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Is Verizon Already Slowing Netflix Down?

hondo77 points out a blog post by Dave Raphael, who noticed some odd discrepancies between two different Verizon broadband connections he has access to. His personal residential plan and his company's business plan both went through the same Verizon routers, but his residential plan is getting unusably slow speeds to places like AWS. He suggests that Verizon is already waging a war on high-bandwidth services like Netflix after the recent court decision against net neutrality. His discussion with a Verizon service representative seems to confirm this, though it's uncertain whether such an employee would have access to that information.

298 comments

  1. Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops this by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most people support Net Neutrality because they think things like this will not happen.

    So then, under the net neutrality rules you need to explain why what Verizion is doing would not happen.

    What will stop Verizon from doing this? My canceling my phone service and telling them I'm switching to T-Mobile because of cloud throttling.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. WTF why would I get fios now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was thinking about getting FIOS. But what the hell is the point of such a high-bandwidth lien when they throttle the shit that uses a lot of bandwidth...

  3. Is Verizon Already Slowing Netflix Down? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is Verizon Already Slowing Netflix Down?

    Yes. Verizon throttles lots of stuff. Why? Because they can. They want to you pay for "fast, fast, fast!" but they don't like it if you use the data or the speed you're paying for.

    1. Re:Is Verizon Already Slowing Netflix Down? by sunderland56 · · Score: 1

      Yes. Verizon throttles lots of stuff.

      The question, though, is: is Verizon slowing down *some* services more than others?

      Yes, we know that Verizon's overall incompetence slows down the internet.... but that slows down all sites equally (which has always been legal). Here the contention is that they are slowing down Netflix *more* than other sites.

  4. Verizon is denying it: by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://bgr.com/2014/02/05/veri...

    “We treat all traffic equally, and that has not changed,” a Verizon spokesperson told BGR in an emailed statement. “Many factors can affect the speed a customer’s experiences for a specific site, including, that site’s servers, the way the traffic is routed over the Internet, and other considerations. We are looking into this specific matter, but the company representative was mistaken. We’re going to redouble our representative education efforts on this topic.”

    It is still unclear exactly what was causing the issues that Raphael described, but it’s apparently not any form of bandwidth prioritization. Instead, the issue may relate to congestion specific to the Amazon servers or connections that Raphael was testing, but nothing has been confirmed by Amazon.

    1. Re:Verizon is denying it: by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And from TFA:

      During the day â" the bandwidth is normal to AWS. However, after 4pm or so â" things get slow.

      That is when the home usage increases.

      And he's using wireless.

      He really needs to contact someone who knows more about networking in order to collect more useful data. Right now it is impossible to say what is really happening.

    2. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They may be denying it, but it happens. Here in the UK (I work for VM) I can categorically state that Business users get exactly what it says on the tin. If they are paying for 100meg down 20 up, they get just that and are unrestricted. Domestic connections, on the same CMTS, are severely rate limited at busy times.

      There is a caveat though, domestic subscribers pay around $70-80 per month, businesses considerably more.

      Anon - natch.

    3. Re:Verizon is denying it: by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      We are looking into this specific matter, but the company representative was mistaken. We’re going to redouble our representative education efforts on this topic.

      Meaning, representatives will be beaten until they learn they may only reiterate the official company message (which may or may not be the actual truth). [Rule #1 about network throttling: You do not talk about network throttling. (I'm sure the other Fight Club inspired rules will be just as interesting...)]

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    4. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We treat all traffic equally, and that has not changed

      Sounds like they are avoiding the issue to me. They didn't say no, they just said they treat everything the same. Who is to say that their policy for all traffic isn't something like we apply heavy QOS to any services that are using more than x% of all of our bandwidth. Where x is some percentage that only Netflix would be capable of hitting.

    5. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whenever I called Verizon about issues their answers appeared to be good enough to compete for the year's stupid answer award.
      Once time I purchased a Verizon cell phone with bluetooth to use it to connect to my car sound system. I found they had it shutoff.
        I called Verizon and had a tech tell me they disabled it for security because if another person in another car had bluetooth they could rip my personal info.
      That call almost broke my bull-shit meter!
      I dropped Verizon, dumped the phone got another carrier and bluetooth so-far hasn't caused any personal info to hop to another car.
      Another time... had network issues with DSL (before fios was available).
      I knew it was an external problem at their exchange but had to go through the stupid onion layers of tech.
      Was it plugged in? Reboot computer, Check wires, update this, read that, screw this, ... let me connect you to my supervisor...
      Supervisor... sorry lets get you going..
      Is it plugged in? Did you reboot computer, check wires, update this, read that, piss on this, ... let me connect you to my supervisor...
      and on.. an on..
      Six months later got hold of a VP and they found a faulty board at their exchange!
      How the fuck are they still in business?

    6. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It could just be the usual practice of overselling. I know when I first got provisioned they had my on a circuit that was so saturated that I could barely get 5 kBps. Luckily I was able to contact somebody with the ability to change my provisioning and it was fine. Even with FiOS and Netflix set to the lowest picture quality I'm still getting problems streaming even though I can traceroute to another Web site like Google with 20 ms pings all the way along the route.

    7. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Not where I live in the USA. Business and Residential get the same service and the same options all with dedicated bandwidth also with dedicated fiber. Now if you want enterprise grade, you can get that also. There are some draw-backs to the non-enterprise grade fiber connections. You don't get that one-on-one interaction for any and every change to your network. I've had a few times where a mass upgrade caused a hick-up, but their network has been over-all great.

      I recently had an issue with my fiber port that they were trying to diagnose and they had to switch me to another port. They said this was all done back at the CO, so it only took the guy on the phone about 5 minutes to get up from his desk and change my port. I spent more time waiting for their system to register that my ONT changed locations. If I had an enterprise account, I probably would have had little to no down-time.

    8. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verizon has been shown to be slacking on their peering arrangements and demanding money from Netflix, Google and probably others and other for a long time. They are doing this. Google for an ars article on why YouTube is slow.

      Slacking on their peering would manifest exactly as bad peak performance.

