Saturday, October 20th 2007

Comcast Actively Interferes With File Sharing Services

Comcast, one of the largest providers of cable television and internet in America, decided recently that they were fed up with the huge amount of file sharing traffic on their network, which was beginning to affect the speed of other users connections. And so, they've snuck a little code into their cable internet services. Subscribers of Comcast can download all the BitTorrent/P2P content that they desire without a problem. However, when they in turn try to upload it to other BitTorrent/P2P users, Comcast forbids the file transfer from completing. Whether this is done via hardware or software is unclear. Regardless, this certainly puts a damper on file sharing. While this does stop potential pirates in their tracks, an independent film maker or artist hoping to share their content via BitTorrent will have to find a different service provider to share their content on.
Source: DailyTech
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26 Comments on Comcast Actively Interferes With File Sharing Services

#1
Homeless
Comcast is an awful isp anyway
Posted on Reply
#2
hv43082
Yup, they are lil bitches. I "shared" MS Office 2007 and got a warning email from them. :nutkick:
Posted on Reply
#3
AsRock
TPU addict
They been fine to me. BUT i am always careful when i need a tech out and get them to a free to send one for free if i know the problem is not at home.

How ever what i have been disliking is the price increases all the time.

As for P2P GOOD i don't mind one bit..
Posted on Reply
#4
a111087
P2P doesn't mean pirating stuff, many demos are being shared through P2P, and many people choose it because they don't want to stand in line on fileplanet :(
Posted on Reply
#5
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Agreed. Not to mention, there is an easy workaround for this, Im sure. Personally, they are here near where I live, but I cant get them because Im past their service area. However, lots of my friends have complained about "throttling" by Comcast...
Posted on Reply
#6
KennyT772
If you use lots of upload bandwidth over a month span they will throttle your connection to half speed, I found that out. other than that I can definatly tell they use this tech in my area as my upload graph shows a constant wave, connection>start sending>cut connection>reconnect.
Posted on Reply
#7
AsRock
TPU addict
a111087P2P doesn't mean pirating stuff, many demos are being shared through P2P, and many people choose it because they don't want to stand in line on fileplanet :(
Never said it was and i was not implying it was either. :roll: BUT as a comcast user that does not need to use P2P due to all being available any other way i don't mind them blocking it.

All so all those 100's or when i did use it my self 1000's of connections cannot do the network any good.
Posted on Reply
#8
corwin155
comcast just a begining ?

