Comcast details BitTorrent 'delay' tactics

Found on The Register on Friday, 19 September 2008
Browse Internet

According to a statement filed Friday with the FCC, the big-name ISP began using a traffic switch from Sandvine Inc. in May 2005 in an effort to determine which protocols were causing congestion on its cable-based network.

After an independent network researcher revealed the company's P2P throttling in May 2007, Comcast flatly denied it. And though it eventually acknowledged the basic practice, it has always said that it "temporarily delays" P2P uploads rather than blocking them. But this is misleading.

Using Sandvine's equipment, Comcast sends reset packets that prevent one machine from connecting to another. And if the number of uploads drops below Comcast's threshold, these connections are not reinstated. In other words, they're blocked, not delayed.

If you cannot deliver the products you're selling, then you have to fix it. Creating a business model based on average calculations may have worked in the past, but today users will make use of all the bandwith they are paying for. And I'd say that's perfectly fine and Comcast is in no position to mess up something a customer is paying for.