Slashdot Mirror
Hunting the Mythical "Bandwidth Hog"
eldavojohn writes "Benoit Felten, an analyst in Paris, has heard enough of the elusive creature known as the bandwidth hog. Like its cousin the Boogie Man, the 'bandwidth hog' is a tale that ISPs tell their frightened users to keep them in check or to cut off whoever they want to cut off from service. And Felten's calling them out because he's certain that bandwidth hogs don't exist. What's actually happening is the ISPs are selecting the top 5% of users, by volume of bits that move on their wire, and revoking their service, even if they aren't negatively impacting other users. Which means that they are targeting 'heavy users' simply for being 'heavy users.' Felten has thrown down the gauntlet asking for a standardized data set from any telco that he can do statistical analysis on that will allow him to find any evidence of a single outlier ruining the experience for everyone else. Unlikely any telco will take him up on that offer but his point still stands." Felten's challenge is paired with a more technical look at how networks operate, which claims that TCP/IP by its design eliminates the possibility of hogging bandwidth. But Wes Felter corrects that mis-impression in a post to a network neutrality mailing list.
Felten's challenge is paired with a more technical look at how networks operate, which claims that TCP/IP by its design eliminates the possibliity of hogging bandwidth. But Wes Felter corrects that misimpression in a post to a network neutrality mailing list.
Wait till I get going! The blogosphere, initially made famous by one Cory Doctorow, has impressed upon us for years that the internet highway is headed for a 100 car pileup. The Distinguished and Honored Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, tells us that the tubes are filling up every day. But only a fool would liken the internet to a series of tubes when clearly the highway analogy is what's best! And clearly you can't think that any single user confined to the HOV lane is going to encroach upon the bandwidth of the other 10 lanes of traffic! It's obvious that I know where the problem with the Internet is. I've known from the beginning! Wait! What in the world could THAT be! Oh. Never mind. It was nothing. Now. I'll drink from FiOS in front of me and you drink from your DSL in front of you. Hah! You fell victim to one of the greatest internet blunders of all time! The first being that you never believe what you read on the Internet followed closely by the fact that you never take Slashdot seriously when money is on the line! Ha ha ha! Ha ha....
My point being: if they're going to cut you off for maxing out your line regardless of how it affects other people, THAT'S the real problem. Imaginary or not, you can still die from fright over the boogeyman in the closet.
Ok how do I get new line characters into my post? I did a (very) brief search on this and don't see anything. Is it just because I'm using IE6?