    9. Re:Verizon is denying it: by joe_frisch · · Score: 1

      This is why market forces don't work correctly here. When you find that your netflix bandwidth is poor, it takes really technical expertise and a lot of time to figure out who is to blame. Netflix servers? Some major backbone? Your ISP? Problems with your home network? Problems with the computer you are using to view the movie.

      This is a very general problem with the belief that "market forces" will fix this sort of issue. In many markets (like this), the customer doesn't really know which of the many related vendors is responsible for the problems that they are seeing, and so does not know which vendor to stop giving their business.

    10. Re:Verizon is denying it: by j-turkey · · Score: 2

      This is kind of old news. There are a series of articles from last year that suggest that the issue is a peering arrangement.

      The articles that I've read seem to suggest that: Cogent is one of Netflix's primary ISP's. The ports used for peering between Verizon and Cogent have become saturated due to Netflix traffic to Netflix/Verizon residential customers. Since the flow of traffic is overwhelmingly to Verizon customers, Cogent feels that the peering arrangement is significantly asymmetrical that the onus is on Verizon to purchase additional ports (one article claims that each 10G port costs Verizon about $10k each). For various reasons, Verizon is not willing to do this - and it is widely speculated that Verizon is disincentivized from doing this due to their competing services. Further, Verizon could purchase relatively inexpensive 4u "Open Connect" boxes from Netflix, which will deliver content directly within their network - significantly reducing the bandwidth costs of delivering content over multiple networks. However, it is speculated that Verizon does not do this for the same reason that they don't add additional ports to their peers (such as Cogent).

      This article explains it all better than I have.

      --

      -Turkey

    11. Re:Verizon is denying it: by masterofthumbs · · Score: 1

      I hope you realize Verizon Wireless and Verizon the ISP really aren't the same company.

    12. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Your circuit wasn't that "saturated". They use TDMA with a fair scheduler. If you were getting less than (Total bandwidth)/(number of customers on port), there was something miss-configured. Newer GPON units have such a good TDMA bandwidth scheduler, that they can emulate T3 over a fully loaded link. That requires some tight timings. With a properly configured GPON system, you should not get latency, even when saturated, and you should have a lower bound of around 79mb/s of raw bandwidth, minus a bit for inefficiencies.

      GPON supports SLAs, so you can put a minimum guarantee on both latency and bandwidth, while allowing users to consume excess idle bandwidth. Or do what my ISP does and only sell what you have. They give you a reserved slice of bandwidth, which means GPON will make sure you always get your bandwidth, no matter what. The question is if the upstream routes can handle it.

    13. Re:Verizon is denying it: by Bengie · · Score: 1

      A 10gb port that can support about 2,500 users's bandwidth for Netflix? Say it isn't so! Making $250k/month of revenue from those users, they don't deserve spending $10k once.

  5. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by timeOday · · Score: 4, Funny

    What will stop Verizon from doing this? My canceling my phone service and telling them I'm switching to T-Mobile because of cloud throttling.

    I almost admire your optimism.

  6. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because it would be illegal, and they would be subject to legal repercussions, unlike now. What part of this do you find confusing?

  7. Sample size of 1? MUST BE TRUE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Verizon is evil enough for this, obviously. But they're a large, slow, lumbering company. It'll probably take em at least a couple of weeks to put something like this together.

  8. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're confused by the part that conflicts with their ideology.

  9. Basically never believe what CSRs say by langelgjm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would anyone believe what a low-level CSR tells them in a chat session? This is like when an eBay CSR claimed that eBay did not allow the sale of Bitcoin mining rigs a few weeks ago. The person didn't know what they were talking about.

    Not to mention this is Verizon, who can't tell $0.002 from 0.002 cents. Engaging them on a topic of any complexity is sure to lead to hilarity and/or frustration.

    --
    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
    1. Re:Basically never believe what CSRs say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA had a well known problem with unit conversion... Maybe we shouldn't give them funding either? Or how about USPS? The military? Barack Obama? I'm sure all these entities have fumbled the ball too.

    2. Re:Basically never believe what CSRs say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had an install tech (for a diff ISP) tell me there wasn't a modem rental fee...

    3. Re:Basically never believe what CSRs say by avandesande · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be surprised if the poor sods chats are recorded and has now been sacked :-(

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
  10. Something doesn't add up by EMG+at+MU · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ISPs say that they don't have enough bandwidth for everything, and that they must throttle traffic.

    Then, ISPs say they want to have your residential AP also broadcast a public wifi hotspot.

    To me, those two things are in contradiction. If there isn't enough bandwidth then why are they adding public hotspots to residential plans?

    1. Re:Something doesn't add up by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ISPs say that they don't have enough bandwidth for everything, and that they must throttle traffic.

      Because, ISPs have long worked on a model of oversubscription in order to rake in huge amounts of money, while not giving a damn if you get anything resembling the claimed performance.

      They just want more and more subscribers paying a monthly bill, but they've mostly all failed to invest in any new capacity in a long time.

      In the real world, this would be analagous to going to a hotel and discovering they've got more people than rooms and have therefore installed rows of bunk beds like a military barracks.

      Services like Netflix are just highlighting that they're selling more than they have, and leaving the customers short-changed.

      They were the ones telling us about all the multimedia experiences we could get on the interwebs, and then the first to start bitching about how much bandwidth the stuff they used in their advertising actually costs.

      And, since many ISPs are also cable companies these days, they also want to ensure you use their premium services to watch anything -- this way they can get more money out of you, starve out a competitor, and if they're really lucky charge both you and Netflix for the bandwidth.

      Telecoms are largely a pyramid scheme these days in terms of actual capacity, and they know it.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Something doesn't add up by alen · · Score: 1

      netflix has never been transmitted across the internet, they have always used a content delivery network to stage content close to the users. like every other big internet company for the last 20-30 years.
      a few years ago netflix got a sweet deal from a CDN provider looking to get into the business who tried to pass off netflix CDN traffic as peered traffic
      now that the contracts have expired netflix is trying to lower its costs since CDN's can be expensive and netflix is all about being CHEAP. and pushing its own CDN under the condition they don't pay any fees like every other CDN company out there

    3. Re:Something doesn't add up by dj245 · · Score: 1

      Telecoms are largely a pyramid scheme these days in terms of actual capacity, and they know it.

