Comcast Wrongfully Denies Interfering with BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on August 22, 2007Last week we reported that Comcast is making it impossible for its customers to seed files on BitTorrent. Not surprisingly, Comcast’s PR department does all it can to deny there allegations, but we - and with us some of the leading BitTorrent developers - know better.
So who’s right here? The hundreds of people that seem to have the same seeding problem, or the Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas, who denies that Comcast is monkeying with BitTorrent bandwidth. Apparently Comcast want people to believe the latter, even though all evidence points in the other direction. Decide for yourself.
Moxie, a Comcast customer who replied to a post on Silicon Alley, points out that when you log your network activity with an application like Wireshark, you’ll notice that Comcast servers start sending reset messages as soon as a download is finished, exactly as we described it.
With Wireshark in the background run your BitTorrent application. Wait until completed and watch Wireshark, notice when it finishes seeding Comcast servers send out a reset command every second to your computer noted by the highlighted red line in Wireshark. It is 8:30 pm Monday pst and Comcast is still resting my BitTorrent connections. Maybe the PR guy didn’t get the email from the VP of Networking.
It might be that not every Comcast customer is equally affected, but a significant percentage is. Not only the 10+ users we talked to before we first reported this issue, but also hundreds of additional commenters here on TorrentFreak, and elsewhere. Some users even captured the throttling in progress on video (download), and anyone has to agree that this does look very suspicious.
More evidence comes from Robb Topolski, a networking and protocol expert with more than 25 years of experience, who first wrote about this issue on DSLReports. He told TorrentFreak: “We have had two Comcast techs confirm Sandvine in use, but neither confirmed or denied its connection with the RST interference. For me, seeding is possible. I can reach my upload speed limit, but there sure is a lot of interference. Since your article came out, I too have received many reports of seeding being impossible. I’m not sure if it’s regional, or what!”
For the networking savvy people among us, here’s an example of real RST interference on an unencrypted BitTorrent connection. In this case, it happens right after the bitfields are exchanged
Nevertheless Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said in a response to Light Reading: “We’re not blocking access to any application, and we don’t throttle any traffic”. He might be right here semantically speaking, they are not throttling anything, they just kill all outgoing connections when a clients starts to seed a file. But the fact is that Comcast is making it impossible for (at least some) customers to share files with non-Comcast users over BitTorrent.
Luckily there is a fix for this problem, and we know that at least two BitTorrent client developers are including this fix in their next update.
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130 Responses
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Sorry to let you all down, but I am an happy to tell you that you are all wrong. I am actually an Employee here at Comcast and what you all are experiencing is PowerBoost. Essentially the resets you are seeing are due to our connection enabling PowerBoost during each download, depending on the size of the file. The reason a lot of people are not seeing this is because 1. Not all areas have the PowerBoost feature yet, and 2. Not every size file is PowerBoost enabled, in other words, it has to be a big enough file. Sorry to disappoint :(
[quote comment="151009"]Sorry to let you all down, but I am an happy to tell you that you are all wrong. I am actually an Employee here at Comcast and what you all are experiencing is PowerBoost. Essentially the resets you are seeing are due to our connection enabling PowerBoost during each download, depending on the size of the file. The reason a lot of people are not seeing this is because 1. Not all areas have the PowerBoost feature yet, and 2. Not every size file is PowerBoost enabled, in other words, it has to be a big enough file. Sorry to disappoint :([/quote]
Sorry to let you down, but downloads are not uploads. Seeding = uploading, meaning “PowerBoost” shouldn’t have any effect on the seeders, because people download from all around the world, not just people on Comcast lines. If anything, what you said sounds like a cheap sales pitch to me considering your username is *gasp* Comcast *gasp*. When was the last time I saw someone named “McDonalds” on a forum that was talking about how Mickey D’s food makes you fat, giving the same type of comment that you did? Right… never.
[quote comment="150669"]I have to say I’ve been seeding a completed torrent on and off for three days straight and have had no interference of any kind. As comcast customer I’ve been waiting for this, but I’m not seeing it now….
Hoping I’m right or we get around this…[/quote]
This doesn’t necessarily mean much. It could be that this Sandvine software only shoves RSTs at seeders when certain network capacity criteria are met. Cable being what it is, these criteria could be anything from the traffic numbers of comcast’s bigger network to the local cable segment, i.e. your suburb.
Incidentally, RST spoofing is the technique that the PRC’s “let’s not have this in our country” censorship system uses. Only in the PRC, the “firewall” sends RSTs to both ends of the connection rather than just the one inside “the wall”.
I’d figure I’d chime in: what a crock of horseshit on the quoted part of comment 44.
hehe one guy/gal from Brazil has been hanging on since the seed started along with a comcast user. I’d like to know how that Brazil peer has been hanging on???? Could it be the fact that a comcast peer is on same seed???
[quote comment="150880"]Seeding is not possible here in Northern VA using Comcast.[/quote]
Confirmed happening in this area.
Encrypting the BT traffic has not yielded any results either.
I’ve got multiple screen caps too.
I was waiting for what would push me over to FIOS, I think I just found it.
my connection is like it too-see
http://image.bayimg.com/magppaabd.jpg
See, this is what comcast, AT&T and Verizon are ALL trying to do. Go to http://www.savetheinternet.com. They are a website dedicated to stopping big isp’s like comcast from interfering with streaming data, or the internet as a whole. From that site you can write a letter to your local newspaper, and your states gov. offices. Also you can email from there as well. It’s a great site, check it out.
This is easy to get even.
Just use a lot of bandwidth during the busy hours of 7 to 11 pm every day.
Get everyone you know to use “acceptable” applications.
Stream Video, listen to audio streaming, watch lots of you tube, send and POP email,
An easy one is download lots of HD movie trailers, teach everyone you know about HD movie trailers….
