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Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic
    #7550823 -

October 22, 2007, 9:41 pm
Comcast: We’re Delaying, Not Blocking, BitTorrent Traffic

By Brad Stone

Tags: BitTorrent, Comcast, piracy

Last week, the folks at cable giant Comcast asked for more time to give a nuanced response to a report that the company was blocking some peer-to-peer traffic on its network. The public relations staff at the Philadelphia company seemed genuinely baffled by accusations that it was interfering with file-sharing applications like BitTorrent and Gnutella. They stubbornly insisted that they did not monitor or block any Internet traffic – despite strong evidence to the contrary.

Today, Comcast tried to do a bit better – while sticking to its guns. “Comcast does not block access to any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent” read a written statement. “We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications.”

Speaking on background in a phone interview earlier today, a Comcast Internet executive admitted that reality was a little more complex. The company uses data management technologies to conserve bandwidth and allow customers to experience the Internet without delays. As part of that management process, he said, the company occasionally – but not always – delays some peer-to-peer file transfers that eat into Internet speeds for other users on the network.

The executive declined to talk in detail about the technology, citing spammers or other miscreants who might exploit that knowledge. But he insisted the company was not stopping file transfers from happening, only postponing them in certain cases. He compared it to making a phone call and getting a busy signal, then trying again and getting through. In cases where peer to peer file transfers are interrupted, the software automatically tries again, so the user may not even know Comcast is interfering.

The executive also noted that peer-to-peer network users represent a minority of Comcast customers, but that they use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.

And that was about the extent of the explanation.

It seems unlikely that Comcast has a secret agenda to shut down file-sharing applications and combat piracy on its network. But the company is clearly trying to have it both ways. It claims it is a neutral Internet service provider that treats all packets equally, not blocking or “shaping” its Internet traffic. Meanwhile it also positions itself as the champion of average Internet users whose speeds are being slowed by file-sharing.

The result of that discrepancy is that Comcast has a major public relations problem on its hands. In the absence of a transparent explanation about what the company does to disadvantage certain applications in the name of managing traffic on its network, anecdotal reports and conspiracy theories are filling the vacuum.

nytimes.com


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Republican Values:

1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you.
2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child.
3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer.

4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7551124 -

from what i read, they are using technology to break into the p2p stream and send a ghost signal that appears to come from one user to the other to cancel the download.......

harsh


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PEACE

:mushroom2:zippoz:mushroom2:



"in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption"

"People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7551284 -

This is messed up, since there ARE legitimate applications for torrents.

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7551913 -

it happens to me all the time. that shiz is so true. i cant seed for more than 2-3 hours before i have to unplug/reset my router. only after i use bittorrent.

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7565582 -

IN August, Comcast denied accusations that it was purposely disrupting file-sharing among its customers, but reports of stymied traffic — particularly from people using the popular BitTorrent protocol — have continued.

Late last week, The Associated Press reported (news.yahoo.com) that Comcast “actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online.” Peter Svensson of The A.P. wrote that the practice was “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider.”

This week, the company told Brad Stone of The New York Times in a statement that it “does not block access” to any applications, but that it does “use the latest technologies to manage our network” to ensure quality of service to its customers (bits.blogs.nytimes.com).

But an anonymous Comcast executive admitted that in some cases peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic like that generated by BitTorrent, is delayed, though not blocked. But Dave Burstein, the editor of DSL Prime, is among those not persuaded. “Comcast has definitely been blocking BitTorrent in some circumstances,” he wrote (dslprime.com).

The A.P. confirmed the interference by conducting nationwide tests of Comcast’s network. “If widely applied by other I.S.P.’s,” Mr. Svensson said, the practice could strike “a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks.”

BitTorrent, though still often used for illicit sharing of copyrighted material, is increasingly used by media companies to distribute legitimate files.

But copyrights are not Comcast’s concern in this case — bandwidth is. Its interference “appears to be an aggressive way of managing its network to keep file-sharing traffic from swallowing too much bandwidth and affecting the Internet speeds of other subscribers,” Mr. Svensson wrote.

The practice plays into the debate over “net neutrality” — whether Internet service providers should be allowed to choose which traffic they carry. “Not only does the company have a major P.R. disaster on its hands, but it has in a matter of days become the poster child for net neutrality,” wrote Chris Soghoian of CNET (cnet.com).

Lawyers “are circling the water,” Mr. Soghoian wrote. “They can smell blood.”

nytimes.com


--------------------
Republican Values:

1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you.
2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child.
3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer.

4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7565594 -

Don't most people who use Commiecast do so because it's their ONLY choice?

Comcast gives me much lower bandwidth than advertised but I have no other options.

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Middleman]
    #7568605 -

Yeah, I was quite pissed off when Time Warner moved out and made me go with Comcast. They traded the Houston market so they could have the rest of the state.


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I keep it real because I think it is important that a highly esteemed individual such as myself keep it real lest they experience the dreaded spontaneous non-existance of no longer keeping it real. - Hagbard Celine

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7568614 -

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies'"power to discriminate against content."

They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.

"The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers 'a solution in search of a problem,'" they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman.

A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.

An Associated Press report on Oct. 19 detailed how Comcast Corp. was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP found instances in some areas of the country where traffic was blocked or delayed significantly.

Comcast — the nation's No. 2 Internet provider — has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users.

Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident."

AT&T reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of Internet users who disparage the company.

Several lawmakers, including Dorgan, earlier this year introduced so-called legislation promoting "Net neutrality," which is the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers.

Equal treatment of traffic is long-standing practice on the Internet. The legislation is a response to suggestions by phone companies that they would like charge Web sites extra for preferential treatment of their traffic.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC.

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&feed=ap&src=601&news_id=ap-d8shgp580&date=20071027


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I keep it real because I think it is important that a highly esteemed individual such as myself keep it real lest they experience the dreaded spontaneous non-existance of no longer keeping it real. - Hagbard Celine

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Re: Comcast Shaping Torrent Traffic [Re: Diploid]
    #7569364 -

Quote:
the company told Brad Stone of The New York Times in a statement that it “does not block access” to any applications, but that it does “use the latest technologies to manage our network” to ensure quality of service to its customers (bits.blogs.nytimes.com).


My understanding is that they (Comcast) inject TCP reset packets to both ends of a connection if the data appears to be torrent related. When either side's OS receives the TCP reset, it hangs up on the other. In essence, it is a denial of service attack. It "does not block access", but instead it tricks both sides into thinking the other went away... which is, more or less, blocking access by removing the road as soon as the trip starts rather than putting up a road block to prevent the trip from starting.


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Just another spore in the wind.

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