      Only if you divert excess revenues into upper management's pocket. If they actually invested in infrastructure there wouldn't be a problem.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    4. Re:Something doesn't add up by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      But since they do, and they haven't ... we're left with ISPs who have been increasing profits and failing to invest in capacity, and they are now whining they can't afford more capacity.

      The way they have been advertising it and expanding the subscriber base, you'd think someone would have clued in to the fact that they also needed to be investing in infrastructure.

      But it mostly seems like they've been forgetting about that part.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Something doesn't add up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I would agree with this except their specific intent becomes clear when they refuse free CDN boxes from Netflix.

    6. Re:Something doesn't add up by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Netflix still has to use transit providers for customers who's ISPs do not peer with Netflix at an IX or use an internal Netflix CDN. I also question what you mean by "across the Internet". I've gotten Netflix data from across the USA in the past. Midwest to Washington over the exact same route I get when trying to connect to any other Washington service for stuff like Mumble or Minecraft servers. I now get my Netflix data over Level 3 to a Cogent datacenter in Chicago. That is a regional CDN, but it still uses transit to get to me.

    7. Re:Something doesn't add up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate the politics and behavior of big telcos/ISPs as much as the next person, but this is just wrong:

      In the real world, this would be analagous to going to a hotel and discovering they've got more people than rooms and have therefore installed rows of bunk beds like a military barracks.

      I'll grant that in the face of dramatically increasing content density/size, ISPs have failed to scale their capacity for the current decade. No arguments there. But overprovisioning isn't always a bad thing. If the average user consumes on average 100KBps during peak hours, and at worst (outliers aside: talking about averaging the right-hand fraction of the significant curve here) 500KBps, it would be a bad investment for an ISP to build infrastructure that can handle 500KBps load from every customer at the same time. This would cost a lot more, and that contention would only occur a small fraction of the time. Meanwhile, the costs would be passed on to the consumers in the form of even more egregious prices (I'm not saying that ISP pricing is fair now, just that it could be worse). Instead, it's better to provision for the average case, and handle "surges" by throttling or some other reactive technique. Even if I'm the one of the users that gets throttled down during peak hours, if my ISP could convince me that the throttling is because of a realistic expectation of bandwidth use running up against their provisioning limitations, I wouldn't get that mad. I'd be unhappy that my speed was less than it could be, but I'd understand the reason and understand that it was part of the reason that my bill wasn't higher.

      NOTE: "convince" is an important term above; most ISPs are provisioned for really, really bad average use cases. They are scaled to customer volumes less than what they have, and average bandwidth needs much smaller than what their users want. I'm not defending specific ISPs; I'm just saying that underprovisioning isn't inherently evil, and that it can have important benefits (affordability) as well.

  11. Not just traffic - those reverse DNS on traceroute by dirkx · · Score: 1

    May be a bit more complex - as the reverse lookups shown in the traceroute have subtle differences (including case). One would wonder if there is also some split DNS as well. Dw.

  12. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Proper net neutrality legislation would require (under penalty of fines) an ISP to not throttle one service for another.

    That is traffic to verizion.com would not get higher bandwidth than those to netflix or t-mobile.

  13. The traceroutes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Random spikes in latency on the affected path, probably saturation of a circuit somewhere right?

  14. rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by alen · · Score: 1, Informative

    if you search on the internet, netflix is pushing it's own CDN with the condition that they don't pay the regular CDN fees. most of the big ISP's haven't signed on which is why netflix is slow on their networks. the pipes to the CDN provider are probably maxed out like the issue with Cogent a few years ago

    business scuffle with two companies trying to lower their costs of business. not like netflix is the angel here either.

    1. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      You mean this? https://signup.netflix.com/ope... This is already live and any ISP that wants to reduce their Internet drain costs is participating.

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      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    2. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by alen · · Score: 1

      yeah, but for the last 20 years or so CDN's have paid the ISP's money for the traffic they send. Netflix is saying they don't want to pay anything if you sign up for Open Connect

    3. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by sexconker · · Score: 5, Informative

      if you search on the internet, netflix is pushing it's own CDN with the condition that they don't pay the regular CDN fees. most of the big ISP's haven't signed on which is why netflix is slow on their networks. the pipes to the CDN provider are probably maxed out like the issue with Cogent a few years ago

      business scuffle with two companies trying to lower their costs of business. not like netflix is the angel here either.

      This is the second time you've posted about this here as if you have some sort of inside information.
      It's not a rumor, and it's not newsworthy. Netflix announced this shit a year ago when they started touting "Super HD". https://signup.netflix.com/ope...

      Netflix gave ISPs 3 options:

      A: Peer with us at favorable rates and we'll allow your users to access our higher quality streams and help make sure shit is routing efficiently.
      B: Drop our content boxes directly on your network and we'll allow your users to access our higher quality streams and pay you fair rates.
      C: Don't peer with us at lower rates or let us store content on your network, and we'll name and shame you as not fully supporting Netflix.

      Once all the major ISPs agreed with A or B, Netflix opened up "Super HD" to (almost) everyone. They now have a lot of those distributed content boxes and favorable agreements, and are effectively a CDN.

    4. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Shatrat · · Score: 3, Informative

      I know there's a precedent, but it's a silly one. An ISP participating in Open Connect improves the product of both companies. The ISP reduces the traffic on their network and Netflix performance is better for that ISPs customers. Charging for caching the content would be like trying to charge for peering, the revenue it might be worth is nothing compared to the savings from reducing the load on the network.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    5. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      * Any ISP willing to hand Netflix their own 10gbit pipe

      That's not "any ISP".

    6. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Option C was because ISP were already complaining about Netflix traffic. Netflix was doing them a service by not allowing their users to hose their trunks any more than they were.

      I contacted my ISP and asked them why they didn't go with A or B, because I wanted Super HD. A manager responded saying bandwidth is not a concern and they don't want to favor one company over another. He told me their network could easily handle everyone streaming 8mb Super HD as they provide all customers with dedicated bandwidth.