“We’re not blocking access to any application, and we don’t throttle any traffic.” then here comes the 100+ comments reporting they can’t seed and the 10 people before the report. Now what?
[quote comment="150800"]I am a Comcast customer and NONE of my Bitttorrent traffic has been affected.[/quote]
well im a comcast customer and ALL of my Bittorrent traffic has been affected…i can’t seed shit!
this really sucks when your part of a bittorrent website that looks at your seed/leech ratio…
After 2 hours on the phone I have gathered the following information which I want share.
The first 3 people denied any issue out right, 4 person was resourceful, and provided me some information.
A note: Generally tier 1 and tier 2 support are uninformed about this issue. This information may only apply to the DC/VA/MD area.
- Officially Comcast is not filtering bit-torrent traffic.
- Unofficially Comcast is “upgrading” and “has been doing filtering to help with bandwith.”
- Comcast is currently “doing adjustments” and in the process have been “cutting off alot of people.”
- Resets are being sent (we already knew that one)
- According to the person I spoke to the filtering of uploaded bit-torrent traffic is a temporary thing, as they are testing it on the network likely to use it for specific *red flag* customers.
- “No Official Date or time when this will stop” But, they “are working on it.”
- A “few” people have called comcast in my area to complain about this issue.
Bottom line seems to be “Wait it out.” I’ve been assured my service will be returned to normal, but no time frame is provided.
PLEASE Call comcast and make some noise about this.
I’m in Atlanta, on the Vinings headend, and I can confirm that seeding of complete torrents effectively is blocked. Additionally, I seem to have to change ports every few days to run any torrent traffic.
Well, it’s a free market. When an (already terrible) ISP begins blocking service that its customers pay for — the customers will go elsewhere. Let them slowly commit suicide - problem solved. I certainly won’t consider them an option when it comes time to pick my next ISP. Also, I know they’re smart enough to only block the ‘illegal’ torrent traffic right?? Riight.
drum and bass sets
http://dnbshare.blogspot.com/
Yeah I’m in Atlanta (Dunwoody) and I can still get good download speeds but I can’t seed for shit. Not complete - not incomplete. Nothing. It was actually fine in Azureus as recently as last weekend (I’m a recent OS X switcher and Transmission never seeded properly) but now it’s completely dead for seeding.
I called to bitch and the third tech support person I spoke to acknowledged that a problem existed, claimed it was unintentional and said it would return to normal, but no time frame was available.
Bullshit. God, if I didn’t hate BellSouth so much and if their DSL wasn’t so shitty… (my condo association won’t allow anyone but BellSouth or Comcast and we don’t have FiOS yet).
Yeah, I was uploading to a peer that had Comcast, and my upload speed went from my max speed all the way back to 0. And no, I’m not using Comcast.
Take action. Let’s get an answer from Comcast.
1) Email abuse@comcast.net with a detailed report of what you’re experiencing. Make them file an escalated incident report.
2) Call abuse at 1-856-317-7272 if you’re being affected. Press 1, Press 7, Tell them your problem, and ask for Jim.
Right now they say they haven’t been getting any calls. Make them answer us!
If you can reproduce the problem, take screenshots and email me at comcast.vs.bittorrent@gmail.com.
comcast.vs.bittorrent AT gmail.com
http://piqd.com/comcast.vs.bittorrent.txt
http://digg.com/tech_news/Comcast_vs_BitTorrent_TAKE_ACTION_2
i tried changing my port to something in the range of 40,000-50,000, and for the time being it actually seems to be working.
for the guy in boulder, co who said it was happening here, how did you reach that conclusion? i am not questioning the validity of your statement, just curious if you spoke with comcast, noticed through upload activity, or ran wireshark.
it has been said that utorrent is working on a fix. is this confirmed? does anyone know how long it will take until they roll it out? comcast is the best option for me here (not including this fiasco), and if there is going to be a simple workaround rolled out soon i would rather not switch isps.
I believe Comcast may be resetting connections during my FTP uploads as well. I ran Wireshark while uploading a file and sure enough a whole slew of RST packets show up. How would I find out if these are forged or not?
They are total lying shatbags.
Sandvine-throttling was switched “on” this morning (8/29/07) for the entire upper-midwest region obtained from Time-Warber Roadrunner last year. The effects on torrents were immediately noticable.
Make not mistake: This is NOT about saving bandwidth or any such propaganda; it is a [i][b]concerted, deliberate attempt to KILL BITTORRENT[/b][/i] by snuffing out all the torrents (because torrents which aren’t seeded croak).
Every bittorrent client developer should immediately back-shelf all other projects to focus their undivided attention upon circumventing this threat — because switching your own ISP will do you no good as a torrent-creator when more and more peers in your torrents are being throttled, with the consequence that they die.
[quote comment="151009"]Sorry to let you all down, but I am an happy to tell you that you are all wrong. I am actually an Employee here at Comcast and what you all are experiencing is PowerBoost. Essentially the resets you are seeing are due to our connection enabling PowerBoost during each download, depending on the size of the file. The reason a lot of people are not seeing this is because 1. Not all areas have the PowerBoost feature yet, and 2. Not every size file is PowerBoost enabled, in other words, it has to be a big enough file. Sorry to disappoint :([/quote]
Really pathetic. If you’re gonna be a Comcast tool, at least try to pretend to know what the fuck you’re talking about (or get another Comcast tool to post for you). Idiot.
I’m in Chicago, Comcast is definitely fucking with BT here. I have to use full encryption and other tricks (proxies, etc) to get a half decent connection going. At least I can can seed now, etc.
The day I can get FIOS, I will. I’ve had enough problems with DSL (Covad) so no thanks there (very slow too). If I can I will get RCN when I move back into their service area.
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