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Comcast Blocks Web Browsing
An anonymous reader writes "A team of researchers have found that Comcast has quietly rolled out a new traffic-shaping method, which is interfering with web browsers in addition to p2p traffic. The smoking gun that documents this behavior are network traces collected from Comcast subscribers Internet connections. This evidence shows Comcast is forging packets and blocking connection attempts from web browsers. One has to hope this isn't the congestion management system they are touting as no longer targeting BitTorrent, which they are deploying in reaction to the recent FCC investigations."
Why should you or anyone opt out? If they can't give you the bandwidth they promise you in your contract - they shouldn't have advertised it as such in the first place.
When ISPs were just targetting the minority of users who use P2P (and then under the excuse of stopping piracy/ thinking of the children/ protecting us from terrrists) there would never be enough backlash from their users to stop this kind of abuse.
However if they start screwing with http, then suddenly every Joe Sixpack will be up in arms about traffic shaping, and maybe the pressure will be sufficient to actually bring about some change.
My sincere thanks, Comcast, for bringing this issue into the mainstream.
"Are they a de facto monopoly?"
In my town they are. Oh, excuse me. They are "Franchised" by the township. Huge difference, apparently. Not in practice though.
The fact that ISPs are doing this is scary. The fact that customers accept it is also scary. The ISP figures most people aren't going to bother changing their settings, but the people who really love file-sharing are still free to do so. Which seems kind of strange. The "problem users" are those savvy ones who transmit tons of data, who are the same ones who will probably change this setting. What's the point in throttling the non-savvy users who just do light web-browsing anyway?
Okay, I'm not specifically a network engineer, but I like to think that I'm not network stupid. To me, this would sound suspiciously like someone trying to perform a denial of service attack.
Now, I can understand being irritated at forged packets coming back as a result, but at the same time, isn't it reasonable to expect Comcast to do something to shut down connections coming from this host? Frankly, I'm a little surprised that Comcast didn't shut off the connection altogether.
Am I missing something?
I am officially gone from
Thank you for pointing that out.
They love to moan (especially ATT) about how they can't afford fiber, when the truth is they are too busy rubbing our billions of tax dollars all over their fat sweaty bodies.
"We already got paid, why should we invest in infrastructure?"
We need either a carrot or a stick for the telcos in this damn country. The carrot would have been making them ACTUALLY DO FTTH before giving them a big fat check. The stick would be forcing them to make good on it now or else face criminal charges of defrauding the US public, and/or fining them $200Bn.
Instead, we've chosen neither--to let them do whatever the hell they want, forever, with no consequences.
No, since it was a tax break, it was taxpayer money. The fact that it stayed in the corporation's bucket instead of making a trip to the feds nad back again is irrelevant.
It would be dishonest of me to sit here and say the corporations have not done a damn thing since 1996.Mostly, they've consolidated their position and worked to make competition impractical, preferrably illegal. Screw them - build FTTH, revoke their last mile right of way, and make them rent the service like anyone else who wants to.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"