BitTorrent Friendly Bandwidth Throttler?
Written by Ernesto on September 05, 2006NetEqualizer must have noticed the attention Netenforcer received last week, after they claimed to be the first to throttle encrypted BitTorrent traffic. In a press release they now claim this title, but it looks like a cheap marketing stunt to me.
Netequalizer is a bandwidth shaping device that simply throttles all steady/heavy traffic on a network if the pipes (tubes if you insist) are cluttering. But, there’s more. They claim that the device is even successful in throttling encrypting BitTorrent traffic:
NetEqualizer’s ability to keep BitTorrent traffic in check will not be affected by encryption techniques neither today nor into the future.
But I doubt if these claims are true, perhaps it’s just an attempt to make it to slashdot or digg, and get some new customers.
Why?
1. If you take a look at their website you will notice that the word “BitTorrent” is not even mentioned, not in the product description, and not in their f.a.q.
2. NetEqualizer works like this:
a) Look at all the connections on the network
b) How long has each connection been active
c) How much bandwidth has this connection used since it first started
d) How much bandwidth has this connections used in the last 8 seconds
Then it decides, based on these rules if the traffic should be throttled or not. They claim to throttle connections that use a lot of bandwidth, for a relatively long time. If they detect a connection that meets these criteria, they close it.
Funny thing is that BitTorrent has a lot of open and half-open connections, if one is closed, another one is opened within a few seconds. This connection will then not be throttled until it generated a significant amount of bandwidth, for a relatively long time. This means BitTorrent traffic will be relatively unaffected.
I’m not a network expert, so perhaps I’m wrong, but my reasoning sounds plausible. Overall I think this device is actually not as evil as it sounds. If the network is not busy then take no action is taken, and users have all the bandwidth they need. It only throttles the heavy consumers, if the network reaches its maximum capacity.
And to me, it even seems to be BitTorrent friendly…
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9 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
haha….
this will purge the large FTP and HTTP downloads!
Rogers shapers are evil and they do somehow seem 2 keep speeds down on ecrypted traffic.. I wish i had the newspaper cutout id know right away if they are the same devices etc.
Sorry for any confusion on the site.. just a couple points
Yes we do actually keep Bittorrent in check , even encrypted streams. We are not trying to make outragous marketing claims, just trying to inform.
As for how we do it: we simply look at the behavior of bittorrent users… they open lots of connections and use lots of bandwidth , we have not seen anything else behave this way, so we can safely make assumptions when we see this type of activity on a network it is Bittorrent like.
No we are not out to rid the world of Bittorrent downloads , that is not our intention.. its just that these things clog up networks with an unfair advantage…so keeping a balance is the comprimise we try to attain.
We recommend to our customers that they use our products to slow them (Bittorents) down and keep them in balance. We advise against trying the total block as that just creates an arms race with ISPs and torrent developers which is unproductive.
Art Reisman
CEO
http://www.netequalizer.com
Hey, Art: go to hell.
I second the above notion.
Nice comments guys. Its nice to see that we keep the discussion above the juvenile.
So he takes the time to reply to a community site and you kiddies flame him?
I personally disagree with shaping so some old biddy can get her email faster, but its still warranting of respect that he gave us an answer like that.
I’m about fed up with kids and their sense of entitlement, and I’m only 25 mind you. Answer this, if you pay $45/month for your connection, and some “old biddy” down the road pays $45/month for the same type of connection, why should he get his email slower because of your behavior? Traffic shaping shouldn’t be about flat out blocking and controlling services, but rather providing the tools to level the playing field so that all the other customers get what they paid for as well.
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