Comcast denies monkeying with BitTorrent traffic
Comcast on Tuesday denied rumors that the company is filtering BitTorrent traffic running over its network.
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to distribute large data files such as video. The protocol has been used widely throughout the Internet to distribute pirated movies. And sites that use the protocol have been targeted by the movie industry to stop the illegal distribution of copyrighted video.
Broadband providers have also not been big fans of BitTorrent because the use of the peer-to-peer protocol can clog networks with huge files. The blog TorrentFreak claims that several Internet Service Providers have been "throttling" or limiting BitTorrent traffic on their networks for the past two years. And last week, the blog accused Comcast of going even further to limit the use of BitTorrent on its network.
The blog claimed that some Comcast users had noticed that their BitTorrent transfers were being cut off and that they experienced a significant decrease in download speeds.
Over the past few days, these claims have been widely circulated throughout the Web. But when I spoke to Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas earlier today, he flat-out denied that the company was filtering or "shaping" any traffic on its network. He said the company doesn't actively look at the applications or content that its customers download over the network. But Comcast does reserve the right to cut off service to customers who abuse the network by using too much bandwidth.
So what constitutes "too much" bandwidth? Douglas didn't specify exact figures, but he gave a few examples that would likely get subscribers into trouble. For example, someone who sends more than 13 million e-mails a month, which breaks down to about 430,000 e-mails a day or 18,000 e-mails an hour, would likely get a letter or phone call from Comcast about excessive use. Sending roughly 250,000 photos or downloading more than 30,000 songs a month might also raise an eyebrow at Comcast, he said.
"More than 99.99 percent of our customers use the residential high-speed Internet service as intended, which includes downloading and sharing video, photos and other rich media," he said. "But Comcast has a responsibility to provide these customers with a superior experience, and to address any excessive or abusive activities usage issues that may adversely impact that experience."
In the rare instances the company has to enforce its policy, Douglas said that Comcast contacts subscribers to work out the issue. But he firmly reiterated that the company doesn't filter or throttle back traffic.
The issue of shaping traffic or blocking certain applications is a hot one and goes right to the heart of the Net Neutrality debate, which has been raging for more than a year. Broadband providers claim that their networks have finite resources and they must be allowed to identify traffic in some manner to set quality of service parameters to ensure users get certain levels of service. But consumer advocates say that the network ought to be neutral and traffic should flow freely to ensure that all applications are accessible.
Personally, I can see the merits of both arguments. It makes sense that broadband providers would want to protect their network assets. But it seems like a slippery slope in terms of how far we allow these service providers to go. And I can see why consumer advocates might be concerned that AT&T or Comcast might block applications like Google's YouTube, which could potentially compete with their own services.
There's also the issue of privacy. If operators are identifying applications and protocols to ensure good quality of service, couldn't they also identify the content of my e-mails or see which songs or movies I downloaded?
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
Torrent traffic.
For the past few weeks, whenever I start a torrent download, I
mysteriously lose my internet connection for 5-10 minutes or an
hour or more. Comcast is totally behind this nonsense.
http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5079624.html
I suggest we get wise to paying for explicit amounts of so called "broadband" at a fair price without ANY traffic police, it's stupidly simple to know what you pay for and to keep it within you're paramaters without playing this suckers game
All of my torrents as of late have been Linux distro install images and albums from jamendo.com.
I may be in the minority- but you have to ask- would the MaFIAA rather have stuff pirated, or would they rather have it boycotted? I think they'd rather have it pirated, honestly- same with software like windows. I say spare yourself. It's easier to submit feature requests than screw with whatever dictatorial restrictions mongering the proprietary people try to pull.
ethana2@gmail.com, if you want a hand out of the mess.
