Canadian ISP is throttling BitTorrent traffic
Written by Ernesto on December 21, 2005The Canadian ISP “Rogers” has started to kill all BitTorrent traffic on their network. Rogers uses a bit-shaping application to throttle the traffic that is generated by BitTorrent and other p2p applications.
They are still finetuning the bit-shaping application, and apparently they had some problems configuring it the right way. Last month they were even blocking podcasts and songs from the Itunes music store.
It’s ironic that the same ISP advertises with the slogan:
“for sharing large files and much more”
Well, there’s not much to share when they block all p2p traffic including the best protocol to share large files (BitTorrent). You can can read more about this over here.
upd: But we have encryption
Previously: Unwanted torrents
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If a Canadian and a Chinese can VPN each other’s PC, both will be able to surf and torrent like normal humanbeing… security is a bit of issue here…
i have cogeco cable internet, torrents require a rc4 packet encrytion to work, however i find if i have a program like limewire dl a ton of music my torrent speed goes up, i guess they can keep up with the rest of the traffic
Rogers is pestering me to return my old modem and upgrade to the new one….should I do it? Is it true that the new modems will throttle back on torrent usage, whereas the old ones don’t?
I’m a Carleton student signed up with Vianet (formerly Telecom Ottawa under the Edunet program…for ~$400+tax/yr I get high speed DSL…currently my local area connection has a speed of 100Mbps. vianet.ca says that they offer both highspeed cable($50/mo, 6Mbps dl) and highspeed DSL ($40/mo, 5Mbps dl). I had Rogers cable 4 years ago, and liked that service a bit better than the DSL service that I have now, mainly because I found cable to be slightly more reliable, but that was 4 years ago, and after reading how Rogers is now, I would much rather have the DSL that I have now, because it still really is quite reliable (so far this year no “downtime” that I can remember, no noticeably frustrating or extended slow periods. Also, I find that the ~$33 a month that I pay is much cheaper than the ~$60 a month that roger’s charges for it’s extreme. I don’t know how my speeds compare to the rest of your speeds, but at least for Ontario users Vianet is an alternative to rogers…a cheaper alternative…
as soon as they get high-speed through the phone here(they only have dial-up right now)..its :waves: bye bye Rogers and when that happens the cable t.v is going to…at least once sometimes twice a month the internet will be shut down for 6,8 hrs at a time with a “server problem”….what freakin ever you idiot…
Hello!
What do you think about Apple Iogo? >:)
Wow I love the complaints from everyone over throttling bit torrent.
Big Companies like Rogers do this because theres illegal activity going on. And don’t give me that crap about open source and bit torrent because 99% of bit torrent traffic is piracy.
You can whine and complain all you like or you can move on to the next file sharing epidemic, cause it’s not legal and you can’t expect it to be offered.
Your reasons may be valid Matt, but there is no real justification. So if someone used public transport lets say TTC to smuggle stuff. Their going to limit the number of passengers or block all suspicious characters from entering? I think not. Not all the activity is illegal and most of it isn’t even illegal in Canada. SO WTF is up with you, you must have lived in the US and got in trouble there xD
I’m canadian, your point is somewhat moot though. If 90-99% of public transit was used for illegal purposes there would be repercussions.
Another thing to note especially by those whose sharing ratios are hurting. Downloading is not illegal in canada but uploading is, and bit torrent promotes uploading through sharing ratios etc.
I still download the occasional thing myself but complaining about a service being restricted is pointless.
“Big Companies like Rogers do this because theres illegal activity going on.”
My, aren’t you being rather naive?
They’re throttlingbecause they don’t want to invest in infrasructure (and because they made some promises they didn’t really mean). In some circumtances they’ve even admitted this.
The RIAA/MPAA (in europe aka MAFIAA) have some interesting perspectives on whoat’s “legal” and the balance between copyright holders vs fair use (note for example, the recent testimony of Sony’s lawyer in court, that making back-up copies and downloading songs that you already own both qualigy as theft http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071002-sony-bmgs-chief-anti-piracy-lawyer-copying-music-you-own-is-stealing.html)
And where do you get this “99% of bit torrent traffic is piracy” figure. From the **AA crowd? (And again, under what definition of so-called “piracy”).
Not to mention that those whove actually tried, find that free downloads actually increases income (try googling Janis Ian’s “Internet debacle” for some good examples, as far back as 2002). Also check out Nine Inch Nails current foray into “pay what you feel like” download offering.
Your remarks, while arguably logical and principled, are based on highly questionable assumptions and disprovable facts. The prevelence of these ulyimately bogus arguements says more about the PR and lobbying powers of huge corporations than about reality. I highly recommend doing some in-depth research on this subject — it’s a real eye-opener!
