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p2pnet news | P2P:- “Do ISPs filter Internet traffic?”
It’s a rhetorical question, and this time around it’s on Italy’s Gemini Project.
Does Howdy Doody have wooden eye-balls?
Some providers are (either openly or secretly) applying “traffic shaping” policies, tracing their users’ bandwidth usage and intervening directly to limit their transfer speeds, notes the site.
Comcast is currently in the public eye for messing with customers, but it’s happening everywhere, and p2pnet was the first to reveal a P2P Bell-Sympatico P2P Blacklist in Canada.
“In the States,” we posted, “users have people trying to look after their rights and interests, but there’s no one doing that in Canada,” going on, “If you’re signed on with Bell-Sympatico and you’ve been unsuccessfully trying to coax a little more speed out of your suddenly sluggish computer; or, if you’ve been calling Bell-Sympatico support only to be told it’s not them, it’s you —- it isn’t you, says Ottawa Gal. Because here, “Bell-Sympatico is now following the Rogers lead,” she states. “It’s traffic shaping and throttling.”
Bell-Sympatico said it was taking action against ‘network abusers’ and performing ‘Traffic Management during periods of peak usage’, she said, but since Bell-Sympatico “didn’t or won’t” explained in detail why, how, and exactly who is affected, it was left to her to go into detail.
Following the p2pnet revelations, the company issued a script representatives are supposed to follow when they’re talking to unhappy customers who want out of their contracts.
Are YOU being traffic-shaped?
Proving the existence of file-sharing filters can be difficult, say the Gemini folks, especially if you’re looking for evidence on a single computer.
But the process gets easier if a test is run on two remote whose users are exchanging given data packets through a P2P protocol, it says, going on:
“By comparing what one end of the connection has sent to what the other end has received, one can see if the content has been blocked, delayed or forged by providers.”
To produce evidence of traffic shaping, the developers have come up with two ‘Live’ operating systems designed to connect with one another online, to start a BitTorrent transfer, and to record the transmission, “after which it will generate a report containing the analysis of the traffic.”
Who can benefit?
“Every user can get Gemini ISOs and perform the test with a remote friend, if his machine meet the requirements.”
Head over to the site for chapter-and-verse (we used Google for the translation) and for now, on information about Gemini principles >>>
- Guide: How can I tell if an ISP obstructs traffic P2P?
- Detecting packet injection: a guide to observing packet spoofing by ISPs Detecting packet injection: a guide to observing packet spoofing by ISPs
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_shaping Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_shaping
- http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs Http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs
To run a test, download Gemini_A.ISO and Gemini_B.ISO and then burn them
“You need to have an x86-architecture PC (no 64-bit hardware, no ultraSPARC, no Macintosh),” say the Gemini developers, going on:
“You need to have a modem / router connected to the network card (no USB, no Wireless), which you must disable NAT and Firewall upon, if previously enabled. The modem / router need to be configured so that the IP got from the provider is routed directly on the network card.
“Please note that not all the modems / routers can be configured this way. Typically, there’s a feature called Half Bridge that can be enabled from the device’s web interface and that sets the machine automatically.
“The Half Bridge is available under other names, depending on the producers: ZIPB - Zero bridge IP, DHCP spoofing, DHCP-to-PPP spoofing, IP etc extension.”
Stay tuned.
Also See:
messing with customers - Comcast paid seat hogs in FCC hearing, February 27, 2008
p2pnet - Bell Sympatico P2P Black List, November 3, 2007
supposed to follow - Bell-Sympatico P2P throttling: more, March 25, 2008
incurred substantial fees - New win for Tanya Andersen against RIAA, January 17, 2008
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March 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Among major US Telcos, neither AT&T nor Verizon throttle
or shape p2p traffic. But as for cable companies, it’s a different
story. Comcast, Cablevision, RCN and Adelphia all prevent
seeding, while Time Warner throttles both BitTorrent and NNTP
(Usenet) traffic.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Hey, I can’t find any other way of contacting you, but can you do a story about this: http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html
Feel free to delete this comment when read.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
CableOne claims to have bandwidth restrictions after 2 gigs is downloaded but it’s solely for bittorrent applications. After the two gigs, and a bittorrent client is still running, they start to reset your connection constantly. They claim to cut your speed in half also, not the case. Just solely for bittorrent applications.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
In the US comcast just limits the upload speed to 40KB/s. I discovered this when I used a bit torrent app to download a ~400 MB mod for one of my games.
For those who say might be just pirating some random data, it was the Pirobi mod for a game called “Stalker: shadows of Chernobyl”. The torrent was found in the forum belonging to the creators of this game.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Xfire, WoW’s updater, and a lot of other legit programs use bittorrent to deliever updates or other types of information.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
@ Ryan Scheel
Already done > http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15345
But thanks.
Cheers!
March 26th, 2008 at 5:56 am
I am not a Bell customer, I am paying for bandwidth with another ISP, yet Bell decides to slow me down.
Jon, could you cover this story?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080325.wgtinternet26/BNStory/Technology/home
it is also on Arstechnica.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:15 am
For starters, go here http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15395 and follow the story links.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Jon, what is missing from your story is that Bell is throttling INDEPENDENT providers. You don’t have to be a customer of Bell to be throttled.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
“Jon, what is missing from your story is that Bell is throttling INDEPENDENT providers. You don’t have to be a customer of Bell to be throttled.”
===
Refer to:
1. Price- and bandwidth fixing? Competition fixing? http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15361
2. Bell-Sympatico P2P throttling: more http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15383
3. Bell-Not-So-Sympatico: throttling P2P http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15395
Jon covered this story (and more) before it hit the news. He saw it coming a mile away and was the first to report it.
It builds upon, Bell Sympatico P2P Black List http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13883
Here is more to make you giggle:
p2pnet talks to ISP TekSavvy http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13958
Big Brother Sympaico http://www.p2pnet.net/story/9205
Maybe a new story could be the Bell users cancelling their phone, TV and internet services in disgust and actually switching to teksavvy now in protest!
If you have more to add or a different take. Let him know….
March 26th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Also, “Some loyal members of Teksavvy have banded together and created a make-shift mission control website of information on this incident. www.freeourbandwidth.com ”
Feel free to give them the links in the previous post.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
“He saw it coming a mile away and was the first to report it.”
Actually, Ottawa Gal saw it coming. All I did was publish her research, and was glad to do so
Cheers!
March 26th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
March 28th, 2008 at 3:11 am
Apparently, Verizon has been working with a company called P4P to make filesharing more cost efficient, while allowing users to continue filesharing with little or no trouble.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/24/verizon_p4p_filesharing/