Comcast Teams Up With BitTorrent and Promises Net Neutrality
Comcast has announced that it will lift the ban on BitTorrent traffic, which prevented its users from sharing files using the popular protocol. The ISP and BitTorrent Inc. will work together on finding customer friendly solutions for the congestion allegedly caused by BitTorrent traffic.
Comcast has announced that it will stop targeting BitTorrent transfers and has said it will invest in its network capacity. For the time being the company will throttle users who use the most bandwidth, not all BitTorrent users per se.
Comcast’s chief technology officer Tony Warner said: “Rather than slow traffic by certain types of applications — such as file-sharing software or companies like BitTorrent — Comcast will slow traffic for those users who consume the most bandwidth.”
Comcast hoped it could quietly interfere with its customer’s BitTorrent activities without getting too much attention. Unfortunately for them, their actions didn’t go unnoticed, and during August last year we broke the news that this ISP does indeed mess with its customers internet connections.
Comcasts actions sparked the debate about what “reasonable” network management practices are, and this eventually resulted in a FCC hearing last month.
It now seems that Comcast saw the light, and wants to invest in more Internet gateway capacity after all. BitTorrent Inc. announced today that it will work together with the ISP to optimize their software, so that it puts less stress on the network.
Ashwin Navin, president of BitTorrent Inc. told TorrentFreak: “We are happy that Comcast is increasing the upload capacity on its network and that they will stop sending TCP resets to BitTorrent clients. We plan to jointly test how ISPs can better address the large volume of P2P traffic and share our research with all ISPs and application developers. This is a huge win for the Internet community as a whole.”
Still, Comcast will continue to throttle heavy users, who actually use the bandwidth that was promised to them in their contracts. It is to be expected that Comcast and other ISPs will have to step away from the all-you-can-eat plans they have been offering for years, now that people actually start to use bandwidth they signed up for.
Previously: TorrentSpy Shuts Down
Next: Swedish ISP Refuses To Block The Pirate Bay
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“BitTorrent Inc. will work together on finding customer friendly solutions for the congestion ALLEGEDLY caused by BitTorrent traffic”.
Are you kidding me with that statement? Look bittorrent is great. I love it but it is an absolute bandwidth hog. More than streaming video sites ,more than even Direct download. Even when I’m downloading at 100-200Kb/s it slows down my entire 10Mbit/s line and is noticeable on every computer in the house.
This is a bittersweet win for Comcast users.
On one hand, they’ll be able to share, on the other, it’s for a limited time until they start throttling again, but on a more open scale.
Well, at least the FCC is aware of this type of thing now, so they can be mindful.
Imagine that 300 passengers show up regularly to fly with an airplane with 250 seats. That kind of overselling wouldn’t stand for long.
“Imagine that 300 passengers show up regularly to fly with an airplane with 250 seats.”
That’s called RyanAir. If there are really 300 passengers, 50 of them must be terrorist because the plane would crash if they all boarded it. So there cannot ever be more than 250 passengers.
In related news, Microsoft and Linus Torvalds announce an alliance in which the two will work together on a completely open-source and free version of Windows Vista.
It will have all the same features and will be free to download and modify under the GNU GPL.
Bill Gates said, “We want to work to improve the OS experience for our customers, and if it means discarding our old business model, then so be it. Open source is ‘where it’s at’ nowadays and we (Microsoft) are hip to the advantages that the Linux kernal has to offer.”
Steve Balmer is now embarking upon a nation-wide tour to tout the new, “Penguin-Powered” Vista OS.
Torvalds’ only comment was a succinct, “Fnork?”
