they can't?
openbox9

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But that definition of net neutrality doesn't help all of the whiners that want to use their 20/2 connections full-bore, 24/7/367.

BTW, Comcast will be allowed to continue this practice of managing their network. The only thing that may change is that they may be required to actually state what they're doing and managing, but that's a long shot IMO. Honestly, I think the government and consumers would be better served by going after advertising practices of some of these ISPs rather than trying to force lack of network management down business' throats.

Raptor
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Re: Stop misusing "Net Neutrality"

Advertising practices eh? Noooo, that's crazy talk. The tel/cable-cos are nothing but straightforward. Better to have a grand FCC "inquiry" into something that cannot be regulated!!! That's progress.

I always like getting my bills at the end of the month. So many surprise charges! $19.99/mo + System access fee + 911 fee + deployment retrieval fee + state/province recovery fee + enema fee + CEO's kid needs a new BMW fee.

hopeflicker
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This is good news!
Even if the Comcast is not found breaking any rules that the FCC has set forth, then at the very least it shows the public the unethical practices Comcast preforms.

spread the word!
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andyb
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Protect?

" employ such technology if you're doing it to protect your network."

Protect it from what? Being used?
openbox9

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Re: Protect?

From crawling on it's knees because of the huge number of connections that BT seeding can bring on.

ztmike
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said by andyb See Profile :

" employ such technology if you're doing it to protect your network."

Protect it from what? Being used?
I couldn't have said it better myself.
--
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Raptor
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said by andyb See Profile :

Protect it from what? Being used?
Silly, don't you know you're supposed to be using your 16/2 connection for checking email and surfing webpages only? That way they can give everyone "16/2" and not upgrade their network.

Diaboyos

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Re: Protect?

That's right. Their claim of using Sandvine for network management while they continue to roll out speed tiers of 16/1 and 16/2 is ludicrous. If they can't properly manage what they have now why in the world would they implement speed tiers twice as fast? They want to offer the speeds so they can look good but they want to prevent you from actually using it to save them money.

Instead of Sandvine that blocks even the users that don't abuse the network like the poweruser does, they need to just set a concrete cap dependent on the tier subscribed to. That would be a much more sensible and fair method of management.

espaeth
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Re: Protect?

said by Diaboyos See Profile :

That's right. Their claim of using Sandvine for network management while they continue to roll out speed tiers of 16/1 and 16/2 is ludicrous. If they can't properly manage what they have now why in the world would they implement speed tiers twice as fast?
Because they have to compete with FiOS. The way broadband is priced in the US the companies don't make money by how much or how little you use the service -- they make money based on subscriber numbers. In the FiOS markets there have been many reports of Comcast upgrading their network to support the speeds to go head-to-head with Verizon as best they can. The big threat to Comcast is that Verizon has a triple play package, so it makes better financial sense for Comcast to upgrade their network to retain customers in competitive markets than lose out on HSI as well as lucrative video and phone customers.

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Re: Protect?

said by espaeth See Profile :

Because they have to compete with FiOS.
No, it's because they choose to compete with FiOS -- which has the same constraining factors as DOCSIS but not as badly.

They want the public to believe that Cable-Internet >= FiOS-Internet (and, for some usage models, it is).
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The problem with implementing a cap for network management is this

Say have a 60GB cap so you go full tilt 24/7 until you're within say 10% of the cap within the first week then you do nothing but email and browsing for the next 3 weeks. During that 1 week, particularly on cable upstream, you're running the risk of saturating your cable segment (particularly if there are few others doing the same).

Caps are there to limit overall ISP transit bandwidth requirements.

Cable throttling is to ease the cable segment/node saturation problems. It makes some sense in that it eases the loads until DOCSIS 3 can be deployed. Splitting cable segments and nodes can be a exceptionally costly affair.

The major problem would seem to be the way Comcast have implemented throttling with the forged packets. Rogers (Canada) are using Cisco pcubes which apparently drop occasional packets, which causes throttling by the natural delay/retransmit mechanisms built into the IP stacks. This doesn't result in the kinds of failures reported by Comcast users.

Throttling on DSL just helps distribute the transit bandwidth requirement load. It doesn't make a great deal of sense on DSL though. Still, Bell Sympatico (Canada) have done it causing much anger, particularly because the units chosen are causing much collateral damage.

