Associated Press Confirms That Comcast Blocks Some BitTorrent Traffic; Despite Comcast Denials
from the someone's-not-being-totally-honest-here... dept
Back in August, there was a report that Comcast was throttling certain types of BitTorrent traffic making it difficult to impossible to seed a download. In response, Comcast vehemently denied this was happening, despite many people saying they were experiencing it. Specifically, Comcast 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." The EFF went and spoke with Comcast and got the same story. However, with so many people reporting the same thing, some were wondering how truthful Comcast was. Now the Associated Press has done their own investigation (trying to transfer the Bible since it's in the public domain) and found that Comcast is clearly blocking the ability to upload completed files via BitTorrent, inserting a message to a computer trying to upload a file pretending to be from the downloading computer, telling it to stop sending. This seems to go against what Comcast originally said, though when the AP asked for a comment, Comcast subtly changed its story. Rather than saying it doesn't look at applications or content, now it says: "Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent." No, it doesn't block "access" but it does limit the functionality greatly (including perfectly legitimate uses of BitTorrent) without letting people know about it.
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Filed Under: bittorrent, traffic shaping
Companies: comcast
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And this is a surprise why?
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Re:
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Follow the Money
Our government's job is to protect businesses (big contributors) rather than citizens. It's not "we the people" anymore. It's "follow the money".
Just look at how political campaigns are covered in the media - mainstream and otherwise. They cover elections as though they were sporting events. A candidate is only as serious as the money they can raise. It's not about their ideas anymore.
And nary a complaint from the citizens about this sad state of affairs. Most buy in, or simply ignore the whole scene.
And down the tubes goes our Constitution, and our country's future with it.
"A republic," as Ben Franklin said, "if you can keep it."
Maybe we can't.
If you think this is an over-reaction to an article about Comcast, you are mistaken. The Comcast situation is just one tiny section of a much larger picture. Look around with open eyes.
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I don't understand what the attempted reasoning is about how this is not blocking access. What do you mean that they don't block but instead 'limit functionality greatly'? This isn't throttling, Comcast fakes a message to induce both sides of the transfer to terminate their connections. This is as close to blocking access as it gets. Do they mean that customers are not blocked access to run the application binaries even though the network communications these binaries make are blocked? Do they mean that they do not institute blocking 100% of the time?
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Re:
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from the article
If there were competition this wouldn't matter. But my only options for internet when I move into my apartment will be dial-up and $52-dollar-per-month Comcast.
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No great surprise
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P2P will evolve.
VPN the transfers and the handshaking. Only leave peer discovery traffic open for Nazi-ISP packet inspection.
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Re: P2P will evolve.
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Comcast response to my whining
service.
I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.
Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent.
We respect our customers? privacy and we don?t monitor specific customer
activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as
which websites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any
individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.
We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good
experience online and we use the latest technologies to manage our
network. This is standard practice for ISPs and network operators all
over the world.
We rarely disclose our vendors or our processes for operating our
network both for competitive reasons and to protect against network
abuse.
If you have any more questions feel free to reply to this e-mail, or you
can chat with one of our Online Customer Support Specialists 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week using the following link:
http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat
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Re: Comcast response to my whining
CHAT DIALOG
user Me_ has entered room
Me>Clarification on Bit Torrent Issue
analyst Comcast has entered room
Comcast>Hello Me_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Monica. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Comcast>I am sorry Me.
Comcast>I am not sure I understand your question.
Me_>Can you please explain, from Comcast's side, what is the policy on bit torrent traffic? Does Comcast perform deep inspection on packets? What does Comcast do exactly to not 'limit access' but slow bit torrent traffic?
Me_>It has been all over the news.
Me_>about comcast and bit torrent traffic. I just wanted an explanation of the policy.
Comcast>Me Comcast does not limit access.
Comcast>Where did you read this?
Me_>http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13717
Me_>http://www.techspot.com/news/27530-comca st-uses-dubious-tactics-to-halt-p2p-traffic.html
Me_>Just google bit torrent and comcast
Comcast>One moment please.
Me_>There are over 300 articles from the last 2 days on google news.
Comcast>I am sorry Me I am technical support. I would not be able to comment on the validity of these articles. I have always been advised that we do not limit access.
Comcast>I will see if I can find you some contact information.
Comcast>One moment please.
Comcast>One moment please.
Me_>Could you send me to someone to explain the policy, and what is going on?
Comcast>I can give you the link to the service agreement.
Me_>I have it in front of me.
Me_>I understand no limiting of access, and by the letter of the law you are right.