WHEN is comcast going to stop the BS as they’ve promised? I just switched from AT&T and I’m used to rock solid upload speeds. I generally have had utorrent running 24/7 for the past two and a half years but now that my aunt has switched to the cumcast ‘triple play’ i often get “no incoming connections” (red triangle) unless i download a torrent and while “just seeding” the upload line on the speed graph looks like a roller coaster track.
this is going to kill my 1.81 ratio, guess no more private trackers for me. I might have to start beating my neighbor for their wifi at night so i can upload. they still have dsl. ;P
[quote comment="320591"]WHEN is comcast going to stop the BS as they’ve promised? I just switched from AT&T and I’m used to rock solid upload speeds. I generally have had utorrent running 24/7 for the past two and a half years but now that my aunt has switched to the cumcast ‘triple play’ i often get “no incoming connections” (red triangle) unless i download a torrent and while “just seeding” the upload line on the speed graph looks like a roller coaster track.
this is going to kill my 1.81 ratio, guess no more private trackers for me. I might have to start beating my neighbor for their wifi at night so i can upload. they still have dsl. ;P[/quote]
there’s a simple solution: http://www.relakks.com - cost only 5 euros/month and works like a charm! :D
[quote comment="320366"][quote comment="320084"]
GO RON PAUL !!!
GO RON PAUL !!!
GO RON PAUL !!![/quote]
um didnt he drop out like last month?[/quote]
Dude! Not cool! No he did not!
Check the guy out (esp. on google and youtube); he has a HELL of a message, and the money shoot him down all the time, censoring him and spreading mis-info like that;
a lot a lot of people consider this upcoming election fixed, with the candidates differences merely smoke screens, but not Ron Paul.
PLEASE, seriously, this is cool; check him out!! Google him!! YouTube him!! He is still on the ballot and won’t leave until the PEOPLE tell him to with their votes, NOT the media tell him to with their blackout of him!!!!
And yeah, this comcast/neutrality thing seems like an oxymoron; their greedy bastards. Now in a more free-capitalist system that would be cool; they’d lose customers, drop their allegiance to the dinosaur mafIAA, and get customers back (money money money!);
but ya’ll live in an oppressive state, son! They would rather have control than money, and they could probably (have - will - are!) get away with whatever they want.
I don’t see this concession as anything more than a smokescreen; they’re still gonna try to stop Torrent, just try another approach.
Crazy white people!
Fugg off with your Ron Paul shizz. Loser.
We at Microsoft will never compromise with this disorganized crime crap spread through the torrent mess! You criminals, con men, iTards, LuTards, pedophiles, and torrent users make me ill!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Yeah I don’t trust it at all but then again I have not been nearly as aggressively throttled but I am not always a top bandwidth throttler.
I have been using comcast forever, no alternatives, great download speeds, SHIT upload. This is good news…
I want to be able to seed!
And yes I am a bandwidthwhore, i’ve exceeded my limit a few times :’( not really sure what limits i broke, but hey they said i broke them, i guess its finally up to them to fix them!
These rock!
http://pluking.blogspot.com
DEATH to NIGGERS!!!
I just want FIBER!!!!
Where I live its either Comcast or DSL. Fiber is being run currently and I am just waiting for it to go live. Once it does GAME OVER for Comcast!!
Good thing I live outside of the US,haha.
Does Comcast guarantee bandwidth… no. There sales pitch is “up to x times faster…” Does DSL guarantee bandwidth… yes. So, Comcast is uncapped and susceptible to traffic problems, DSL is not. But which is generally faster for the buck… Comcast. Traffic shaping is nothing new and many industries do it, it’s the issue of discrimination that the FCC addressed. This is a win!
Next on the agenda, break up the monopoly and the issue is over.
@ #12: My ISP offers me exactly what i pay for, but hey, i’m from Holland.
I used to work for comcast, I know how shit works, in my area there is no contracts, but read the fine print “down load speed up to 8MB” it doesn’t state 8mb min, oh shit son, lol. and they’ve always had caps on the heavy uses. some guy had a shit load of DL and UL, they disconnected him because “the customer used up to much bandwidth” fuck the cap, there are to many people who do massive DL, and can someone define “heavy users” and “who actually use the bandwidth that was promised to them in their contracts” uh it’s called good business ethics, maybe if I payed for it I should get it, new concept for comcast I guess.
lmao @ 29. the only advantage to being small; i never feel cramped on ryanair.
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