EFF claims that Comcast is still meddling with data
By Darren Murph 
posted December 2nd 2007 1:36AM
posted December 2nd 2007 1:36AM
According to a report released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Comcast has yet to relinquish its data discriminating habits, and users attempting to share content via P2P could still face slowdowns and unexpected delays. Of course, Comcast's Charlie Douglas proclaimed that the firm "does not, has not, and will not block any web site or online application, including peer-to-peer services," but followed up by stating that it did engage in "reasonable network management to serve all of its customers with a good internet experience." The EFF, however, saw things differently. During its own tests, it was reportedly able to confirm conclusions drawn earlier this year by the AP, and it also exclaimed that Comcast was "essentially deploying against its own customers techniques more typically used by malicious hackers." Pretty strong words, to say the least, but we're curious to know if the continued Comcast bashing is indeed legitimate. So, dear readers / Comcast users, are you still (or have you ever, for that matter) experiencing sketchy P2P performance, or is this all just one overblown mess?
My points....
1. Comcast sucks ass. Lets get that one out of the way, right off.
2. EFF generally rocks but, in my opinion is wasting its effort on this issue.
3. Downloading protected content is illegal period, regardless of your (or my) feelings on the morality of it.
4. P2P has been officially declared in court as a tool that does nothing other than commit copyright violations. http://w2.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/
5. Comcrap users, Read your terms of use policy...Section XIV is a good place to start.
6. Read Title II of the DMCA...which says if ISP's don't take steps to block access to infringing content, then they are liable.
5. You can always go to somewhere other ISP (like I did) ...but they are doing it too, or will be soon.
Doesn't AT&T have a wiretapping room at every location? It was on 60 minutes or 20/20 wasn't it?
Doesn't AT&T have a wiretapping room at every location. I remember watching it on 60 minutes or 20/20 and then it was temporarily reported throughout the news channels.
Comcast screws with my torrent downloads. I have to use utorrent and encrypt my data to get decent down speeds. Upload speeds are almost non existent. They barely break 10k.
What is needed is for bittorrent to start to create an encrypted token so the "man in the middle attack" can be adverted.
I am on the side of net neutrality. Down with Comcast
@Logboy.....um downloading protected/copyrighted material is not illegal. Making available or uploading is. Secondly a lot technologies are utilizing P2P....like Skype. Thirdly if ISP's are liable then everyone would be sued now because they all offer the transport ability of infringed material.....if you can't connect to the internet you cannot download/upload....that is why all ISP's fall under the Safe Harbor. The only thing they are liable to do is pass on IP and info to clowns such as the great MediaDefender or WebSheriff.
1.Comcast is not blocking seeding in all areas. I know in my area they are. I live 1 1/2 hours from Philly.
2. I have encryption enabled in my torrent client. This will help in some instances but might not in others. It maybe helps me 10% of the time.
3. I have been using a VPN client. I usually download without the VPN and when I seed I turn on the VPN. With the VPN no problems seeding and Comcast can't mess.
Let's see, as far as downloads go i don't get limited at all until the torrent has finished downloading then seeding becomes a definite issue and i hardly ever get 1:1. When torrents are running my websurfing slows to a crawl as well.
In the interest of getting a call for downloading too much, i don't think it is going to happen to me as i downloaded 86GB in 24hrs and not so much as a peep.
Verizon 30/5 FIOS FTW! :p
dont hate...
I have Cox cable internet and there is without a doubt a cap on my upload speed on torrent files. If I upload a file through ftp or something it's noticeably faster. It makes it really tough to maintain a decent share ratio sometimes.
I believe Comcast filters even non-P2P-software point-to-point traffic. I experience consistent and repeatable drops in upload speed when uploading pictures to Google's Picasa service: I start out at 220+ kbps and speed drops incrementally with each file uploaded. By the 5th picture, I'm hovering at about 60-70 kbps. This happens EVERY time I upload, regardless of time of day etc.
Fred from EFF here. Just wanted to let people know that we've released a detailed set of instructions, and a software tool, to help people test their own connection in a rigorous way. If you really want to know what your ISP is doing, you really need to run tests like this with another person. Comparing packet logs will let you know what your ISP is injecting into your traffic.
Here's a link to the instructions and software tool:
http://www.eff.org/wp/detecting-packet-injection
I use both SoulSeek (p2p) and BitTorrent (torrent tracker). Soulseek will periodically just not be able to search for any files. BitTorrent will at times lose a considerable amount of speed despite how well seeded the files are. I say Comcast is definitely screwing around with the downloads from my experiences with it the past 3 months.
Your connection is: 208 Kbps or 0.2 Mbps
You downloaded at: 25 kB/s
Att/ bellsouth DSL Capped its so bad i cant even watch a large streaming file ! let alone try to download a 200 meg file not bit torent thou i am a bit guilty but d@mn thats drastic 200 to 25 kbs any options ? oh and btw i knew i was screwed when tech support said clear your cookies i jumped ahead and told them that i disabled my firewall and antivirus lol they did not know what to do lol morons
Download :: 210 Kbps or 0.21 Mbps (26 kB/s)
Upload :: 108 Kbps or 0.1 Mbps (13 kB/s)
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 210 Kbps about 0.21 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Download Speed is:: 26 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 108 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 13 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
Test Time:: 2007/12/12 - 6:02pm
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-8O5G4LPQR
U-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-XMTYVNBC2
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; SU 3.005; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30) [!]