AP reports Comcast Interfering with P2P File Sharing

[thecoalman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_hi_te/comcast_data_discrimination

NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.


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Comcast's technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user.

Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye.

And so it begins, I know comcast and other providers have tried blocking services like VOIP in the past but this is little different. They are not outright blocking but actually injecting data into the communication mid stream.

[guns1inger]

Quite a few low cost ISPs over here throttle or block standard P2P traffic, however actually interfering with the data traffic is low, and also calls into question the validity of any traffic flowing across their network.

[thecoalman]

It can even get lower than that, not sure where this went but from back in June:

Texas based ISP Redmoon has implemented software that hijacks pages being visited by their customers by placing Redmoon’s own ads on these pages.

The technology is provided by NebuAD, which boasts that ISP delivered advertisements are an untapped source of revenue.

Every single web site owner is affected by NebuAD’s technology: whether a site is running ads or not makes no difference, Customers of any ISP evil enough to run NebuAD’s platform are going to see ads on every page on every site; ads that don’t benefit the content creator. It is important to note that these ads are NOT pop-ups, and this is not a free internet service; the ads are served as if they were part of the page, to paying internet customers who are NOT made aware that these ads have been inserted by their ISP.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/23/real-evil-isp-inserted-advertising/

Haven't heard anything since then but if this becomes mainstream its my intention to redirect any traffic from ISP's using such technology to a page with a big giant arrow pointing to the ad explaining they cannot access the content because of the ad injection.

It's time the public received an education on net neutrality.

[jagabo]

This may be new to Comcast but it has been going on elsewhere for a few years now. Most of the bittorrent clients have already added encryption to get around it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_protocol_encryption

[thecoalman]

I wouldn't know because I don't utilize any P2P, there are occasions it would have been handy but I have server space if I need to send someone a large file so it's really not an issue for me.

I know one thing, if i was utilizing such software it would be for legitimate purposes and I wouldn't be too happy about being restricted from using it.

[AlecWest]

I read a similar article earlier today in The Iconoclast blog:

http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9800629-38.html?tag=tb

I have no idea whether anything he says is true. But reading that blog article came at an auspicious moment. Every six months or so, I shop around for auto insurance rates to see if I can find a policy cheaper than my current insurer. I'd just completed doing that when I read the article. This time around, my current insurer is safe (grin). But reading the article reminded me of my own suspicions that Comcast is throttling my FTP uploads and downloads.

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But reading that article at that moment reminded me that it had been a long time since I shopped around for Internet providers (grin). So, I decided to look around ... and may be glad that I did. I found a wireless Internet provider about 11 miles from my house. Speedwise and pricewise, they blow Comcast out of the water. BTW, the reason I know they're 11 miles from my house is because I did a "driving directions" search on MAPS.com ... since I plan to be visiting this ISP soon so I can ask certain questions face-to-face with a customer service rep.

Regards,
J. Alec West

[thecoalman]

But reading the article reminded me of my own suspicions that Comcast is throttling my FTP uploads and downloads.

Can't say I have any problems with that, I frequently upload large video files to my server and the speeds usually meet or exceed the limits of my plan.