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News & ArtsThursday, January 29, 2009
Teh Internets Watch Comcast Watch You
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Remember this and this? The Federal Communications Comission busted Comcast last year for limiting peer-to-peer network traffic, but they're allegedly still doing it. Cox Communications said yesterday that they will delay P2P and software downloads. That's why it's nice that Google and two nonprofit partners have teamed to let us plebs test our providers.
Google Inc. and two nonprofit partners Wednesday launched a Web site that lets consumers test their Internet connections to reveal possible interference and traffic management by service providers.The site, Measurement Lab, addresses a need among academics who want to gather data on how Internet connections work in practice. While the workings of the core Internet "highways" are well known and standardized, it's difficult to find out what happens on the network of an Internet service provider, between the "highway" and the customer's home.
Internet service providers say they increasingly find it necessary to act as traffic cops on this stretch of the Internet to make sure that heavy users don't slow down their neighbors' connections. But the traffic management systems can have unintended consequences, and ISPs have been secretive about their workings for fear that subscribers will circumvent them. The Federal Communications Commission sanctioned Comcast Corp. last year for secretly stifling one particular form of traffic without telling subscribers.
Here is the site. I tried to go there, but their servers seem to be overloaded or something. Apparently no one trusts their ISP. Weird.
Via Forbes.com
1
The big lie is that currently the biggest use of bandwidth is no longer P2P "file downloads" but video streaming.
And who stands to lose when people start watching all their television from the Internet using sites like Netflix WatchNow and hulu.com ?
Yep...Comcast! So, this is a case of letting the foxes guard the chickens. Switch to Clear Wimax and get the cable barons off our backs!
And who stands to lose when people start watching all their television from the Internet using sites like Netflix WatchNow and hulu.com ?
Yep...Comcast! So, this is a case of letting the foxes guard the chickens. Switch to Clear Wimax and get the cable barons off our backs!
3
I personally would rather stick with companies that try to guarantee a quality of service with my http requests when all my neighbors are downloading a big Microsoft patch. And doesn't Clear Wimax use cell phone towers? I'd much rather have my 911 calls get through when my neighbors are downloading their patches as well.
But that's just me.
But that's just me.
5
Clearly,
Trust me downloading is using more bandwidth than video streaming. I was downloading a complete BBC series via BitTorrent and getting 1.7 MB/s down and sending about 250 KB/s up. That completely saturates the line. Very few people are going to hit that via streaming. And I sure would have hated to be anyone else on my cable link.
Limiting bandwidth isn't the end of the world, and is probably needed. I have no problem with throttling back the heaviest users, as long as the throttling is protocol agnostic. That was the issue that Comcast previously had. They were trying to only throttle P2P, which is wrong. But if you are saturating a line, and others need to use it, you should be throttled back.
Of course this is why HD Streaming is a long way from taking off. We just don't have that kind of bandwidth available.
Trust me downloading is using more bandwidth than video streaming. I was downloading a complete BBC series via BitTorrent and getting 1.7 MB/s down and sending about 250 KB/s up. That completely saturates the line. Very few people are going to hit that via streaming. And I sure would have hated to be anyone else on my cable link.
Limiting bandwidth isn't the end of the world, and is probably needed. I have no problem with throttling back the heaviest users, as long as the throttling is protocol agnostic. That was the issue that Comcast previously had. They were trying to only throttle P2P, which is wrong. But if you are saturating a line, and others need to use it, you should be throttled back.
Of course this is why HD Streaming is a long way from taking off. We just don't have that kind of bandwidth available.
6
@1 Because clearwire doesn't filter packets and prioritize ports at all? They are the worst about it, when I had clearwire the only ports that weren't throttled down were 80 and 443.
7
Is it odd that every time I am using a bit torrent client to download something my internet connection stops working?
8
@3. How about companies actually invest in their infrastructure to keep up with demand and justify the ever-increasing bill I receive each month? But hey, it's cheaper to just throttle the 10mbit connection I paid for down something much lower if I actually start using that 10mbit.