Me_>But I wanted to know about the policy with bit torrent and whatever comcast is doing.
Me_>Here is good one from the Associated Press. There are a pretty legitimate news organization. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxRiQSVfgK4sLbVRE_X4MOlM9q0AD8SCGPQO0
Comcast>I have no information on this subject. I do not know that we have a policy on this. Bit Torrent is not a Comcast product.
Comcast>I have no control over these published articles.
Comcast>Not everything you read on the internet is true.
Comcast>Me, I will suggest that you contact your local office and request a manager.
Me_>How can what you say be true, when everyone else is saying something different?
Comcast>You will be able to find the closest Comcast local office by visiting Comcast.com and completing following steps:
Click the Customer tab at the top of the page.
Select "Payment Centers".
You will be prompted for your address information.
Me_>I just wanted an explanation.
Comcast>This is why I am not able to comment.
Comcast>This is beyond the scope of my position.
Me_>Can you get me someone in scope?
Comcast>Please contact managment for your local area.
Comcast>Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me_>you didn't really help me with anything yet. but no there is nothing 'else'.
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Re: Re: Comcast response to my whining
Now reading that, one line from that person disturbed me;
"Comcast>I have no control over these published articles.
Comcast>Not everything you read on the internet is true."
The way the person said it just sounded like a threat.
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Re: Re: Re: Comcast response to my whining
I just want them to own up to what they are doing. I am already switching to Verizon because of this.
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Comcast to FIOS
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Comcast & Co. also blocking inbound traffic
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Other...
- I am using too much bandwidth
- During a high-peak usage time.
If I'm using a lot of bandwidth out-of-hours and it isn't affecting anything, leave me alone. If I'm using too much during a high usage time, throttle my connection so it doesn't affect everyone else. Waiting all month and then giving me a warning if I do it again means everyone else has to suffer a poor connection for two months (right?). So we know that can't be how they really deal with it... they wouldn't let one user make everyone suffer for two or more months when they could just shape traffic.
Further, this doesn't only affect "bit torrent" usage, but what about World of Warcraft and other games/applications which RECEIVE THEIR PATCHES VIA BUILTIN TORRENT CLIENTS?!
For that matter, what if I'm not using bit torrent, but I'm uploading a large file to my own remote server via FTP or SSH or SCP or something?! Why can't I do this? What business is it of theirs?!
This is why we need the protection of net neutrality. They're ALREADY treating various bits of data differently and this bit torrent blockage will affect users of very valid services, such as the upcoming commercial-based legitimate bit torrent pay-per-use services. What's to stop them from deciding to screw with traffic that comes from my auction site, but not eBays (as long as ebay pays them, of course)?
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Why is everybody so surprised??
http://www.meltedmetal.com/scorch/save-net-radio/
http://www.meltedmetal.com/
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They chose their words carefully
Now that I'm on FIOS, what a difference! I get full download speed, and I now have many remote connections along with my local connections.
Now, read the fine print on some of the last posts. Comcast says that they don't block applications, including BitTorrent and other P2P applications. That's true, BUT see how cleverly they chose their words? But they DO "hinder" P2P applications by sending both peers the "stop transmitting" bit to stop the connection between two clients, or severely slowing their speeds. It's nothing more than carefully choosing their words to keep themselves out of hot water.
Choosing their words carefully is the same as a car dealer commercial telling you that ALL credit applications will be accepted! Well D U H!!! Of course all applications will be accepted. That's law. Where they're confusing you is not all applications will be APPROVED, but they won't tell you that. It's a ploy to get you in there and buy a car because you didn't totally think about the difference between the words "accepted" and "approved". See the carefully chosen words there?
I'll never go back to Comcast again. Their level 2 techs had less intelligence than I have, and I've been working on computers for 20+ years. I had an issue that they would not agree with me on, so I just gave up and went to FIOS. Showed them, huh? LMAO!
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not an opinion
and I seed/leech torrents like there is no tomorrow. never saw a problem. No encyrption turned on, no SSH tunneling unless i have to get around corporate VPN(s).
Whats the deal? Maybe they are only blocking it in certain areas? I didn't know they denied it, months ago the reports were confirmed by Comcast that they were using it and they even said what software they used
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Not a surprise, whatsoever
The fact that Comcast just expected people to not notice shit like this is retarded, do they think their customers are all dumbass soccer moms who just "wanted the internet for my AOL?"
Fuck Comcast, I hope they tank.
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how can the see encrypted traffic?
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The Cure For It All
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Re: The Cure For It All
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