p2pnet - rss feed: Canadian ISPs vs BitTorrent
p2p news / p2pnet: More Canadians are noticing ISPs such as Rogers are using bit-shaping applications to throttle BitTorrent traffic, says TorrentFreak.
"But, at the same time two of the most popular Bittorrent clients are working together to implement header and message stream encryption in order to take out these traffic shapers," says the post, going on:
"Currently both Azureus and µTorrent included this new form of encryption (specs) in their latest Beta’s. The fact that these two clients are actively working together to implement this new feature is promising and will make this form of encryption the new standard since the users of these two clients cover the majority of all Bittorrent users."
TorrentFreak says two ‘encryption modes’ are available: plaintext transmission and RC4, each offering different degrees of protocol obfuscation, security and speed.
"Where the plaintext mode only provides basic anti-shaping obscurity, no security and low CPU usage the RC4 encryption obfuscates the entire stream and not only the header and adds some cryptographic security at the price of spent CPU cycles," says the story.
But, "Does it work? and how effective is it?" - asks TorrentFreak, noting, "If it works it will definitely offer a great solution to all Bittorrent users who suffer from traffic shaping ISP’s."
BT creator Bram Cohen, "reacted quite negatively on these new developments," adds the story.
"He questions the need for encryption since only a few ISP’s are actively shaping traffic. Among other things he also fears incompatibility between clients and increased cpu usage. Although these arguments can be countered quite easily, developers should keep them in mind."
Also See:
TorrentFreak - Encrypting Bittorrent to take out traffic shapers, February 6, 2006
February 6th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Dumping the Canadian ISPs should teach ‘em a lesson. I mean there’s must be one or two not doing trafic shapping. They ought to learn they need to be on the side that is paying for their services, not the recording labels or movie studios.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
This would be the simple solution if there were more competition in the ISP industry. The market would make clear that customers want raw internet without interference. ISPs would not be able to get away with the “shaping” or their new prioritization schemes.
The problem is that in most places there are only two broadband choices at best, cable and DSL, and in some locations only one. And ISPs are consolidating as big companies buy up the locals.
I don’t know about the equivalent of an FCC in Canada, but both countries need the some consumer protections like the “net neutrality” rules now proposed in Congress in USA. The telcos are lobbying against this of course.
– jen_eric999
February 6th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Because the telcos can’t maintain a monopoly on local copper connections, there are hundreds of broadband ISPs in Canada, and the vast majority do not throttle traffic in any way.
In fact, the cable co’s are being forced to open up their network to third party ISPs as well.
So, competition is definitly still a factor in Canada despite what some would have you believe.
BTW I think putting a crypt layer into BT clients is a great idea to nip the idea of ISP/backbone throttling right in the bud. Don’t forget, soon it won’t be your ISP doing the throttling, it will be the backbone provider doing the funny-business (see a recent article about some delusional ATT exec thinking he will traffic-shape his pipes because commercial websites aren’t paying him directly for every packet. BTW web servers DO pay their own way since they also have to connect to an ISP and pay for bandwidth.)
February 6th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Thanks for the information. My comment above (saying lack of competition can make it hard to switch) was based on experience in USA (and reports of users nationwide).
Clearly this is one way in which Canada is better off. It’s too bad we can’t pry the local copper loose from the big telcos in USA - competition would be good for everone except certain companies.
February 7th, 2006 at 12:02 am
So props to Azureus and uTorrent for fixing a real problem.
February 7th, 2006 at 12:27 am
Bram Cohen reacting negatively to new BT client features is a bit like Og, the caveman who invented the wheel, critcizing people driving luxury SUVs for speeding.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:14 am
“Dumping the Canadian ISPs should teach ‘em a lesson. I mean there’s must be one or two not doing trafic shapping.”
Thankfully there are two high speed internet providers where I live and thus I have at least a little bit of a choice. Both only started offering internet services several years ago in my area, and the one I’m currently using isn’t the one doing packet shaping thankfully. I download lots of legitimate stuff via bittorrent; World of Warcraft updates for example, the occasional Linux distro, free and perfectly legal music and especially videos, freeware/shareware, and several podcasts just a few hours ago.
Hopefully my ISP doesn’t suddenly decide to start doing packet shaping, or impose any other kinds of limits on the “unlimited” bandwidth I signed up for so long ago. The problem with Shaw, and why I didn’t go with them when they finally started offering internet services here, is because of all the bad things I heard about them from friends in other cities. Like how they over-sell and can’t meet capacity for one, and how your connection isn’t dedicated like it is with DSL. I did try Shaw a few years ago because they are always advertising (including annoying phone calls) how much faster they are than “phone lines”, but mostly because it was totally free for the first month thanks to a special offer. I thoroughly tested their service over the course of several days, and it was far slower than my ADSL connection (the capacity of which was recently increased not too long ago, along with a nice price drop). Latentcy was pretty bad by comaprison as well. I gave back their modem and got rid of the service long before my free trial period was up lol. The last of my family and friends (a friend specifically) is now on ADSL, having recently left Shaw. I’m the go to guy for help when someone is have PC trouble. the amazing thing is that I didn’t really influence any of them, they switched on their own for the most part. Really says something about Shaw, doesn’t it?
Sure, there is always the chance my provider might start using packet shaping technology in the future, but I don’t think it will be for a long time. They have always been good about this sort of stuff as far as I know, and I also think the number of customers they have to tend to is far lower than what Shaw has (a good thing). Still, it’s nice to know someone out there cares enough to take steps to help try and prevent such obvious and blatent abuse of customers, and that an option will be open to me should the worst happen. I feel sorry for the ones who don’t have a choice at all, and I have no doubt there are a lot of folks out there that fall into that category.
“They ought to learn they need to be on the side that is paying for their services, not the recording labels or movie studios.”
I totally agree with you on this point. I wonder how long it will take providers to realize this for themselves though. They have to stop being afraid, and it’s fear that is motiviating them I think along with a healthy dose of greed. Maximize profits, minimize risks. Customers have to stop being consumers, being seen as nothing more than cash cows, and stop letting their providers walk all over them if they are in the position to do so. Sadly, some aren’t and likely won’t be for a long time considering how slow internet services take to penetrate new areas. It took a long time where I live for example, and I’m in a medium sized city even! It’s going to take time and patience more than anything, but eventually they’ll have to start listening to us again when we are the ones holding the leash once more. Make no mistake, our time will come around again.