    7. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the ISP has to pay for the rackspace, cooling and power for the CDN.

      Let's be honest here. Netflix is asking ISPs to foot their hosting bill. It might work, but only because Netflix is leveraging their size and fame. Imagine any smaller site asking an ISP to give them free hosting and imagine how that would play out.

      This is the same sort of racketeering that Google, Akamai and Cogent engage in. They succeed because nobody wants to be the ISP where Google or BBC load slow, and telling your customer's it's Google or Akamai's fault as they leave for your competitors is little comfort, and certainly contributes nothing to the bottom line.

      The golden rule of internet peering is this: The small guy pays the big guy. (or Fuck you, pay me.)

      The goldern rule of racketeering is this: The small guy pays the big guy. (or Fuck you, pay me.)

    8. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, someone moderate this this comment up. This is *exactly* what is happening behind the scenes and is the real issue driving the Net Neutrality debate - not freedom of information, not free speech - but this: two companies disagreeing about who should have to absorb the costs of streaming content.

      In a traditional peering contract, both parties would share the cost of power, pipe, and ping, and so long as both parties upheld the contractual bandwidth ratios, all was good. Content providers are very bandwidth heavy in one direction - from them to the customer requesting the content. The content providers say "Hey ISP, your customers are requesting all of this content from us so you should host us for free." The Internet providers say "Hey CDN, that sounds like a peering agreement - except you do not fit our traditional model for peering. You should have to pay us for all of that bandwidth."

      And so it goes. Some ISPs are moving to a model between peering and paying customer. The CDN pays the ISP a heavily discounted rate for the gobs of bandwidth required to support streaming, and in return the ISP gains a better reputation for solid bandwidth to "cloud providers" like Netflix and Amazon. Unfortunately some companies are firmly entrenched in their philosophy, and guess who suffers the most? That's right - us little guys who only want to watch a movie online..

    9. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Bengie · · Score: 1

      CDNs paid ISPs because the demand for cheaper bandwidth was in high demand by service providers, so 3rd party CDN service cropped up to provide these services. They worked as a middle-man to quickly negotiate lower costs for bandwidth.

      At this point, Netflix is not in a mad rush to lower costs at the expense of giving in to ISP demands and are willing to play chicken with ISPs. With normal CDN services, a single service provider did not have the negotiating power and CDN providers knew this. It is different with Netflix. They are huge and they have the means. If ISPs want to play hard-ball, Netflix is willing to use transit, but the ISPs don't want to use transit.

      ISPs are complaining that Netflix traffic costs too much, so Netflix offers them a way to reduce their bills by peering to an IX CDN or a local CDN. The ISPs don't want none of that, they're used to getting paid for CDN services. They are just used to being in a position of power, but this time Netflix is on near equal footing and these giants are butting heads. Netflix is willing to meet ISPs half way and treat them as equals, but ISPs don't want to be equal, they want to resell access to their customers and act as gatekeepers to double-dip.

      The main point is customers have already paid their fair share of bandwidth. With current prices, ISPs should be able to give all users dedicated bandwidth just based on transit costs alone, ignoring the huge reduction in costs for ISPs when peering is involved. For $5,000/month, you can get 100gb/s of bandwidth at your local IX to peer with Netflix and YouTube, which represent about 50% of all bandwidth usage. So ISPs can get 1/2 of their peak bandwidth usage at a rate of $0.05/mbit, then they turn around and charge you $80 for a 50mb connection and bitch when you try to use 4mb/s for a few hours. How is that fair?

      Obviously this does not represent all ISPs, especially small rural ISPs, but it does represent most ISPs that are within a few hundred miles of a major IX.

    10. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by Bengie · · Score: 1

      This is probably not the entire reason, but ISPs were already complaining about the 4mb HD streams, yet alone Super HD at 8mb. Netflix wanted to wait for A and B to get widely used before going to open up Super HD to all because it does reduce bandwidth costs for Netflix, and Netflix set a standard that they can say "these other ISPs are doing just fine with our OpenConnect services", in the case that ISPs were to complain en masse. I'm sure if Netflix didn't have OpenConnect pushed to most ISPs and they offered Super HD, almost every ISP across the USA would become one voice as their networks blew-up over night.

    11. Re:rumor is netflix is pushing its own CDN by AaronMK · · Score: 1

      As far as their concerned, if it helps Netflix, it hurts cable.

  15. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by jeffmeden · · Score: 2

    Because it would be illegal, and they would be subject to legal repercussions, unlike now. What part of this do you find confusing?

    The part where Verizon is demonstrably doing something to cause this. "slow speeds to netflix" can be explained a lot of ways that don't involve content based throttling. Short of a subpoena for exactly the right router configuration (good luck, they have about 20,000) you can't.

  16. Fox guarding the hen house by Stealth+Dave · · Score: 2

    "Confirmation" from a Verizon spokesperson that Verizon isn't throttling access is more than a little like the fox guarding the hen house and asking the fox to "confirm" that the hens are all present and accounted for. That's not to say that Mr. Raphael's assertion is necessarily correct either, but he does provide additional evidence to support his claim, whereas Verizon is merely providing "assurances", as far as I can tell since the BGR article provides no details beyond the brief spokesperson statement.

    --
    Evil is as eval("does");
  17. Netflix Throttling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am on FIOS and have issues streaming Netflix for months.

  18. How does the Rep know this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Simple, he talks to a hundred or so Verizon users a day. He often gets word of problems before the network engineers even recognizes they exist. Thus he's talking to home user after home user who's Netflix is suddenly pixelated and buffering more and more often. Within a few such calls he recognizes a pattern and when asked about the possibility by a customer he honestly states that it matches a pattern he's been seeing and may be the cause. Is the rep right? Maybe, maybe not.

    Of course the company will deny it. How long did Comcast deny throttling bit-torrent before it was undeniably proven that they were doing so?

    Should he have stated specifically that the company was doing so? No, that could cost him his job, if he actually made that statement. But now the company will make sure all the phone drones are properly retrained on how not to admit any possible wrong doing by the company.