Throttling has NOTHING whatever to do (at least in Canada) with legal/illegal usage of copyright material. It *is* to do with network management on cable. Although one has to question Sympatico's use on DSL!
offspring07

join:2008-01-06
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This is exactly what I was wondering. It is like they don't want anyone doing anything on the internet except surf the web and read e-mail. Well I'm sorry if I use my internet more than the average Joe.

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said by andyb See Profile :

" employ such technology if you're doing it to protect your network."

Protect it from what? Being used?
Protect it from all the movie and music thieves that make up the majority of P2P use.
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See 12 replies to this post
Kearnstd
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the suits of the movie and music industry are just as crooked as the people downloading.

i just wish i could copy gasoline and share it over the net like music because i certainly would do it, since i know the oil industry could afford that loss.
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zachary1
you talkin' to me?

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right here
What the heck's the point of fast speeds if you can't shove it into overdrive?

esc0

@swbell.net

Unbelievable

Never thought I'd see this day in America. What's next?

Lumberjack
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Re: Unbelievable

said by esc0 :

Never thought I'd see this day in America. What's next?
The end of capitalism and an erra of socialism. I mean, maybe we can do it better than the USSR and Eurpope...

Guess we all want to be poor these days.
--
»www.fairtax.org

MrMoody
Carbon Based Lifeform

join:2002-09-03
Smithfield, NC

Traffic shaping

The problem is not traffic shaping (i.e. QoS) which many cablecos use, the problem is forging packets and breaking connections.
--
The public is a poor business manager.

See 6 replies to this post

JasonD

@comcast.net

Comcast is my hero.....

They should degrade (or outright block) anything that gets in the way of providing customers quality service. That includes bittorrent, video, voip or anything else that degrades the user experience.

They may get another opportunity to throttle if this new apple itunes VOD service gets out of hand.

See 12 replies to this post

Tails

join:2007-09-25
Sanford, NC
·Windstream

So...

Why can't cable companies just cap the user instead of "forging packets and breaking connections?" Give them xxxx amount of bandwidth down/up "reserved" for the user so that user doesn't start leeching other peoples' bandwidth. Make the user pay for the bandwidth that they use each month. Kinda works like DSL I guess. Isolated network and no "peak" times. Someone correct me if I'm wrong =D

bolt
Former Broadband Exile
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN

Re: So...

Because then the cable co's couldn't claim the ridiculously high bandwidth possibilities on transfer speeds that no one ever actually gets.
phantom6294

join:2002-02-27
Abingdon, MD
·Comcast

Re: So...

said by bolt See Profile :

Because then the cable co's couldn't claim the ridiculously high bandwidth possibilities on transfer speeds that no one ever actually gets.
No one? Really? I recently downloaded a Ubuntu ISO from a server at Georgia Tech. Average speed at the end of the download was above 14Mbps on a 16Mbps connection -- a roughly 90% 'efficiency rate'. Seeing as how Ethernet itself has about a 90% efficiency rate, I'd say that's pretty darn good. Oh, and this was around 6:30PM... a.k.a. 'peak time.' Oh, and I've tried this on several occasions, different days, different hours... +14Mbps average on each and every download.

Who knows... maybe, just maybe, I am the only cable customer to get the advertised speeds. Who knows!?!

bolt
Former Broadband Exile
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN
·Sprint Mobile Broa..

Re: So...

Personally, I wouldn't know. Insight wanted $9000 to run the cable a half mile down the road to me. But, I've had friends who were getting just barely over dial up speeds in the evenings. It was bad enough and consistent enough that they switched to DSL. At least it was close to it's advertised speeds.
russotto

join:2000-10-05
Collegeville, PA

The shills are out in force today.

If people wanted an Internet connection that they could use for email and light web surfing, even dialup would do.

Complaining that any application which actually attempts to use the bandwidth advertised is abusive or destructive is missing the point. The only reason such applications cause problems is because Comcast is unable to provide what they are promising.

Boogeyman
Drive it like you stole it
Premium
join:2002-12-17
Huntsville, AL

Re: The shills are out in force today.

And thats what the issue really is. Some people like to think that its thier network they can do what they want. Well, we give them money to let us access the network, and we agree to follow certain guidelines and they agree to provide some sort of service. Nowhere does it say that I cant use what I am paying for for extended periods of time.

Say you buy a performance car, do you think it would be ok for someone to say "Well, heres your 300hp car, but, you can only use those 300 horses for the first 20 seconds of your drive, if you continue to try and use all your horsepower, we'll cut the fuel to half the cylinders so you can only get 150hp.