as you can tell comcast, and other internet service providers will follow blocking sites that they dont want you on (because they dont get more money)
time to write your congressmen here in the usa to make internet neutrality a law rather then depend on the service providers to give you the bandwidth which you already pay for !!!
Posted on Reply
#9
a111087
corwin155as you can tell comcast, and other internet service providers will follow blocking sites that they dont want you on (because they dont get more money)
time to write your congressmen here in the usa to make internet neutrality a law rather then depend on the service providers to give you the bandwidth which you already pay for !!!
internet neutrality is not a topic here :confused:
this is different problem, but its going to have plenty of unsatisfied customers
Posted on Reply
#10
Ketxxx
Heedless Psychic
America: The Land Of Paranoia.
Posted on Reply
#11
corwin155
it isnt ? ppl pay for bandwidth but comcast is throttling sites or programs they dont get money for so its pretty much the same problem
Posted on Reply
#12
a111087
corwin155it isnt ? ppl pay for bandwidth but comcast is throttling sites or programs they dont get money for so its pretty much the same problem
correct me if I'm wrong, but internet neutrality was about websites paying to IPS's so users of these ISP's will have faster loading times of these websites, thus more visitors will come there because competitors will have slow websites
so it was about more and more money for ISP's for basically nothing
Posted on Reply
#13
corwin155
a111087correct me if I'm wrong, but internet neutrality was about websites paying to IPS's so users of these ISP's will have faster loading times of these websites, thus more visitors will come there because competitors will have slow websites
so it was about more and more money for ISP's for basically nothing
and blocking a program that you use and they dont get extra money from you for isnt the same thing ?
i pay a certain amount for x amount of service , i should get all that bandwidth for what ever i want .
but them blocking bit torrents is a start next they will they will trottle or block other sites they dont get money from except the bandwidth you pay for
Posted on Reply
#14
a111087
ok, good point there.
but if they identify P2P networks as "pirating-only" then it becomes much harder to see the difference
Posted on Reply
#15
corwin155
corwin155and blocking a program that you use and they dont get extra money from you for isnt the same thing ?
i pay a certain amount for x amount of service , i should get all that bandwidth for what ever i want .
but them blocking bit torrents is a start next they will they will trottle or block other sites they dont get money from except the bandwidth you pay for
thus ending net internet neutrality and you pay for only sites where they only let you go , as they get extra money for directing you away from sites or block programs they dont get paid extra for
Posted on Reply
#16
corwin155
a111087ok, good point there.
but if they identify P2P networks as "pirating-only" then it becomes much harder to see the difference
who's to say that sites or programs they dont make extra money off of you , over and above the bandwidth you pay for isnt considerd "pirating" by them
Posted on Reply
#17
Wile E
Power User
I noticed slow uploads earlier. I switched to using the Tor network (google it) to connect to the tracker, and all is normal again.
Posted on Reply
#19
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Will the use of proxy/privacy software like JAP evade this?
Posted on Reply
#20
CrAsHnBuRnXp
HomelessComcast is an awful isp anyway
Its not THAT bad. I have it and dont really have any issues with it. For the longest time, I thought Comcast was capping my connection speed. Come to find out, my brother has been downloading crap that is a couple gigs. Ever since I found that out, my connection has been better because i yelled at him for it. ;)
Posted on Reply
#21
Darkrealms
Reverend_JonesComcast is utilizing a new throttling technology by Sandvine. After a few seconds connected to a peer the Comcast servers send a Peer Disconnect Request to the source breaking the connection. Because this does not directly interact with actual data, the typical method of encryption will not effect this form of traffic shaping.[/b][/url]
Thanks for the info.

My question is, If I'm uploading to my Host for my domain and my website will it attempt to drop those? I'd be pissed. I've already had conversations with Charter (my crappy ISP) about how important my upload is compared to my download.
Posted on Reply
#22
Unregistered
Anyone who likes torrents enough will probably ditch comcast soon, and other isp's are available almost anywhere. I know someone who gets very good download rates from a satellite dish
Posted on Edit | Reply
#23
CrAsHnBuRnXp
bassmastaAnyone who likes torrents enough will probably ditch comcast soon, and other isp's are available almost anywhere. I know someone who gets very good download rates from a satellite dish
My friend was on satellite before he went to DSL and he said it absolutly sucked. Then again, it probably depends on where you are at. He lives out in the boonies where it is hard to get any sort of a connection.

In my area, you have one of two options, one being dialup (yeah right like I want to go back to that) or the second being Comcast (Ill stick with my 6Mbps connection thanks)

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. :banghead:
Posted on Reply
#24
KennyT772
CrAsHnBuRnXpMy friend was on satellite before he went to DSL and he said it absolutly sucked. Then again, it probably depends on where you are at. He lives out in the boonies where it is hard to get any sort of a connection.

In my area, you have one of two options, one being dialup (yeah right like I want to go back to that) or the second being Comcast (Ill stick with my 6Mbps connection thanks)

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. :banghead:
ditto, cept theres dsl in here too. 1mbps dsl or the 13.5mbps cable...
Posted on Reply
#25
newconroer
..but what genuine and sincere 'independant' artist would use a torrent? They are synonymous with piratied material, always have been and always will be.


Why not just make a basic website and advertise like normal people do?


I never have caught onto the concept of uploading something to be file shared.
I can't think of one thing that needs to be on a filesharing network of sorts, except maybe when demos or patches for software is released and the main site(s) it's hosted on, are bogged down with network traffic. But those situations are a miniscule amount compared to illegal filesharing incidents.



If you don't have your own website, then you can setup your own ftp, and failing that, you can upload to a database somewhere.


I think it's a great move on Comcast's part. It's their networks anyways, why should decent paying customers be bogged down, so a bunch of fifteen year old twits can seed and share their bootlegged rippoffed Anime movies?
Posted on Reply
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