Comcast, Traffic Shaping, and the FCC

Internet Service Provider Comcast has changed its Terms of Service, this change is the first in over two years. Section III in the Terms of Service now includes policies on Traffic Management.

Quote:

Comcast uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards." The company points out that it is not alone in the practice, saying that "all major" ISPs engage in some form of traffic shaping. Comcast does it to keep its subscribers from suffering the heartaches of "spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service" and to "deliver the best possible Internet experience to all of its customers.

Source: ArsTechnica

This however, did not come by until a recent investigation by the FCC which the issue was brought up by the Associated Press, and reconfirmed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Quote:

Comcast has been "caught" blocking BitTorrent traffic in some areas, according to tests performed by the Associated Press. The news organization claims to have confirmed that Comcast is blocking—or at least seriously slowing down—BitTorrent transfers, regardless of whether the content is legal or not. If true, Comcast's actions have serious implications for sharing information online, and by proxy, Net Neutrality.

This was originally sent as a tip by Vuze Inc, some the developers who made Azureus, the open source bit torrent client. This of course is in direct conflicts to thier company.

The Conclusion.

So now after some serious uproar about Comcast's Data Discrimination.
Yeah I said that right, and I know it may sound a bit funny, but its not funny anymore when your business relies on your internet traffic and then is given a side seat to someone elses. Comcast is hoping its fancy buzzwords are simply overlooked by thier ignorant customer; after all, Comcast is counting on each and every user NOT to use the entire 3 Megabits per second they payed for. For thier studies show only about half or less is in reality used. Thus, allowing the company to over sell the same tier to thier customers in a community. More profit for them, worse connection for you. But..., what about the 5 percent of customers who do use thier entire 3 Mbps. The whole pipe as you may say. Comcast knows that demographic is usually P2P traders and bittorrent users, the leeches of the network. Leeches or not they still pay for it. So in order to prevent the "heartaches of network congestion."

Quote:

Comcast has denied throttling BitTorrent traffic, saying that the ISP just "delays" or "postpones" it on occasion. One analogy used by a Comcast executive was that of trying to make a phone call and getting a busy signal for a time, until the call actually goes through. A more accurate explanation of Comcast's use of TCP reset packets, to build on the phone analogy, would be talking on the phone with someone and then both of you hearing the other's voice saying "hang up." That's the effect of the forged reset packets: convincing the BitTorrent clients that the other(s) have stopped responding.

If I was a comcast customer I would be very pissed, for those of you who are. You may weigh in on the proceedings to the the FCC on this issue. You have until Feb 13 to use the Electronic Comment Filing System for comment on WC Docket no. 07-52.



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