Remember, *I* am paying them for my internet connection, not my neighbor. If I decide to max out my connection for a day and my neighbor suffers, then he needs to take it up with the ISP because I am only using what I paid for. If they want to sell us both 6/768 connections, awesome, but then they cant make us share an 8/1 connection and hope that we arent using it at the same time.
Skippy25

join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Re: The shills are out in force today.

You may want to read your TOS a little closer because in many different ways it does say you can't use it that way.

LeftOfSanity

join:2005-11-06
Felton, DE

Lol...

Why do people insist on calling people who disagree with them shills?

How do we know the people on the other side of the issue aren't shills for competing ISP's?

Let it go...
majortom1029

join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY

hmm

Comcast should do what Cablevision did. Make the top tier docsis 2 or 3 so that anybody who wants to run bit torrent will be on a seperate network.

Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
·Cox HSI
·Verizon FIOS
·Cox VOIP
·ViaTalk
·RoadRunner Cable
·MegaPath
·Verizon west (ex G..
·Time Warner VOIP


1 edit

Just implement upload caps

A 'reasonable' upload cap of 5 or 10GB a month wouldn't affect 99% of users, in the meantime it would stop the need for all the traffic shaping and slow down BT users who just leave their machines on to serve (which is already an AUP violation). Anyone needing more upload bandwidth should then be able to purchase it. Meanwhile those legit users of BT or encrypted traffic (since traffic shaping all encrypted traffic would be the next step against BT) can conduct their work without being traffic shaped into the ground.

Problem solved.

Otherwise what's next to be traffic shaped? Usenet like Time Warner does? How about VOIP? Streaming video traffic? This is where it starts, but certainly not where it would end.

See 19 replies to this post

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast


1 edit

Ok...

I used to use BT for the random TV show and an occasional movie.
Since it is impossible to keep a ratio that people won't boot you for now, I have moved to other sources.
I guess they accomplished their goal with me, huh?

Thing is, I am still getting my "items", just not over the BT protocol - so, in reality, they accomplished nothing.

The lack of me uploading is more or less ok - no MPAA nonsense.
Pretty soon, even you anti-sharing people will be getting hit when these blocking actions bleed over into whatever it is that you use your fast connection for.

Looking forward to y'all saying it's ok when that happens.
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera

jjoshua
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

Comcast != ISP

Comcast's "network management" breaks the TCP/IP protocol and forges packets.

Comcast needs to stop this practice or stop marketing their service as an ISP.

MalibuMaxx

join:2007-02-06
Chesterton, IN
·Comcast

I agree to a certain extent...

There are legit uses for bittorrent... however, if people would stop using it for the illegal uses we wouldnt have a problem... thats the issue comcast has...

I do not have Sandvine in my area as of yet I dont use bittorrent or any other p2p software.. and i dont plan on doing so...

I use my internet connection to its max quite a bit... I often download about 100-150 GB per month... I am a poweruser that decides to pay for his media and also finds legit ways of accessing it for reasonable if not free services.

What I cant understand though is that Sandvine, from what I have been told, has been known to affect surfing the web as well as legit connections such as vpn and connections to personal servers. Therefore rendering your internet connection utterly worthless for longer than you should have to stand for.

If that is comcasts only issue then they should beable to block bittorrent as well as all p2p software so that others may use their connection for their servers. There are otherways to access media... I dont see the issue.

I would also love to run my own wifi hotspot however, that is impossible to comcast's "invisible" cap... So I don't run one. Compromises are compromises...

Biggielou

@gblx.net

Re: I agree to a certain extent...

No matter how you spin it. You take copywrited stuff and distribute it, that is stealing. Comcast is just trying to protect their investment. No different that any other business.

jjoshua
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast

Re: I agree to a certain extent...

said by Biggielou :

No matter how you spin it. You take copywrited stuff and distribute it, that is stealing. Comcast is just trying to protect their investment. No different that any other business.
That's like saying 1 + 1 = Banana.

It makes no sense.

MalibuMaxx

join:2007-02-06
Chesterton, IN
I didnt know FREEware was stealing...

haha 1+1=bannana... nice...

exocet_cm
In memory of dadkins
Premium
join:2003-03-23
New Orleans, LA
clubs:

"We look forward to responding to the FCC inquiries"

And if I was inquiring you could look forward to a boot in your ass.

