comcast

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released an open-source, cross-platform program designed to track your packets and determine if your ISP is throttling your connection to torrents, VoIP, and other legal, high-bandwidth consuming communications. Called "Switzerland" and licensed under the GPL, it's very much in an alpha state and is only a command-line tool at the moment. Also, you're going to have to compile it yourself--that's not the most challenging task, but this isn't a simple self-extracting app.

According to the EFF, Switzerland works by spotting IP packets that have been forged or modified between … Read more

Let me see if I've got this right. Federal regulators determined on Friday that Comcast broke the law by slowing Internet traffic for subscribers using BitTorrent to swap large files with other people. But then the FCC decided it was enough to issue a press release declaring the victory of the rule of law and now it's time to move on.

Not a penny in fines was assessed and not the slightest penalty suggested.

OK. Post-Enron, post-Bear Stearns, post the subprime debacle, I'm long past being surprised by big corporations trying to cover their posteriors for posterity. … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission came down hard on cable operator Comcast when it said its network management practices were illegal. But what will the FCC's move mean for the rest of the industry and the ongoing debate over Net neutrality?

It's still too early to say exactly what the long-term affect will be. Policy wonks from the phone companies say the decision puts to rest any notion that Net neutrality legislation is needed, but Net neutrality proponents believe that a legal challenge from Comcast will necessitate the need for laws that make it clear the federal government has … Read more

Federal regulators voted 3-2 on Friday to declare that Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent traffic last year was illegal. It's the first time any U.S. broadband provider has ever been found to violate Net neutrality rules. But it's not an open-and-shut case. Though Comcast has since stopped the practice, it's unclear whether the FCC actually has the authority to rule on this kind of issue. CNET News' Declan McCullagh stops by to explain the implications.

Also on Friday's podcast: Yahoo shareholders finally get their say; a California judge says early-termination fees for wireless plans are … Read more

Federal regulators voted 3-2 on Friday to declare that Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent traffic last year was unlawful, marking the first time that any U.S. broadband provider has ever been found to violate Net neutrality rules.

The Federal Communications Commission handed Comcast a cease-and-desist order and required the company to disclose to subscribers in the future how it plans to manage traffic. Comcast had said that its measures to slow BitTorrent transfers, which it voluntarily ended in March, were necessary to prevent its network from being overrun.

"We need to protect consumers' access, said FCC Chairman Kevin … Read more

Kevin Martin, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is drawing fire from economic conservatives over his plan to declare that Comcast violated the law when throttling BitTorrent last year.

The vote is expected at a FCC meeting (PDF) on Friday morning. It promises to be a landmark one: this would be the first time the commission has ruled on a Net neutrality violation. (An earlier one was settled without a formal ruling.)

Martin's intra-party backlash started on Wednesday with an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that started with this uncomplimentary paragraph: "Bad personnel decisions have … Read more

On this week's EIC Squared podcast ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss Dell's ambitions to get into the crowded music player industry, Microsoft's interesting focus group with Vista and how the broadband wars are shaking out.

Dell might make another attempt at bringing a music player to market. With DRM unraveling, Dell doesn't need to beat iTunes, just offer a relatively cool and cost effective listening device that accesses multiple music services via Wi-Fi. Microsoft has a perception problem with it comes to Vista. That is well known, but it may not be because the … Read more

I remember a time in business when we were told that the customer is always right. Sure, they may not have the greatest grip on the reality of the situation and they may misunderstand things every now and then, but when it's all said and done, they're supposed to be happy.

But in today's world of lawsuits and overzealous attorneys, it's quite apparent that ISPs couldn't care less about customer happiness and would rather perform acts that are suspect, to say the least.

Case in point: The FCC said on Wednesday that Comcast illegally interfered with file-sharing activities on its service and by slowing down BitTorrent traffic, failed to act within the auspices of the law and its agreement with customers.

"Our network management practices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and . . . we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services," Sena Fitzmaurice, a spokeswoman for Comcast told the Washington Post.

But were the company's practices reasonable? That's debatable. But one thing is abundantly clear: ISPs have lost all value in customer relationships and over the past few years, have shown their severe distaste for consumers.… Read more

New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's recent threats of adopting unspecified "legal remedies," potentially including criminal prosecution, against Comcast apparently worked.

Comcast responded this week by saying it signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuomo's office. United Online's NetZero also signed an agreement that deals with Usenet, the pre-Web collection of discussion groups.

Cuomo, a Democrat, is pitching these agreements as a way to reduce the amount of child porn on Usenet. His latest prepared statement: "I commend the companies for working with my office to aggressively eradicate online child pornography and strongly … Read more