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.
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54 Responses
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A.) It’s not lying if you don’t have any further information.
b.) I highly doubt getting laid has anything to do with it.
c.) Do you guys get off on harassing support representatives? It seems like it. Talking shit about someone who can’t talk shit back isn’t very nice…
And the final point;
d.) You’ll never know who will come across stuff like this.
Google abilities are absolutely wonderful, no?
Stop your pathetic whining. You all know that you arent using torents to up/download linux distros. Also, leave the techs alone, I too work in tech support, and 95% of the time, they dont give us further information.
So next time you feel like giving tech support a hard time, make sure to provide your work phone number for them so that they can return the favor and harass you at your place of work.
Bottom line is that if you dont like your ISP, change it. That’s the only way they will get the message
Luckily I have Bright House. But I do have a few suggestions for all of you with Com Cast.
Pick up a book. Bare with me I know even the thought of reading hurts most peoples’ minds now. But it hurts so good! Pick up The Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick it’s on social engineering. A dimwit who can add, can figure this equation out:
Social Engineering + Google + Google Work Group + Badly trained Comcast Employee = The answers you want
*Some variables in the equation may change depending on the users INT modifier.
When using social engineering, you must first educate yourself about the target, and the role you are taking on. Wikipedia is surprisingly helpful and accurate. And google is useful for everything.
Here’s a freebie scenario…
1)Use social engineering to get internal phone numbers.
2)Pose as an employee and tell a supervisor that a customer had a question regarding network throttling.
The customer came up to you when you were working on the cable lines at box (insert your cable box number here, cable box at the end of your street block, not the one in your home, do some research)
Mention you didn’t know how you should answer at that time so you didn’t tell them. But ask him how you should respond if asked again.
3)Mention you’ve heard inter-company
rumors of this, and you wanted to come to him/her to verify that you should not talk about throttling.
4)Depending on how they respond gauge your question accordingly. Jokingly ask “so do we actually throttle speeds for p2p, I know it it causes alot of problems with our throughput”
*Throughput is the amount of data sent over a line per some unit of time. Commonly confused with bandwidth. Bandwidth is the frequency spectrum at which the data travels.
*If you say bandwidth instead of throughput you will come off as unprofessional. An employee would know the difference!
And if you make whatever you want to type an image it is not picked up on search engines. Perhaps under images but those images have to be tagged manually first.
My email if anyone wants to talk with me.
corphack@hotmail.com
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