(PS: for what it’s worth, I have never, ever downloaded infringing music or software. I do occassionally download freely-offered, legal music (and sometimes bought CD’s as aconsequence) and open-source software)
I submit to you all, the following.
Rogers’ motivation in limiting bandwidth and torrent use has nothing to do with either infrastructure or piracy concerns (directly). They are doing it to protect the future of their cable television business.
With the internet and digital broadcasting, barriers are being broken. Rogers can no longer rely on the CRTC to act as their guardian as the internet exposes them to competition from the States and elsewhere and modes of delivery totally removed from the constraints of the physical cable they have in the ground. As Rogers looks into the future, they see that the stranglehold they have on living room entertainment is quickly disappearing and that the only thing standing in the way of people using the internet as their main entertainment source is social convention. In order to prevent the internet from becoming the main provider of entertainment they limit the ability of people to access that kind of data (torrents). If they were to overtly censor anything, the Canadian public would be up in arms, but they can subtly state that it’s in the interest of preserving their infrastructure and ensuring quality of service to all its users. Even if they tell you it’s a cash grab, you will be pissed but you will believe it. They would prefer upset customers who think no further about the issue, because if I am correct, they are a company in a position of market dominance abusing power in order to protect their interests. And that is illegal.
Sure they have damaged their reputation as an internet service provider, but that is of little concern to them, since their real interest is in protecting their television cable assets. They don’t want to give you a way around paying for their cable content, which is a larger source of revenue, has few (if any) real competitors in most of its markets and is protected by Canadian content regulation. It is not a coincidence that Rogers and Shaw have been perhaps the most aggressive ISP in terms of bit-shaping.
Just my two cents.
Seems like Sympatico is now throttling there connections too
As of Oct 1st 2007, bell has begun to ‘throttle p2p’ during peak times. What they consider ‘peak times’ hasn’t been released. Also, they are blocking on a packet base, not ports
I have noticed that between 3pm and 12am is the slowest times for dling.
All p2p are being throttled; torrents, limewire, kazaa, and I’ve of slow speeds for vpn too.
They are for sure throttling.
I just spoke with a woman named “Deborah Brann” who is the Manager of Customer Service at Bell Sympatico in Ottawa.
She confirmed to me that Bell is, in fact, throttling the network “at peak times”. She claims this is within the “Terms and Conditions” of the Bell Sympatico agreement. She said the promise is that the connection will be somewhere above 1Mbps, generally.
What is most interesting is her statement that there has been a 40% increase in use of Sympatico since August 2007 and “no ISP could handle an increase like that.”
Then, why advertise what you can’t deliver, I asked?
No answer to that one.
I started a group on Facebook to protest this - Let’s All Sue Bell Sympatico For Deceptive Marketing!
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting!
I just moved from BC to Ontario and holy cow, i was excited at the 7mbps from Bell… and now my torrents are going at 50k/sec and my upload is MAYBE 9k/sec (TOPS).
traffic management is what they said to me today. What a crock. I hear Telus internet might be coming here soon. That’s what I had in Vancouver and if they come, i’m getting it.
Hey guys,
I’m not new to this post. I’ve come across it a few times actually but never posted (until now that is).
I just thought I’d let you know about a website I came across by accident a while back, http://www.canadianisp.com.
In a nutshell it’s a website that’ll help you find alternative ISP’s in Canada (duh!)
I found one internet service provider, TekSavvy Solutions Inc. that doesn’t seem to port throttle or traffic shape.
It’s an ADSL provider, so I had to buy one of their modems (as I only had the cable modem I bought from Rogers). The mode was about….$100 plus $10 for shipping and a $20 setup fee (which if I understand correctly, will be reapplied if I ever move).
Overall the speed is ALRIGHT (about 3 Mbps) for where I live ; Brampton, Ontario. Nothing campared to the 8 Mbps I was getting with Rogers but at least I can download without having to deal with traffic shaping tactics. ;p
For now, http://www.teksavvy.com is alright. Check it out, you might find it a reasonable alternative. I’m happy with it thus far. My only beef really is that YouTube videos are somewhat choppy but you give, you take.
Cheers.
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
Bell Canada Sympatico has starting throttling as well. It starts after 5:00pm through to midnight.
Hey folks,
If you’ll read three posts back you’ll see my initial post.
Still with TekSavvy and STILL happy with them.
I just hope they don’t get too high on themselves (like Rogers did) and start playing games ’cause when they do….it’s Hasta La Vista!
But for now….two thumbs up!
Does anyone have one of the older rogers style cable internet modem for sale or to give away???
If so contact Larry in London Ontario at justicels@yahoo.com.
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