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
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The worst fact in the report, I think, is that only 8000 people joined the effort.
All you whiners that can’t find your ISP in the list, don’t you realize that means you admit to not participating?
Shame on all of you that think a few of us should do all the work for you. PARASITES!!!!
I’m a bit sceptical of the usefulness of this test. I think what’s really needed is for someone to knock together something akin to a client/server package able to initiate transfer tests using many different protocols and ports. Then you could run straight comparisson tests to reveal protocol biasing, including the more-common bandwidth limiting.
Monitoring for resets isn’t a very good way of doing things at all.
The test may be correct but people shouldn’t draw the wrong conclusions from it. This doesn’t say anything about what speed you can get from downloading or uploading.
If u think they do it because they care about copyright, think again
tmnet malaysia chibai ham ka chan lan jiao
TELEFONICA IS SPANISH, NOT GERMAN.
And yes, Spain is in Europe.
while i know that att/nee’ bellsouth throttles me, i don’t think it’s vindictive. they have simply oversold the service. same situation as calling on mother’s day using a land line. what is unfair is the application: usuallly they choke only downloads, but sometimes only uploads. and then there are times bit torrent is no go, but rapidshare is just fine. this tells me the throttle isn’t automated.
I just hop there is a way to stop this.
[quote comment="355155"]I’m a bit sceptical of the usefulness of this test. I think what’s really needed is for someone to knock together something akin to a client/server package able to initiate transfer tests using many different protocols and ports. Then you could run straight comparisson tests to reveal protocol biasing, including the more-common bandwidth limiting.
Monitoring for resets isn’t a very good way of doing things at all.[/quote]
http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/bttest.php
TMnet in Malaysia certainly throttles P2P traffic.
Anyway they have no competition…
http://tech-talk.biz/
[quote comment="355872"]http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/bttest.php[/quote]
Yep, like that though as a standalone client & server application set that anyone could run to/from anyplace and run tests across many different protocols, including P2P, VOIP, encrypted streams, streaming media, and so on.
I’m too dumb to code myself, so…
http://www.neutralidadsi.org/2008/04/los-numeros-no-mienten-los-isps-chilenos-intervienen-las-descargas-p2p/
You’ve published results for the Top 10 TCP resetters. But, what about the eleventh, Banda Ancha SA from Chile (a.k.a. VTR, http://www.vtr.net ) Please, Vuze, send them some letters too!
fuck tiscali. im finally shot em thank god
Damn, I have Bellsouth.
Thought I was safe but now I know why I can’t get super fast speeds like everyone else.
Cool, I’ve been waiting for this report.
I’m on the list, and now I’m warned.
Thanks Torrentfreak and Azureus.
[quote comment="354781"]throttle this throttle that….why is it such a big deal who the go between is in the ftp scandal. bo hoo “i cant get the new will smith movie any faster that 30kb/s!” ftp-ing movies is agents the law shit sorry to mention that out sharing rights are getting infringed upon.[/quote]
um, are we discussing ftp or bittorent?
If you run Azureus on Window, install the plug in. At present OSX and Linux plugins are not available at present unfortunately.
I’m proud that TM Net is on the list of 10 bastard ISP
Score. Mines not on the list.
Thats good while I wait for Fibre to show up in AZ.
haha couldn’t agree more with u no.87
Unfortunately, they are the one around long enough not to bail out after 3 months of services. Well that’s what I known. I may be wrong :)
[quote comment="354372"]Hey isp’s I really like to throttle something up your rectums you freaking jerks.[/quote]
+10
they r doing the same in INDIA also
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