Comcast Support Continues to Lie about BitTorrent Interference
Written by Ernesto on November 01, 2007By now probably every Comcast customer knows that Comcast is interfering with BitTorrent traffic. The only ones that keep denying are the Comcast PR department and the support representatives, this leads to awkward situations to say the least.
A lot has happened since we first reported back in August that Comcast was actively interfering with BitTorrent seeding. Comcast of course denied our allegations, even though we had proof.
However, it didn’t stop there, a few weeks ago the Comcast story got renewed attention when the Associated Press published a test that again confirmed our initial reports. That really got the ball rolling - a memo leaked in which Comcast support was instructed to lie about the throttling issues ( the memo leaker is still being hunted down). Additionally Comcast told their employees that they can be fired if they don’t keep their mouth shut and to top it off Congressman Rick Boucher has even told Comcast to stop interfering with BitTorrent.
By now you would expect that Comcast would admit that they are messing with the BitTorrent connections of their customers, but they aren’t. Here’s a chatlog we received from Michael, a Comcast user who tried to get some more information on Comcast’s alleged BitTorrent interference. Seems like the Comcast support team is still in the denial phase.
user michael_ has entered room
Michael>
Does Comcast interfere with legal Bittorrent traffic?
analyst Stephanie has entered roomStephanie>
Hello michael_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Stephanie. Please give me one moment to review your information.michael_>
Hi Stephanie, how are you?Stephanie>
Thank you for contacting Comcast. I can answer your question today.michael_>
I would greatly appreciate that.Stephanie>
Comcast respects our customers’ privacy and we don’t monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which websites you visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.Stephanie>
Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent.michael_>
I’m not asking if applications are blocked. I’m asking if applications are interfered with in any way.Stephanie>
We don’t monitor specific customer activities on the internet.
michael_>
But you must know the policies of your own company? Does Comcast actively engage in any interference of any protocols or applications?Stephanie>
As far as I know, no.michael_>
Who could give me a more definitive answer on the subject?michael_>
I contacted technical support because I had assumed that you would know the technical details of Comcast’s network, such as equipment or software used to interfere with network traffic or applications used on your network.Stephanie>
We rarely disclose our processes for operating our network for compeitive reasons and to protect against network abuse.
michael_>
You had told me you do not know definitively if any interference is occurring. Could you put me through to someone who would know that answer?Stephanie>
As I have said, we rarely disclose processes for operating our network but we also do not monitor specific customer activity. As well, we are not blocking access to any applications such as BitTorrent.michael_>
Maybe I’m not explaining myself clear enough. I use bittorrent to distribute custom linux distributions to my friends and colleagues. However, I find that I cannot seed these files. Is there any interference being caused by Comcast that could be causing this issue?Stephanie>
We would not be blocking peer to peer access.michael_>
It’s a “yes” or “no” question.michael_>
Could my inability to seed be interference caused by Comcast?Stephanie>
As I have said, we are not blocking peer to peer access.
michael_>
You are not answering my question though.michael_>
Comcast is not blocking peer to peer connections, but is it interfering with the ability to seed torrents?Stephanie>
The answer is no.Stephanie>
I have confirmed this with a support agent, as well.Stephanie>
Did you have any other questions for me today?
michael_>
Nomichael_>
Have a good dayStephanie>
Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Support, have a great day!Stephanie>
Analyst has closed chat and left the room
The good news is that there are several ways to fight back and get BitTorrent up and running again. In this article summed up some of the workarounds that reportedly solve the throttling issues.
Previously: Mininova Breaks 3 Billion Downloads Barrier
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54 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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I guess they advised their agents in advance to answer with as little information as possible.
Theses are pre-defined response. They are vague and meaningless.
I am not with Comcast but i am outraged to read such answers from a technical department. They really take their customers for idiots..
anyways.. good luck with Comcast user. Here in Canada, one of the biggest ISP here is throttling p2p traffic for a while and this is not going to change :-(
Would it be possible to take some kind of legal action if evidence is shown that they were lying the entire time?
Bell Sympatico in Canada has now publically stated that they are throttling Bittorrent during ‘congested periods’. Users are reporting being throttled to 30 KB/s. The method does not appear to be using TCP resets like Comcast.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19361852-Straight-from-the-horses-mouth-admission-of-throttling
Way to harass some poor Comcast contractor.
You do realize that the people you contact on the telephone for Comcast support are as much int he dark as you, right? They’re not even employed by Comcast. They are employed by a call center which has a contract with Comcast to provide customer service.
Contract support centers rarely know much about the products or companies they support and most of what they do know or learn is acquired on their own by personally investigating or reverse engineering things on their own.