  19. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    Well if you have Vios and your Netflix is considered noticeable slow, or choppy. And say TWC plays netflix at faster speed. You just go, I am switching because my Netflix is too slow. It is faster with the competition.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  20. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, because the wireless and fios branches of the business give a fuck about each other.

    And if you cancel fios, your alternative is essentially Comcast, who everyone already knows does this shit. There is virtually no competition when it comes to broadband access.

  21. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Throttling can be done passive aggressively and there is no law against that, that I know of. Just let links degrade, then give business users higher priority.

  22. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only thing competition does is to create monopolies, since the whole point of competition is to eliminate competitors.

    There is no "point" to competition - nature invented it long before we were here.

    That is something all you freedom-loving libertarians seem to conveniently ignore [...] we socialists would prefer more government intervention to prevent competition from happening.

    I'm a freedom-loving libertarian and I honestly don't believe you're really a socialist. I've met plenty of socialists who understand what competition is and why it's useful. I can only guess that you think you're helping by making the opposition look dumber, but no one believes you. Might I suggest you sit down with a real-life socialist and try to understand them before wasting everyone's time on unconvincing strawman arguments?

  23. A bit of a parsing error I think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the CS representative was trying to say "Amazon might have trouble streaming to you because their bandwidth is limited" when he said "it is limited bandwidth to cloud providers." I don't think he was confirming that Verizon limited their bandwidth to cloud providers.

    That being said I don't know what to think about it. I'm pretty sure these shenanigans will become common, and the issue with net neutrality is that it's pretty much impossible to tell who is causing the slowdown. I think Comcast/Xfinity is likely going to be the first to fire volleys in the slowly hurting bandwidth game, and use it to extort more expensive plans out of their users.

  24. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by alen · · Score: 1

    and verizon isn't throttling anything, they are simply not upgrading their circuit after a huge spike in traffic

  25. Don't understand the drama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am using FIOS and Netflix is working perfectly fine. Streaming HD shows with it- no problem at all. Hulu on the other hand is sometimes unusable. Constant interruptions and buffering, even in SD. Verizon keeps pushing me to pay more for a faster connection- why would I do that if streaming services can't even deliver a fraction of what I'm paying for now ? What else would I need huge bandwidth for if not for streaming ? Verizon would be shooting itself into the foot.

  26. Re:Not just traffic - those reverse DNS on tracero by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is! Verizon has what they call a "DNS assistance" program, where any mistyped URL gets you a search page.

    Here's how to opt-out: http://www.verizon.com/support/residential/internet/fiosinternet/troubleshooting/network/questionsone/99147.htm

    I found that when I used to be on Verizon they seemed to have the opt-out DNS working much more fluidly than the "normal" DNS. Was never sure if this was just load, or if they knew the kind of people who would be trusted when telling their friends and family to use Verizon would be on the secondary DNS.

  27. Verizon is not throttling a service by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Proper net neutrality legislation would require (under penalty of fines) an ISP to not throttle one service for another.

    Verizon is not throttling A service. They are throttling "cloud providers", which means no specific service is throttled, just anyone pushing data through Amazon - that's the whole point of the article, that his data rate is also impacted because he uses AWS.

    There is no way you can write a law that will stop Verizon from doing what they are doing.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Verizon is not throttling a service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verizon is not throttling A service. They are throttling "cloud providers" ...which are a service...

      which means no specific service is throttled, just anyone pushing data through Amazon ...which is a service.

      So, um... yeah.

    2. Re:Verizon is not throttling a service by sjames · · Score: 1

      And Amazon is a particular entity that is being throttled differently than the net at large. They are discriminating based on IP address and/or AS. Further, as shown in TFA, they throttle differently based on the type of account their customer has.

  28. traces are diff at first 2 hops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first 2 hops in his traces don't match up...

    1. Re:traces are diff at first 2 hops. by bobbied · · Score: 2

      The first 2 hops in his traces don't match up...

      This AC is correct. IF you read the fine article behind the article referenced in this story it is CLEAR that the guy's home connection has at least one more hop. I would assume that after 4PM, many home users would be showing up and cranking up Netflix (or other online activities) and putting stress on the first router which is NOT involved in the business connection.

      So, this is apples and oranges... Or at least just congestion on the home connection that doesn't exist in the business one.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  29. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If your problem with a law is simply that there are law breakers, then you're simply fundamentally averse to a law-and-order society.

    Our legal system is no stranger to passive-aggressive and underhanded law breaking. And in an organization as large as Verizon, it's kind of hard to do something illegal on a massive scale and not be found out eventually. And the penalties could be staggering. No investor would encourage Verizon to break the rules; otherwise that's what they'd have been doing all along. D'uh.

  30. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But they would have to perjure themselves by denying it. And in an organization that large, does anyone think there will never be a whistle-blower who comes out with documentation showing that they were doing it? The risk of getting caught would very likely be sufficient deterrent (if the penalties are severe enough), which is the whole point of making something illegal.

  31. The New Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is slowing me down.

    1. Re:The New Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read this (it works) http://ask.slashdot.org/commen... to make sure the redirects /. is doing won't take effect (you can stop them redirecting you to beta.slashdot.org easily using a custom hosts file as shown in the link above).

  32. Illegal HOW EXACTLY by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Because it would be illegal

    Why?

    What was the rule or regulation or law from Net Neutrality that made what Verizon is doing illegal?

    I want someone to be specific because my point is this Verizon action has NOTHING to do with Net Neutrality, and would not be stopped by any Net Neutrality rules that the FCC put forth before they were told to stop.

    So I repeat; HOW WOULD VERSION NOT BE ABLE TO DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Net Neutrality at its core says: "you may not treat traffic from one location/company/program differently than you treat data from all other locations/companies/programs."

      So Verizon can slow down a single customer's connection to the internet when they use too much bandwidth, but they would be legally prevented from slowing down that customer's connection just to Netflix.

    2. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by The_Wilschon · · Score: 1

      Quit shouting. Calm down.

      --
      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
    3. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because it would be illegal

      Why?

      What was the rule or regulation or law from Net Neutrality that made what Verizon is doing illegal?

      I want someone to be specific because my point is this Verizon action has NOTHING to do with Net Neutrality, and would not be stopped by any Net Neutrality rules that the FCC put forth before they were told to stop.

