For weeks, our Mediacom forum has been filled with complaints about a sudden inability to use p2p applications; complaints mirrored by users in our Insight broadband forum and by users over at the official Bearshare forums. Tech support for both ISP's have suddenly become unable to offer help on a bizarre p2p blockade, and neither ISP has been able to provide adequate answers to the growing legions of irritated users.

Many users who have called Mediacom for assistance have been told the problem was with their equipment (bad modem, bad router, human cabling error). But after jumping through the typical first level hoops and getting no help, users descended on our forums and noticed they weren't alone.

As the p2p website Slyck points out, the only thing the two ISP's share is the use of AT&T as their Tier 1 backbone provider. With file-trading the unspoken bread and butter of many carriers, a sudden ban on the practice is highly unlikely.

Mediacom's Vice President of IP Communications, JR Walden, assures users that while they might forward DMCA warnings, Mediacom does not block the use of P2P applications. "We have received a lot of complaints out of southern Illinois and we are trying to figure it out," he says.

"Also, not all P2P applications are being affected. For some, BitTorrent may not work, however FastTrack may work fine. What we are also seeing is that some people in the same geographical area experiencing no P2P problems."

While many users wonder if this is a new policy position by AT&T, it's likely a limited networking issue caused by flaky hardware somewhere on AT&T's network.