Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.
The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.
If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.
The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called "Net Neutrality" by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.
Comcast's interference, on the other hand, 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.
Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator and No. 2 Internet provider, would not specifically address the practice, but spokesman Charlie Douglas confirmed that it uses sophisticated methods to keep Net connections running smoothly.
"Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent," he said.
Douglas would not specify what the company means by "access" — Comcast subscribers can download BitTorrent files without hindrance. Only uploads of complete files are blocked or delayed by the company, as indicated by AP tests.
But with "peer-to-peer" technology, users exchange files with each other, and one person's upload is another's download. That means Comcast's blocking of certain uploads has repercussions in the global network of file sharers.
Comcast's technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user.
Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."
Matthew Elvey, a Comcast subscriber in the San Francisco area who has noticed BitTorrent uploads being stifled, acknowledged that the company has the right to manage its network, but disapproves of the method, saying it appears to be deceptive.
"There's the wrong way of going about that and the right way," said Elvey, who is a computer consultant.
Comcast's interference affects all types of content, meaning that, for instance, an independent movie producer who wanted to distribute his work using BitTorrent and his Comcast connection could find that difficult or impossible — as would someone pirating music.
Internet service providers have long complained about the vast amounts of traffic generated by a small number of subscribers who are avid users of file-sharing programs. Peer-to-peer applications account for between 50 percent and 90 percent of overall Internet traffic, according to a survey this year by ipoque GmbH, a German vendor of traffic-management equipment.
"We have a responsibility to manage our network to ensure all our customers have the best broadband experience possible," Douglas said. "This means we use the latest technologies to manage our network to provide a quality experience for all Comcast subscribers."
The practice of managing the flow of Internet data is known as "traffic shaping," and is already widespread among Internet service providers. It usually involves slowing down some forms of traffic, like file-sharing, while giving others priority. Other ISPs have attempted to block some file-sharing application by so-called "port filtering," but that method is easily circumvented and now largely ineffective.
Comcast's approach to traffic shaping is different because of the drastic effect it has on one type of traffic — in some cases blocking it rather than slowing it down — and the method used, which is difficult to circumvent and involves the company falsifying network traffic.
The "Net Neutrality" debate erupted in 2005, when AT&T Inc. suggested it would like to charge some Web companies more for preferential treatment of their traffic. Consumer advocates and Web heavyweights like Google Inc. and Amazon Inc. cried foul, saying it's a bedrock principle of the Internet that all traffic be treated equally.
To get its acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved by the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T agreed in late 2006 not to implement such plans or prioritize traffic based on its origin for two and a half years. However, it did not make any commitments not to prioritize traffic based on its type, which is what Comcast is doing.
The FCC's stance on traffic shaping is not clear. A 2005 policy statement says that "consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice," but that principle is "subject to reasonable network management." Spokeswoman Mary Diamond would not elaborate.
Free Press, a Washington-based public interest group that advocates Net Neutrality, opposes the kind of filtering applied by Comcast.
"We don't believe that any Internet provider should be able to discriminate, block or impair their consumers' ability to send or receive legal content over the Internet," said Free Press spokeswoman Jen Howard.
Paul "Tony" Watson, a network security engineer at Google Inc. who has previously studied ways hackers could disrupt Internet traffic in a manner similar to the method Comcast is using, said the cable company was probably acting within its legal rights.
"It's their network and they can do what they want," said Watson. "My concern is the precedent. In the past, when people got an ISP connection, they were getting a connection to the Internet. The only determination was price and bandwidth. Now they're going to have to make much more complicated decisions such as price, bandwidth, and what services I can get over the Internet."
Several companies have sprung up that rely on peer-to-peer technology, including BitTorrent Inc., founded by the creator of the BitTorrent software (which exists in several versions freely distributed by different groups and companies).
Ashwin Navin, the company's president and co-founder, confirmed that it has noticed interference from Comcast, in addition to some Canadian Internet service providers.
"They're using sophisticated technology to degrade service, which probably costs them a lot of money. It would be better to see them use that money to improve service," Navin said, noting that BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer applications are a major reason consumers sign up for broadband.
BitTorrent Inc. announced Oct. 9 that it was teaming up with online video companies to use its technology to distribute legal content.