The only 'pirated' stuff I download via torrents are TV shows that I miss, and I figure since I am paying for DirecTV and cable, that should justify me downloading the shows I missed. Also in most cases like Stargate SG-1 / Atlantis, I end up buying the seasons. Lost I would download just to watch again the next day at work, and buy the seasons on DVD as well. Shows like Robot Chicken which come on too late on Sunday nights for me to watch, I download as well, have season 1 on DVD and plan on getting season 2 when it comes out in 2 weeks. So where the harm in that?
The one movie I did download was Sunshine and that's because it was not released within 600 miles of where I live... so it was the only way for me to see it. I loved the movie and guess what, when it is released on DVD, I will buy that as well.
But I guess I am a thief who needs to be stopped... cause me paying for cable and DirecTV and buying the DVDs doesn't make up for the fact that I am a god awful bit torrent user who must be stopped.
Direct downloads are a roll of the dice. Most often than not they die at 50%.
I wish I had a non compete agreement with comcast so I could see all data on the network by uncapping my cable modem and see what is really going on. I would make the perfect network police looking for hoggers.
I suspect that perhaps video plays a big part for the bandwidth problems.
Applications like Winamp steaming TV and asias #1 video player is called PPSTREAM is a major bandwidth hog. My main bone with comcast is they don't have enough DNS servers....
HOWEVER...for just $36 more a month and a drop frpm 8M to 6M (I could not afford to stay at 8M) I was allowed to open another account...a business account. This account has unlimited bandwidth, is not monitored by the Comcast gestapo and I haven't been bothered since.
My point is, I did not change locations, lines or networks. I am still depriving my neighbors of their deserved bandwidth and doing all the "wrong things" (in Comcast's view)that I was doing before, but now they get more money and its for a 2 year contract so it is OK with Comcast. They don't care about my neighbors service, only about their bottom line.
But I'm guessing power boost only works if the network traffic isn't heavy.
Anyways, I thought my Motorola Modem docsis 1.1 was limited to 10 megs? So how does a speed boost help? "It will be deployed throughout the rest of Comcast's region later this year and, when available, increase speeds to 12Mbps and 16Mbps."
On their FAQ:
How long does the PowerBoost burst last?
A PowerBoost burst will normally last as long as the 10MB of a file download on Comcast's 6Mbps High-Speed Internet service, and as long as 5MB of a file upload.
But, I just got a email stating the I was doing an illegal download, copyright infringement. So, be careful.
I realize that the nature of Torrent traffic is variable depending on the users, available hosts, etc. But I still feel that Comcast has it out for me and the other BitTorrent users.
The real problem is that the neighborhoods around America dont allow for more than one cable provider, so even if I wanted to switch from Comcast to say Brighthouse (Road Runner), I couldn't. And we all know how much DSL sucks in comparison. This is the real travesty.
Yea, P2P networks are often used to send around pirated movies/music/etc. However, recently I've seen them used to send around legitimate open source software, most recently (for myself) OpenOffice.org for my Macintosh. Grant it, I was highly reluctant to use it simply because it was P2P and has such a bad wrap.
Just because somebody has a DVD writer doesn't mean they're pirating DVDs. Likewise, not all P2P use is for stealing.
Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com
So if Comcast, or AT&T, or others keep putting limits on "unlimited" connections, eventually, there will be a lawsuit, and people will leave, and other companies will get all the leaving customers.
Maybe only set priority for IP-phone. Then regular web. Then let all the other stuff use as much bandwidth as the person paid for until it hurts the IP-phone.
And even if you didn't look at the packets, you can just watch how a clients repeatedly try to connect only to be disconnected within 30 seconds.
Half the time I now have an upload rate of 0-5KB/s
Of course downloads are never close to the advertised rate (when d/l from download, tucows and so on).
Please, this is foolishness.
- Comcast has to be doing something
- by Leria August 22, 2007 7:30 PM PDT
- Comcast has to be doing something. Personally, I am getting the same download rates on Bittorrent when I am download something from someone else as I always got.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (42 Comments)However, when I try to seed something after I am done downloading...... I cannot get a connection to any peers for more than an instant and sometimes not even that.