You’re talking to someone who probably sat through a couple days of training - most of which was on how to talk to customers on the phone and then given access to a series of scripts with a handful of typical questions and answers.
They are not in a position to answer obscure questions or more involved questions. Yes, it sucks - but it’s not like the call center person WANTS to screw you over or WANTS to be ignorant about something.
You’re right ‘no’. It’s the higher ups that should be confronted about policy like this. They’re not very accessible though.
[quote comment="201555"]Would it be possible to take some kind of legal action if evidence is shown that they were lying the entire time?[/quote]
I would believe so, I don’t see why you couldn’t…. I mean they say that they don’t throttle, yet we have proof that they do, I think if you bring them so state court you could possibly do good by making them not throttle anymore, or they could admit it, and possibly block the whole thing since they came out with it… I don’t really know what would happen :-\ but then again, I too don’t use comcast so yeah…
What is the point in bugging comcast about this? We KNOW they are blocking bittorrent seeders, and we KNOW they are lieing about it - put up or pack up.
Evidence suggests that they are lying fags…People should get organized and boycott Comcast…get your state senator involved…
Sandvine must be updating their traffic shaping systems, as in some areas, even encrypted torrent traffic (that was still working fine after the initial blocking) are now also being affected and throttled down to 30Kb/s.
So, I recommend you start downloading whatever you want 24/7, using whatever protocol that maxes out your contracted bandwidth, just so they realize this is completely futile.
They want to save their bandwidth? Hit them where it hurts - use it as much as possible.
1) Download Ubuntu
2) Delete it
3) Goto 1
i know my isp has noidea what i am up to i gave a rep my mac address and thay said i use 5 gig a month i can show my utorrent thats says much more closer to 200 up and 180 down
sound to me like stephanie needs to get laid :p
im capped too im changing ISPs fuck `em btw oink is back up
I just tried something similar with a comcast rep, here’s my chat log:
http://dump.no/files/8cfbbfea4f34/log.txt
That poor rep’s probably shitting himself.
michael_ sounds like an agitated dumbass. comcast’s responses are annoyingly indirect but understandable.
i use µTorrent 1.5 and seeding works ok after tuning the softwer and router(s).
comcast’s network is its own property so of course it does what it wants and the hardware/apps r secret. else more hakers would try. comcast has no obligations before the general public because internet is not a public utility. neither is cable TV because the 1996 telecom act prohibited restrictions on aerial antennae.
there are plenty of other ISPs with different practices/secrets. i use free wi-fi when discretion is necessary.
a naked woman in bed is better than computers.
anyone got a spare What.cd or Waffles.fm invite
monsterfire8@gmail.com
CC are a bunch of nazi
They are a ripoff
1. invisible cap
2. traffic shaping so user cannot use much bandwidth.
Childish questions from this “Michale” character. Makes the rest of the p2p crowd look like a bunch of punks…
It wouldn’t be the first time tech support didn’t have a clue.
For a laugh, try getting AOL to admit that they hijack all email on port 25.
Even when you can show them exactly which server you are ending up at when telnetting any address on that port, they deny it. Mention packet sniffing and they threaten to phone the police LOL.
Been a few years since I was with them, and they have changed owners in the UK so they might have stopped it, but can be verified easy enough by telnetting google or M$ on port 25.
OMG lovin the responses here…they are deffernatly priks in my mind..
http://galacticcentral.org
[quote comment="201629"]
They want to save their bandwidth? Hit them where it hurts - use it as much as possible.
1) Download Ubuntu
2) Delete it
3) Goto 1[/quote]
lmao >:D
I dunno. I have comcast but I have NOT had a problem uploading or downloading at full speed. I have wondered though if they are applying the throttling in areas where there is no competition. Verizon Fios is actively available in my area and I did think about jumping over to them until Comcast offered me a better deal. When I heard of the bandwidth throttling issue, I sorta concluded I’d jump to Verizon if I noticed a difference. So far I haven’t.
Regardless this is another classic case of why net neutrality needs to be passed by our Congress (fat chance though). Corporate America shouldn’t be deciding what Internet traffic (be it bittorrent or CNN streaming video) should be getting preference.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
it’s a customer service rep, they’re probably not sure wtf is going on, thus why you got told that. you probably just made her uncomfortable and wondering “what the hell” and trying to keep her job more so than anything else :)
I don’t agree. If Stephanie the phone teller doesn’t want to work there then she doesn’t. In the meantime Comcast is a bunch of *ssholes and so is Stephanie for lying.
some1 have Comcast IP list? i will start bloking them…
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