      So I repeat; HOW WOULD VERSION NOT BE ABLE TO DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

      There is no current authority by the FCC (which they recently admitted) that allows them to enforce net neutrality. Even before that admission, what they had in place would not have worked as net neutrality, and was certainly never legally challenged and upheld in any court to cement it. Until ISPs are classified as common carriers, the FCC will not have the authority to enforce any level of net neutrality - which a former FCC chairman has recently stated. I have not said, and do not believe, that we have ever had any level of net neutrality. I am advocating FOR true net neutrality. That doesn't mean that what Verizon is supposedly doing doesn't violate the spirit of what people want net neutrality protection against, however.

    4. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I refuse to be calm while otherwise intelligent people keep pretending Net Neutrality helps anyone.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    5. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by lgw · · Score: 2

      Well, it could be worse: it could have continued long enough for regulatory capture to set in.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by g0bshiTe · · Score: 0

      Version would be a beta release.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    7. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      Until ISPs are classified as common carriers, the FCC will not have the authority to enforce any level of net neutrality - which a former FCC chairman has recently stated. I have not said, and do not believe, that we have ever had any level of net neutrality.

      We had exactly that until 2005 when the FCC reclassified DSL and CATV ISPs as "information services" (not common carrier) from their previous classification of "telecommunications service" (common carrier) which they had held since the inception of the internet.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    8. Re: Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the words "i refuse to calm down when..." come from your mouth it usually means one of two things.

        In 0.01% of cases, you are a freedom fighter and the world will be made better by your struggle if it succeeds. (Ghandi, Martin Luther King)

      In 99.9% of cases, you're mentally imbalanced and should probably be on medication. (The hobo on the corner, you)

    9. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      Until ISPs are classified as common carriers, the FCC will not have the authority to enforce any level of net neutrality - which a former FCC chairman has recently stated. I have not said, and do not believe, that we have ever had any level of net neutrality.

      We had exactly that until 2005 when the FCC reclassified DSL and CATV ISPs as "information services" (not common carrier) from their previous classification of "telecommunications service" (common carrier) which they had held since the inception of the internet.

      Classification as common carrier, and true net neutrality rules (the level of net neutrality most people actually want) based on that are two different things. We've never had both of those at the same time. And unless and until they're reclassified as common carriers, net neutrality is a non-starter.

    10. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by sjames · · Score: 1

      Because they are throttling a specific destination even though there is no congestion on their network nor in their route to that destination.

    11. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      Classification as common carrier, and true net neutrality rules (the level of net neutrality most people actually want) based on that are two different things.

      And what, exactly, is the difference?

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    12. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      Classification as common carrier, and true net neutrality rules (the level of net neutrality most people actually want) based on that are two different things.

      And what, exactly, is the difference?

      There is the classification of ISPs as common carriers - which we don't have.

      Once you have the classification, you have the rules that govern common carrier ISPs - which we also do not have.

      We need both. Simply reclassifying them as common carriers isn't going to do much, because we need the rules that govern them to specify exactly what they are and aren't allowed to do, and how to measure and enforce this, and what the penalties are for violations.

    13. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by unrtst · · Score: 1

      Net Neutrality at its core says: "you may not treat traffic from one location/company/program differently than you treat data from all other locations/companies/programs."

      That may be what it's supposed to say, but there's a lot more to what's in the bill. It's also impossible to implement such a broad definition as you are providing (there are different routes over different connections whose travels take very different distances and paths). I agree with the intent of what you're saying, but it's the details that make much of this moot.

      Doesn't matter though, because that doesn't apply to the example. He's comparing traffic patterns of two different customers using different on premise equipment with entirely different plans (consumer versus business class).

    14. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      You seem to be laboring on the misconception that being classified as a "telecommunications service" does not actually spell out the specifics. I'm confident you are wrong. You are welcome to prove me wrong instead.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    15. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by JohnNemesh · · Score: 2

      You are incorrect about the FCC's authority to enforce Net Neutrality. YES, the courts DID strike down the FCC, but they also told the FCC EXACTLY how to properly frame their enforcement to get it to stick. Go read up on it before just talking out of your butt.

    16. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by dnavid · · Score: 1

      Because it would be illegal

      Why?

      What was the rule or regulation or law from Net Neutrality that made what Verizon is doing illegal?

      I want someone to be specific because my point is this Verizon action has NOTHING to do with Net Neutrality, and would not be stopped by any Net Neutrality rules that the FCC put forth before they were told to stop.

      So I repeat; HOW WOULD VERSION NOT BE ABLE TO DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

      Had the FCC's Net Neutrality rules been in force today? Verizon would probably be in violation of the no unreasonable discrimination rule (FCC 10-201, Section III.2). Specifically, given the facts as currrently presented, Verizon would be throttling a content provider based solely upon a customer's subscriber class without a valid network management requirement and without sufficient transparency. The FCC rules would have allowed Verizon to sell residential broadband that had less bandwidth than business class customers, but not explicitly notifying the customer that services such as Netflix or AWS hosted content would be bandwidth restricted to far less than the actual bandwidth being provided by the service would have likely been considered unreasonable.

      Most Net Neutrality frameworks do not specifically prohibit service providers from charging customers more or less for different overall classes of service, but most including the 2010 FCC framework required them to disclose those differences in clear language to customers. I.e. "if you buy FIOS Verizon, you'll get huge bandwidth to your house but we're not going to allow you to use that bandwidth to stream Netflix to your house, we're going to throttle that traffic down to a lower level of quality than the bandwidth suggests."

      So Verizon could theoretically do what they are doing, but only if they told their customers they were going to do it and allowed them to make a choice as to whether to pay for such a service. At the moment, Verizon does not appear to be doing so, no matter what their CS engineer told a single subscriber.

    17. Re:Illegal HOW EXACTLY by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Net Neutrality can be forced on telecommunication services. But only if there's a law change, according to the most recent court case.

  33. Competition eliminate Competition by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

    So, your whole premise is that competition eliminates competition, but you support government intervention to eliminate competition because competition eliminates competition.

    Wow. 420 much?

