Comments on: Net pioneers trash Comcast's P2P traffic treatment

Noted MIT computer scientists tell FCC broadband operators must be more open about limits on users' network habits and shouldn't resort to hacker-like controls as remedies.

[Joe Nova]

goes to show a symptom of a much bigger problem

I like so many internet users was a former comcast subscriber that used the service to its full capacity until the day I received a threatening phone call from a man that claimed he was from the comcast abuse department. I recieved a phone call from a Comcast abuse department rep saying that they have been monitoring my bandwidth usage and would like me to "limit my downloading" which I politely asked what is the cap or limit and the rep told me that their is no limit and argued back that there had to be otherwise I would not be getitng this phone call.
He in turn explained that if I didn't stop, my service will be cut off for a year and this would be my first and only warning. I in turn responded back that I'm not going to stop, not to threaten me, it's deceitful what they advertise, and to kinda go **** himself. I also let him know that I am under contract for one year, and I am recording this entire conversation.
Sure enough within a few weeks without warning, my service was cut off.
Made to switch to Verizon DSL and the first thing I asked was do they provide a bandwidth cap limit and the rep said no they do not and I asked them to put it in writing which they did.
I am actually thinking about filing a class-action suit against Comcast for this decietful business practice because apparently, I am not alone and have been talking to other Comcast subscribers and recently I have also posted a video message on YOU TUBE warning others about this. Any ideas?

[Kimsh]

"Full capacity"

As a comcast customer who likes to do things like XBox live and other games, I am glad you are gone. Constantly loading the network with as much traffic as you can is not normal home use to me, and I am glad that I can get to use the service I pay for rather than losing out to unregulated bittorrent use.
Yes bittorrent is an eficient way to move large files, and yes it also consumes as much bandwidth as it can get. That is shared bandwidth, consuming all you can get at all time is not sharing.

[krosavcheg]

What to do

Start with a complaint to the Attorney generals office in your state. They will have a complaint form on their web site. That forces a VP of some type at comcast to respond to the issue to both you and the AGs office.

[McPlot]

Tell the truth!

Come on all you whiners. Tell the truth! You are using Bit Torrent to send and receive illegal content over the internet. Pirated movies in HD, full software downloads, music, and anything else you can steal. Why should my legal use of the internet be bogged down because you choose to break the law? Most of you are not even at your computers when Comcast does anything. It only happens during uploading without downloading. This means, you have bit torrent running, but you are not at home. You have your computer open so more people can steal movies, games, software, music, etc. I have Comcast and I support them in doing this. If you have Comcast and you are breaking the law and are mad at them for making it take more time for you to break the law, then get another ISP. Nothing is stopping you from going to DSL, except the fact DSL already disconnected your service for the same reason.

[sipos]

Comcast is acting out of its scope

Comcast is not a law enforcement agency. It is an ISP and as such should limit it self to what it sells-ISP. When we sign up for Comcast we sign up to get internet service not a pay for a law enforcement or/and cenzorship agency.
We are paying taxes for having law enforcement agencies dealing with illegal activities. Comcast is not one of it. You are not in the position and don't have the data to claim that Comcast is right because everybody else is breaking the law.
If somebody wants to start a class action suit aganst Comcast I will gladly join it.
This is a country of laws to be enforced by the government we are electing and paying for. We don't want a self righteous corporatocracy to take upon it self the functions of the government. We are paying Comcast for ISP services It should limit it self to that function

[spruceman]

Tell the Truth????

That's as unfounded as assuming that anyone who puts more than 50,000 miles a year on his automobile is using it to make drug-running trips from Mexico. There are plenty legal bitrate-intensive applications that folks might want to do. As examples, a travel hobbyist paying a mapping/air photo service $1,000 or more a year to download 100 Gb/month of their product, or someone sick of the fare on regular cable tv preferring to shell out $25 a month for the Christian programming on Sky Angel's IPTV service. And there are LEGAL movie downloading services that compete with Comcast on Demand...reckon the competition is more likely to get the ax. Time for Comcast to go deeper into the neighborhoods with fiber or even emulate Verizon's efforts.

[Stormspace]

What about me?

I stream music off my home server, use vnc, and other remote access applications. All of these are legal....

I guess what you are saying is that as long as it doesn't impact you, you don't really care.

[da cyka]

you are wrong generalizing all bit torrent users

Dude, what you are saying is wrong.. A lot of legit versions of
software installation are being distributed via Bit Torrent nowadays.

[hpbills]

BitTorrent speed on Comcast

As a Comcast subscriber, I can attest that any BitTorrent downloads attempted at any time of day run close to the speed of a 56k dial-up line. Everything else is speedy.

I don't participate in uploading or illegal use of the utility. But I generally refrain even from legal use of the application because it runs so poorly over my internet connection.

[lrreynolds]

Not sure it's only BitTorent...

I had to cancel my Comcast service because although it is
supposedly 2-3x faster than my DSL service it would not allow me
to successfully video chat (using IChat). Comcast never could
explain why this application would not run properly so I reluctantly
returned to using DSL that although slower for downloads works
well when using an interactive two way application like video chat.

[abbottpark]

Slowing down certain kinds of traffice

Right they are slowing down certain kinds of traffic. If you try to download any type of bittorrent file it fails. They don't want you to do anything with audio or video or download any files. Only surf the net.

[EricTetz]

Red herring

"David Reed, an MIT professor who's considered to be an Internet engineering pioneer, said Comcast's behavior makes him especially 'uncomfortable' because it involves both deep packet inspection, which poses privacy concerns, and injection of forged reset packets, a disruptive tactic that makes a message appear to be coming from someone it's not."

That may fool the judge, but I doubt he actually believes that. Virtually all big companies use layer 7 routers which require deep packet inspection to work, and which routinely alter and/or outright synthesize ("forge") packets such that they "appear to be coming from someone they're not" for routing/firewall purposes.

I use file-sharing software myself, and I hate the idea of *my* bandwidth being restricted, but I also hate the idea of trillions of dollars in network infrastructure being brought to it's knees by people downloading illegal copies of bad pop music and porn, so I'm sympathetic to Comcast as well.

[akayanni]

I've got an idea for Comcast...

Save bandwidth by blocking advertising. No one important (customers) will be too upset.

Yani

[eyemahsource]

Bill for quantity not speed

ISPs should just change their billing from "speed tier" to "quantity of
packets delivered up and down".

If the power company charged for voltage instead of kilowatt hours
we'd leave everything on and scratch our heads when the voltage
dropped.

Spammers go for a free ride on this abberated billing model. Dormitory teams running bittorrent 24/7 go for a free ride on this
billing model.

There are caps on quantity but ISPs don't make this transparent.
This is in small print if you care to look.

A network that charges for quantity will be motivated to gear up to
deliver more quantity and do so with acceptable speed, which speed
encourages more quantity of use to charge for.

Who says the person downloading a high def movie every day
should pay the same as a person who turns off the graphics and
surfs text only?