BitTorrent Throttling ISPs Exposed by Azureus
Written by Ernesto on April 21, 2008Data collected by the BitTorrent client Azureus shows that Comcast might only be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to BitTorrent throttling ISPs. Early findings show that customers from quite a few other Internet service providers experience an unusually high amount of TCP-resets.
ISPs have been throttling BitTorrent traffic for quite a while, but only since the Comcast debacle has this been picked up by mainstream media.
A few months ago Azureus petitioned the FCC, which led to a FCC hearing in February. One of the complaints from the commission was that there is little data available on the scope of BitTorrent throttling, a gap Azureus now tries to fill by collecting data on the prevalence of TCP-resets among ISPs worldwide.
Last month Azureus published a plugin through which users can help distinguishing the good from the bad ISPs, and today we have a preview of some early findings. A massive 1,000,000 hours of data from over 8000 users has been collected over the past few weeks. The preliminary results again confirm that Comcast continues to use TCP-resets to manage BitTorrent traffic on their network, but they are not alone.
The rest of the Vuze/Azureus report (pdf) includes the median reset rates for hundreds of other ISPs
| ISP | Country | Reset % |
| Comcast | USA | 23.72% |
| Cogeco | Canada | 19.13% |
| Emirates Internet | UAE | 17.86% |
| Cablevision | USA | 17.58% |
| Brasil Telecom Santa Catarina, | Brazil | 17.43% |
| TM Net | Malaysia | 16.80% |
| BellSouth | USA | 15.88% |
| Tedata | Egypt | 15.33% |
| Tiscali | UK | 14.89% |
| AOL | USA | 14.88% |
TCP resets seem to be more common for American ISPs, and Comcast leads the bunch. The Azureus team has sent a letter to Cablevision, Cogeco, BellSouth and AOL, where they request that the companies are open about their BitTorrent throttling practices. Thus far, the ISPs have not responded to the letters.
At the bottom of the list we see the good ISPs, mostly from Europe. There are other ways to throttle BitTorrent traffic, besides using TCP-resets, a list of ISPs who are known to limit BitTorrent traffic is available on the Azureus Wiki.
| ISP | Country | Reset % |
| Telecom Italia France | France | 2.53% |
| Orange Nederland | The Netherlands | 2.57% |
| WiLine | USA | 2.78% |
| Telefonica | Germany | 3.60% |
| Freenet | Germany | 4.21% |
It has to be noted that the data gathering techniques Vuze uses are far from optimal. The plugin detects all TCP resets on a connection and doesn’t make a distinction between BitTorrent and other traffic, and there is no control group.
The Azureus/Vuze team will continue to collect data, and stated:
“We believe that there is sufficient data to suggest that network management practices that ‘throttle’ Internet traffic are widespread. At a minimum, more investigation is required to determine whether these resets are happening in the ordinary course of business or whether they represent the kind of throttling practices which target specific applications and/or protocols, harming the consumer experience and stifling innovation.”
The preliminary results presented here do indeed indicate that Comcast is not the only ISP that uses TCP resets to slow down BitTorrent traffic. People are encouraged to continue using the plugin so more robust data can be presented in the near future.
Previously: Biohazard Bassist Blasts BitTorrent
Next: BitTorrent Tracker Software “Gazelle” Debuts on What.cd
125 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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WHAT A PACK OF ARROGANT PRICKS.
SOMEONE SHOULD ALSO TEST ‘EIRCOM’ IRELANDS MAIN ISP.
THEY ARE MONITORING MY PORTS RIGHT NOW
(EIRCOM WATCHDOG IN PEERGUARDIAN.)
WTF….
__
(:s)
Its unfortunate, but true.
My privacy is being invaded. Do I smell a lawsuit or two or a few? I think so. So be it you stinking ISP’s. ISP stands for Imbecile Shi__y People. Feel the power of the lady called “sue”!
Hey isp’s I really like to throttle something up your rectums you freaking jerks.
Not really surprising.
All the ISPs listed are evil, no wounder they are throttling the traffic, i would never choose one of those. o_O
I can totally understand that data, since the same thing happens to me. My ISP recently got bought by AOL, and I’ll change ISPs Very Soon Now. Since then I’ve been experiencing disconnects when I put my wire under full load for more than about 2 days a month. Upload seems OK, but they don’t like me downloading stuff. After about 2 days or even less of using my wire to download stuff at average speeds greater than 100 kb/s, they start to frequently disconnect me. Then I have to wait for a certain grace period to be over, it seems to be about 10 days or some time after the start of a new month.
AOL just sucks big time…
The RIAA and many other record execs are making quiet secret deals (with isp’s) behind closed doors. Paying them quite well to disrupt the sharing community in the world. I wonder if the i.r.s. will find out about these deals and tax the crap out of them.
Net Neutrality?
My arse…
I am from Canada and use a local ISP that has to rent its cable through Cogeco. And the throttling is HORRIBLE.
I have QWEST DSL, and I get full bandwidth, in some cases I get higher download speeds with BT than I do regular HTTP downloading
I wonder what’s the Comcast-speak doing here. Insertion of TCP resets is NOT throttling. Throttling works quite differently and isn’t necessarily especially with asymmetric connections.
AOL is sending resets? Are you sure that is not just because of dialup performance? or was the test done on AOL Broadband in the UK?
Most of AOL US is dialup. Also, AOL sold the UK biz to CPW almost 2 years ago now.
I didn’t see Teksavvy on that pdf document. Do they not throttle at all or do I not know how to read?
I was wondering how TimeWarner/Bright House Network is doing tcp reset too?
Didn’t see Mediacom CC but they should be up there as well. They’re worse than comcast.
Rapidshare + Orbit is there to rescue you.
which is why i love RCN.
Keep in mind the ISP/ASNs on the list had more then 20 unique users. Smaller ISPs might be doing it as well, but wouldn’t be listed until enough users in that area are sharing data.
I’ve long suspected that Virgin Media (Telewest Broadband) were up to this after myself and several friends have found it next to impossible to persistently seed on private sights
I am sure the RIAA and MPAA is behind the resets. Increasing and investing in the future by creating a better interent ramp is the correct answer: with Hollwood and the greedy fat dinosaurs threatening
isps its no wonder they can’t think straight. Isps have been threatened with legislation to force them to comply to policing the internet if they do not cooperate willingly like meek little pussys.
Bellsouth is in the southeastern US not Canada. Officially they have been taken over by AT&T, but much of the behind the scenes network stuff has yet to be fully integrated into AT&T’s systems.
http://www.SceneNotice.com
no mention about bell canada?
I never get throttle I share my stash on a private friend to friend network, http://www.Dargens.com . It is encrypted and spoofs SSL on 443 so IPS can’t touch it.
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