Glad I don't have Comcast.

gatorkram
Spelling and Grammer impared
Premium
join:2002-07-22
Winterville, NC
clubs:
·Embarq
·linode

The problem.....

Think of the problem like this...

A gas company sells gas by the gallon, and you have to pay the fee before you pump it.

The gas company has a few pumps at first, and pretty much everyone who pays for their gas, gets it before the gas runs out.

As the gas company gets bigger, and more popular, they add more and more pumps, and more and more people are using the pumps. Slowly more and more people aren't getting all the gas they pay for, and more and more people are getting almost no gas at all.

Who is to blame?
--
Give me bandwidth or give me death!
»/testhistory/661871/4f240

goofy01

join:2004-02-05
Hammond, IN
·Comcast

Re: The problem.....

Your comparison is wrong, since in this case, everyone pays to use the pump, not how much they get. Your comparison is for paying by the byte plans.

What if the gas company has someone come in that has built a hugh storage tank next door to the pumps, and this person runs a hose from the pumps straight into his tanks (which are as big or bigger than the company's tanks). This means that since he is constantly pumping, no one else can get gas, but charges everyone the same price for turning on the pump, not how much you pump. Then who is to blame.

Boogeyman
Drive it like you stole it
Premium
join:2002-12-17
Huntsville, AL

Re: The problem.....

At first you would think the individual doing the pumping would be at fault. But if you think about it longer...

If they didnt want to allow that, they'd just tell him he cant use the pump anymore.

They could have built stronger pumps to handle the load.

What you are suggesting is that we continue to allow that gas station to tell everyone that they can get a flow of 1.5gpm, out of all 12 pumps at the same time, with only using a 6gph pump.

Remember, they advertize "Blazing fast 8/1 connection" (or whatever), not "Blazing fast 8/1 connection unless some of your neighbors are also using thier blazing fast connections"

b frank

@comcast.net

Re: The problem.....

the fine print also say the spped are not Guarantee and speed may vary. not sure what part of that people dont understand. i dont know one company that will Guarantee speed
Jerkface

join:2005-06-05
Washington, NJ

Comcast Customers

have any of you tried to get comcast to suspend RST packet forging by calling customer care? Now THAT would be a funny conversation.

Just think...haha
tigernike23

join:2006-03-26
Decatur, IL
·Comcast


1 edit

Re: Comcast Customers

nah, when they take over my market.... if they do the same thing to mine. i'll threaten to sue (and I may) for false advertising. This is no different than when a medicine like Vioxx, goes wrong. bittorrent is required for my one of my college courses. i have money and i can get a lawyer, and i'll be more than happy to take on Comcast. anyone want to help me make it class action status?

anonimoose

@bell.ca

comm channels

When I went to school (which was a while ago) a cardinal
rule of designing communication channels (the Internet is
one of these) is that they are not sensitive to the content.
Otherwise it would be possible to unintentionally change
whatever is affected by the content, by merely "saying the
wrong thing". The Internet is designed to be agnostic in
this respect, for just that reason.

Nobody in their right mind would say Bittorrent itself is or
should be illegal. Like guns, it doesn't break the law.

Users do.

If an ineffective attempt at say, gun control, catches a lot
of innocent owners in its net, well, some would argue less
easily detectable guns are needed. Others would say, fire
the gun dealers for being complicit in such a bad scheme.
Others would say, fire the politicians who made the bad
laws. But nobody would argue that it's the gun's fault!

The use of bittorrent for breaking copyright laws is a
symptom. The disease, in my opinion, is at least as much
the law as it is people who break it. But targetting
bittorrent is like targetting IP. Or TCP. Sure, it was
probably used in some way in 9-11. So let's get rid of it.

The Internet's value is proportional to the number of its
users. When China censors it, we all suffer. Just as we
all suffer when Comcast censors it.

"It's the information that makes the country strong."
-Lenny Bruce

WhatsThePoint

@ca.us

Duh

If you can't download torrents, all you need is $19ish DSL to read emails and surf the net. It's plenty fast to handle CNN video downloads, etc. If Comcast wants people to pay $45-$60 for their "highspeed" service, they should not limit or interfere with downloading from the newsgroups or from torrent sites.

Also, as to the argument about software like uTorrent being "servers", I'd disagree. You have server software and client software just like FTP. I don't see torrent software as servers any more than I view a client ftp program being a server when it shares a file.
Forums » FCC Asks Comcast About Traffic Shaping


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