9
JD,
How does it stop working? If you over saturate your upstream bandwidth, you will kill your downstream as well. it's best to limit how much you are sending up. I found about 250 KB/s works for me.
Or is your internet going out some other way?
How does it stop working? If you over saturate your upstream bandwidth, you will kill your downstream as well. it's best to limit how much you are sending up. I found about 250 KB/s works for me.
Or is your internet going out some other way?
10
I should point out that this is Cox Cable (where my brother works), not Comcast. In the article.
Even if now both firms spy on you.
Even if now both firms spy on you.
11
@9
My internet just stops working. My computer still shows that I am connected. The only way to get reconnected is to unplug my modem (comcast cable internet) wait a couple of minutes and plug it back in. After that things are working perfectly, at least for a little while.
I limit the upstream to 100 kb/s.
My internet just stops working. My computer still shows that I am connected. The only way to get reconnected is to unplug my modem (comcast cable internet) wait a couple of minutes and plug it back in. After that things are working perfectly, at least for a little while.
I limit the upstream to 100 kb/s.
12
@8 When you compare broadband access today to broadband access 10 years ago, it looks like companies are investing in infrastructure. The problem isn't that companies aren't investing enough--it's that applications expand to occupy everything that gets built. Just look at iTunes, VOIP, movies on demand, etc. Every year sees more high bandwidth applications coming online.
13
JD,
I have something similar happen but only when I connect to certain torrent trackers. If you are using a router of some kind, go into it's setup and try to release and renew the IP. If you are connected directly to the modem, do the same thing on your PC. I bet you come back with an IP of 0.0.0.0. I still haven't figured what causes this, though my reliable torrent trackers don't cause the problem. Also, if you catch the problem quick enough; you tend to fix it just by releasing and renewing the IP.
For a quicker fix, you can do this. Unplug the ethernet from the modem. Reset the modem. Plug the ethernet back in. Reset the modem again. release and renew an IP address again. You will find that you will be able to get one quickly.
I have something similar happen but only when I connect to certain torrent trackers. If you are using a router of some kind, go into it's setup and try to release and renew the IP. If you are connected directly to the modem, do the same thing on your PC. I bet you come back with an IP of 0.0.0.0. I still haven't figured what causes this, though my reliable torrent trackers don't cause the problem. Also, if you catch the problem quick enough; you tend to fix it just by releasing and renewing the IP.
For a quicker fix, you can do this. Unplug the ethernet from the modem. Reset the modem. Plug the ethernet back in. Reset the modem again. release and renew an IP address again. You will find that you will be able to get one quickly.
14
@8 It's impossible to expect the cable companies to actually provide the full bandwidth 100% two everyone who pays for it. 99.9% all that extra bandwidth would sit idle. They spend a lot of time figuring out what they need to provide to keep the service up in most situations.
It's the same everywhere. If every cell phone user in Seattle suddenly decided to make a call at once time, they'd start failing. Same with the landlines.
It's the same everywhere. If every cell phone user in Seattle suddenly decided to make a call at once time, they'd start failing. Same with the landlines.
15
On the one hand, it's annoying to have your bandwidth choked off so you can't download movies off p2p servers. On the other hand, it's really fucking annoying to have your bandwidth choked off because every other motherfucker in your dorm is simultaneously downloading movies off p2p servers.
16
I think people also need to understand something about P2P, especially Bittorrent. Using a program like Bittorrent opens up a pile of ports in a sort of "pending" state on your router. Even if your ISP is not throttling your torrents, it's possible that your poor little domestic router is getting killed by having to remember so many open port requests at once. I got a home router that allowed me to do some configuration / customization and reduced the number of ports that remained open waiting for replies, and it helped tremendously. Before that, I could actually watch the memory in my router just go down to nothing, which bogged the thing down to a crawl.
(Router: Linksys WRT-54GL with DD-WRT Firmware installed. Do some google searches! Learn more!)
(Router: Linksys WRT-54GL with DD-WRT Firmware installed. Do some google searches! Learn more!)
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