Other companies that rely on peer-to-peer technology, and could be affected if Comcast decides to expand the range of applications it filters, include Internet TV service Joost, eBay Inc.'s Skype video-conferencing program and movie download appliance Vudu. There is no sign that Comcast is hampering those services.
Comcast subscriber Robb Topolski, a former software quality engineer at Intel Corp., started noticing the interference when trying to upload with file-sharing programs Gnutella and eDonkey early this year.
In August, Topolski began to see reports on Internet forum DSLreports.com from other Comcast users with the same problem. He now believes that his home town of Hillsboro, Ore., was a test market for the technology that was later widely applied in other Comcast service areas.
Topolski agrees that Comcast has a right to manage its network and slow down traffic that affects other subscribers, but disapproves of their method.
"By Comcast not acknowledging that they do this at all, there's no way to report any problems with it," Topolski said.
other info
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/01...g-bit-torrent/
To add to our pleasure, we learned today that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finally taken notice of Comcast's indiscretion as well. According to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a group of consumer advocates and legal scholars have asked the commission to look into Comcast discriminating against specific types of data (read: Bit Torrent). The groups have also requested the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 per affected subscribers. In case you were wondering, at last report, Comcast has 9.1 million subscribers.
We don't really think Comcast will be forced to fork out the projected $1.77 trillion, but we do hope they get scraped through the mud on this one. They completely disregarded their entire customer base and should receive far more than just bad press as a result of this. If you are a company and you're going to filter network traffic, be transparent and disclose it up front. If not, be ready to pay up to Mr. Martin.
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Comcast has mostly stopped the throttling of torrents but they still degrade the service for users who use the connection a lot, so if you constantly surf the web, play multiplayer games, download music and and watch videos on line, you may notice that your connection doesn't feel as fast as it used to. Thats comcast throttling your connection for pretty much all bandwidth intensive tasks. your speed test wont change but your connection will feel sluggish.
so your connection may be able to download at like 15mbit but bandwidth intensive sites or other programs or services may only manage like 5-8mbit/s regardless of server load
PS the info shown on the vuze site may slow down torrents, 40 connections per torrent it not enough.
Since i have a good modem and a wrt54gl with tomato firmware (which allows me to do crazy things like do 8000 connections with out lagging it or crashing it)
torrents where many users are complaining about going like at 10KB/s I will crank the connections up to like 800-1000 in some cases and I will hit a good 500-600KB/s (and thats on a torrent that like 100 seeders and like 15000 leechers.
since in these cases many users will have a low bandwidth cap, a crap load of users uploading to me at 1-2 KB/s adds up, if you have a low connection limit then you have to hope that a few of the 100 you connected to have a really good upload. and didn't cap it,
a high connection limit increases the odds of 1 of the 800 or so people uploading to you really fast and it also further increases the speeds by having those that only manage to upload to you at like 1-2KB/s to add up and give you a overall good speed. you just have to make sure your networking equipment can handle the connections, if you make too many connections for your networking hardware to handle, the torrents will slow down and your overall ping will skyrocket (even if your upload and download is not maxed out)
PS when I tested the stock linksys firmware a while back, 500 connections made the internet nearly impossible to use, and with my old actiontec modem/router, if I use the verizon firmware then even 100 connections would e a problem, and with the generic firmware made by actiontec was used instead of the bloated verizon crap, I can do around 400 connections easily before the router ran out of memory.
with my linksys wrt54gl, I am currently getting a ton of anime and other stuff and am pushing nearly 5000 connections mainly because many of them are nearly dead with the classic, 4-5 seeders and like 10000 leechers with heavily capped uploads and constant complaints of users only getting like 1-2KB/s, (the internet is working fine only a slight slowdown, and my pings are still good (the QOS is doing most of the work in this area) )
and since the 3rd party opensource firmware that I'm using is very lightweight and efficient, i still have resources to spare
if you have time, test to see what your connection can handle, download some HD anime or entire series, then test the connections, try 100, then 200 and so on, work your way up until you get to a point where your connection becomes very laggy and unresponsive then back it off by about 100-150 connections
(you need well seeded torrents when it comes to finding your networking hardware limit)
09-27-2009, 02:08 PM
Linear Mode
