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Google Caught in Comcast Traffic Filtering?

Posted by Zonk on from the it's-the-craziest-thing dept.

marcan writes "Comcast users are reporting 'connection reset' errors while loading Google. The problem seems to have been coming and going over the past few days, and often disappears only to return a few minutes later. Apparently the problem only affects some of Google's IPs and services. Analysis of the PCAP packet dumps reveals several injected fake RSTs, which are very similar to the ones seen coming from the Great Firewall of China [PDF]. Did Google somehow get caught up in one of Comcast's blacklists, or are the heuristics flagging Google as a file-sharer due to the heavy traffic?"

3 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. iptables fake RST detector by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    use connection tracking on this one:

    iptables -I INPUT -j LOG -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags RST RST -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,INVALID

    The fake RST will probably not have a valid sequence number for the established TCP connection, so the Linux stack will flag it as a NEW connection, and the fact that you're getting a RST for a NEW connection should be good enough alarm.

    Or maybe it would also work with just the matching code

    iptables -I INPUT -j LOG -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags RST RST -m state --state NEW,INVALID

    What do y'all think?

  2. Push it one step further... by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What if Google, a (justifiably) huge advocate of network neutrality, is deliberately sending the type of RST packets that imitate Comcast's faked packets, specifically to Comcast IP addresses, knowing the inevitable fallout that would result? It would make an already bad situation for Comcast far, far worse, and it's likely that the requested Senate investigation would turn into nails in the coffin for those who want preferential treatment of packets on the Internet.

    For a company that does no evil, if they could pull it off, it would be absolutely diabolical. But then, it could easily be one of those "ends justify the means" kinds of situations. At any rate, all I can say is "MWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!! Suckers!"

    (No, I don't actually believe that's what's happening, but man, what an AWESOME plan to make network neutrality happen once and for all.)

  3. going on for months with google maps by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have been unable to use Google maps for months now on Comcast. I have called them, but, you can guess how that went. Yahoo maps and Mapquest work fine, but on Google I get about half the tiles filled in before it stops. And I mean it stops. It ends up looking like a checkerboard. Occassionally it will finish a couple of minutes later, but typically it never does.

    Getting Comcast to fix it seems unlikely.

    --
    Do you have ESP?