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  34. Time's almost up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I saw this on the main page:

    MOVINâ(TM) ON UP. You are on Slashdot Classic. We are starting to move into new digs in February by automatically redirecting greater numbers of you. The new site is a work in progress so Classic Slashdot will be available from the footer for several more months. As we migrate our audience, we want to hear from you to make sure that the redesigned page has all the features you expect. Find out more.

    Has anyone made any overrides for this (custom css files or javascript-fu)?

    I've only stayed on slashdot because there's an option to use slash-v1 style comments. I don't think I'll be staying around if slash-v3 style becomes mandatory.

  35. All traffic is equal except "Special" traffic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What Comcast does (AFAIK) is to have slow connections to the general internet.
    Then if a company wants to pay them extra, they can setup a faster connection to that company's servers.
    So no the aren't "slowing down" anyone, but yes they provide worst than common service to any company that does not pay them extra.

    This is not a suitable way to run a utility.

    1. Re:All traffic is equal except "Special" traffic by mcl630 · · Score: 1

      Evidence?

  36. Laws by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure you can stop them. You can revoke their Incorporation Charter.

    One thing we seem to have forgotten is that Corporations are creations of the state, and thus subservient to the state (ostensibly).

    The problem is, that when HARM is done, we have never simply revoked Corporate Charters. If we start doing that, then CxOs and boards will take their fiduciary responsibility a little more seriously.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    1. Re:Laws by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      we have never simply revoked Corporate Charters.

      Same reason "we" rarely take away drivers' licenses. Sure they're liable to slaughter innocent people if we let them back on the road, but if we take their license away they won't be able to earn money (and pay taxes.)

    2. Re:Laws by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      the fix for this is if a Corporation gets its charter revoked then ALL assets of the company get sold to the highest bidder then

      1 the funds are to be used to provide income to any employees that lost jobs until they have been reemployed
      2 the state keeps the balance
      3 the CxOs are barred from employment in that field or any similar field for the next 7 years.

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    3. Re:Laws by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Sure you can stop them. You can revoke their Incorporation Charter.

      You don't even have to go that far. Just revoke their government-granted municipal monopoly. Either open up the field to competitors, or rule that they're a common carrier and require them to allow other ISPs to lease their lines at a fair rate.

      Back when cable modems first came out, the city I was living in announced they were going to allow a second cable company to provide service. The very next day my cable company cut my TV/internet bill from $70/mo to $60/mo. Meaning they could have done so at any time, they just weren't because there was no competing service to steal away their customers if they charged too much or provided crappy service.

      There's a strong anti-free market sentiment on slashdot, but in this particular case the problem isn't a free market failure. The problem is the government-granted monopolies. If the government were doing its job and riding hard on the neck of the company they granted the monopoly to - making sure they were providing excellent service at a fair price - maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But they've granted Verizon a monopoly and given them free rein charge whatever they want and provide whatever level of service they want. That's a lose-lose combination. Either start regulating it like a monopoly, or allow competition to move in.

    4. Re:Laws by sjames · · Score: 1

      It is not uncommon though to grant a probationary license that only permits essential travel (to and from work only is a common restriction) and generally has significant strings attached such as attending DUI school, community service, and frequent renewals that amount to seeing a probation officer.

    5. Re:Laws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ever heard of a bus? train?

    6. Re:Laws by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      1) all funds will be used by former employees until they disappear, at which point they'll start looking for work, swelling the unemployment ranks. Because who would want to hire someone from such an inept company?
      2) there will be no balance left. See #1 above.
      3) The CxOs will claim unemployment compensation, costing society even more.

  37. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Letting links degrade isn't illegal. Throttling is. If links getting degraded was illegal, then getting congestion would be illegal. A link is degraded when it can no longer handle its peak load, yet you see this happen all the time. Verizon is just a bit more ballsy about doing it with high profile routes in an attempt to get more money out of other companies.

  38. UNDER WHAT LAW by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Sure you can stop them. You can revoke their Incorporation Charter.

    Come on, under what law can you do that? Again, what law lets you do anything to Verizon for what they are doing?

    This is what you are not grasping, Net Neutrality is not designed to stop actions like this. The government does not care about this. They will not act against this.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:UNDER WHAT LAW by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Under what law are we required to continue to allow a charter?

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    2. Re:UNDER WHAT LAW by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

      I didn't say there was a law. I said it was possible to have a law like this. The problem is, we have gutless Republicrats and Demicans in office, who get a large chunk of campaign funds from non-person entities.

      I'm a libertarian, and the greatest threat to our democratic republic has been from campaign contributions by people/entities ineligible to vote for a candidate / Proposition. My solution for this would be to require ALL campaign contributions be from ONLY people eligible to vote for said candidate/ballot measure. I wouldn't prevent XYZ Corp or ABC Union from campaigning, just not directly giving money to the candidate. I would also make campaign contributions unlimited if they are by eligible voters in the election.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:UNDER WHAT LAW by Microlith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Net Neutrality is not designed to stop actions like this.

      If it's directed towards Netflix, yes it was.

      The government does not care about this. They will not act against this.

      Only because the FCC is hindered by Congress and can't put ISPs in the common carrier category they belong in. So Verizon looks at traffic and says "oh, sorry about Netflix being slow, have you seen our TV deals?!"

      But please, be more enraged on behalf of abusive corporations. I'm sure they appreciate it.

    4. Re:UNDER WHAT LAW by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Under the law that grants them the charter. There are all kinds of laws around a company being able to exist, that are already in place.

      What there is not and has never been and never will be, is any law or regulation to stop what Verizon supposedly is doing.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    5. Re:UNDER WHAT LAW by sjames · · Score: 1

      Charters are granted contingent on being in the public interest. Pass a law forbidding their selective throttling (or just declare internet service to be telecommunications rather than information services). If they ignore it, penalize them and then void their charter. Surely it is not in the public interest to allow a scofflaw to continue.

  39. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Scowler · · Score: 1

    Proper net neutrality legislation would define suitable actions for an ISP near or at capacity during peak usage. Because in that situation, stuff is getting throttled, and I sure hope my http or SMTP request has higher priority than somebody's torrent or video stream. QoS is a good thing.

