Cox: BitTorrent interruptus?
The public drubbing Comcast has received for interfering with BitTorrent uploads may not have been enough to stop other ISPs from doing the very same thing. The Associated Press reported today that a new study by the Max Planck institute found that Cox, a major cable operator, appeared to have taken a page from Comcast and was sending reset packets to disconnect BitTorrent uploaders. Of the 151 computers on Cox's network that ran the institute's test, 82 were blocked (you can read about the methodology here). That's 54%. The only other U.S. ISP to have such a high percentage of blocked uploads was Comcast, where 62% of the 788 hosts were blocked, the AP reported.
The study also found that Comcast, which had said it slowed BitTorrent uploads only during peak traffic times, appears to be interfering with BitTorrent uploads at all hours of the day and night. But then, Comcast's tune has changed considerably over the past few months, and it now seems eager to play nice with BitTorrent (umm, by the end of the year, that is). Anyway, the first note of outrage in response to the Planck study came from the Open Internet Coalition, which has been lobbying Congress in favor of Net neutrality regulations. Not surprisingly, the coalition's executive director, Markham Erickson, said the results show that such regulations are, in fact, needed. Here's the money graf:
“Contrary to what the cable industry has said before Congress, Comcast’s action in blocking legal peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent is clearly not an isolated case. This new study shows that the threat to the open Internet is not isolated to one company’s network, but endangers access by a wide group of Internet consumers across the country."
Subscribe to this Blog - What is RSS?
Don't believe everything you read. I tried to replicate the German claims and find that BitTorrent works fine on the Comcast network. Granted, my personal experience doesn't represent scientific data, but I welcome others to try the same test and show their data. The Germans are measuring the wrong thing, actually.
http://bennett.com/blog/index.php/archives/2008/05/15/is-comcast-still-really-blocking-bittorrent/
Posted by: Richard Bennett | May 15, 2008 at 01:53 PM
I played house-sitter for my sister and her pets over memorial day weekend, and I could not download a single thing using bittorrent (I was trying to download a copy of someone's home-made internet movie about fishing). Completely blocked by COX, at 2am on Friday of the Memorial day weekend (I seriously doubt there were tons of people at home downloading at 2am, to justify blocking traffic). So I got in my car, rode 2 blocks to my house, and downloaded the movie fine from my COX connection. It has remained blocked at the other house since then, completely unable to use Bittorrent ever, whereas I have free unrestricted access just down the road where I live. Apparently they are selectively blocking only specific neighborhoods, and completely allowing others....
"Cox denied that protocol filtering amounts to discrimination of any specific services."
Except that at my sister's house, she is still completely blocked from ever using Bittorrent, and only Bittorrent in any shape or form, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Posted by: Daemon Opus | June 10, 2008 at 05:46 PM