  40. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    Because it would be illegal, and they would be subject to legal repercussions, unlike now.

    You are clearly suffering from the disjoint definition of "Net Neutrality" -- There is the version that you think would be right, and then there is the version that the FCC adopted. You've already been told that there is a difference, but you continue to choose to ignore reality due to some blind hope that the FCC is there to protect you. The FCC is there to generate campaign contributions by selling policy to companies like AT&T and Verizon. As a matter of fact, these companies were the people consulted when drafting the FCC's Net Neutrality rules. You were told about that too. You chose to also ignore that due to that same blind hope.

    Nothing the FCC adopted would prevent Verizon from limiting bandwidth to such an extent that services like Netflix become pixelated junk during peek usage periods. That is the real Net Neutrality as adopted. You were told what the real Net neutrality was, and you ignored it while cheering it on. Welcome to the internet that you cheered for.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  41. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because it would be illegal, and they would be subject to legal repercussions, unlike now. What part of this do you find confusing?

    The part where Verizon is demonstrably doing something to cause this. "slow speeds to netflix" can be explained a lot of ways that don't involve content based throttling. Short of a subpoena for exactly the right router configuration (good luck, they have about 20,000) you can't.

    Yes, you can obtain this evidence.

    You don't go searching through 20,000 routers to figure this out.

    Instead, you ask and obtain the network speed results from 2,000,000 Verizon customers through a public crowdsourcing campaign.

    Either the hard evidence will clearly show that speeds are being throttled, or the public backlash alone with a campaign like this will force Verizon to "fix" it, else they lose customers. A lot of customers.

    Either way, we can get the evidence. You just have to think outside the box.

  42. We’re going to redouble our efforts! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope so, Commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.

  43. Ummm QOS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course the business service is faster, they're paying a higher price and get a higher priority. Non-story, but that's what I've come to expect on Slashdot now.

  44. Because it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Net Neutrality states that all data must be treated equally. That means if I purchase a 20Mb connection, I should be able to allocate that 20Mb connection to any service I want without the ISP throttling it down. If Netflix lets me stream at 20Mb, but for some reason I can only get 10Mb because it is throttled by Verizon, well then that breaks Net Neutrality. Obviously there is a lot of things to take in, like router, modem, and infrastructure, but if there is obvious evidence showing my connections to a particular service is treated differently, it would be illegal under Net Neutrality.

    1. Re: Because it is. by Scowler · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That is an over broad definition, one that would preclude common sense QoS during times when ISP is approaching capacity limits. Common sense QoS would include, for example, putting torrents or FTP on low priority tier, voice communication on high tier, etc. What is bad is discriminating between two similar types of traffic, like Netflix vs YouTube.

    2. Re: Because it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why should your voice chat take priority over my torrents or FTP? Here's a better idea, ISPs deliver the speeds they promised even when everyone wants to watch netflix at the same time. Bandwidth is cheap, and ISPs are mostly overpriced monopolies. They can easily afford good service, and we should make them deliver.

    3. Re: Because it is. by Scowler · · Score: 1

      Of course ISP's having over-capacity at all nodes, 24/7 is ideal. (Something about unicorns here...) Anyways, when you hit capacity, then what? Force everything to degrade at the same rate? That may sound fair superficially, but as others here noted latency-sensitive traffic will be hurt far worse than other types. Fairness ends up being entirely subjective, whether you use QoS or not.

    4. Re: Because it is. by Bengie · · Score: 2

      Last and middle mile can cheaply be designed with a 1:1 provisioned to available bandwidth, all the way up to 1gb/1gb. The only issue is the trunk, but with a large population, peak usage from day-to-day is almost identical. The entire Internet is designed around the network being idle 95% of the time. You target peak usage. It's a good thing that peak usage is quite stable and easily predictable.

    5. Re: Because it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, force everything to degrade at the same rate. If you have latency-sensitive traffic, it is your responsibility, and not the responsibility of your ISP, to ensure that your data arrives in a timely fashion (say by purchasing a dedicated line).

    6. Re: Because it is. by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      You would thing that if you were to look at things superficially. But who is to say that a torrent has lower priority than voice?

      The better way to do it is to allow the end-user to set priority with safeguards to prevent abuse.

    7. Re: Because it is. by BlueBlade · · Score: 1

      Net neutrality is about source of data, not about the type of data. It still allows for QoS for voice and other real-time data uses. All it says is that traffic must be treated exactly the same depending on the source/origin. So you aren't allowed for example, to slow netflix down but let hulu go through at full speed, etc.

      --
      Religion is the best example of mass psychosis
    8. Re: Because it is. by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      If you are throttling an hour a day it isn't QoS anymore, it is traffic shaping. If you throttle an hour a day to levels below 10% of rated bandwidth, are you delivering the bandwidth promised?

      It is one thing for an ISP to react to using 100% bandwidth 100% of the time, but another altogether when you want peak capacity for 5% of the time, 50% for 15%, and 10% for the remaining 80% of the time. If you run two Netflix streams at a time at home with a 2 Mbit connection, you have unreasonable expectations of your ISP. Running two with a 10 Mbit connection doesn't seem as far off, as long as you aren't talking 24x7.

    9. Re: Because it is. by Scowler · · Score: 1

      Good post. Totally agree that a customer merely trying to get that 5/15/80 profile and can't get it has a legit beef. My point before should not excuse bad marketing and over promising on the part of the ISP... Merely stating how I think the technical people working at the ISP should manage things when shit hits the fan.

    10. Re: Because it is. by Scowler · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure cable providers can afford to agree with this... Anyways, aside from this, I agree with your post. Big providers like TWC, Comcast, VZ, etc can accurately forecast out peak demand many months, even years ahead. They are big enough to have easy access to capital markets, etc. However, what of smaller, regional players? These broad "net neutrality" demands could be enough to sink them. Perhaps they deserve that fate, or perhaps instead the rules should allow them some flexibility.

    11. Re:Because it is. by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Net Neutrality states that all data must be treated equally.

      No it doesn't. And nobody wants that. Do you really want your voip call to break up because the line is slammed with my linux ISO download?

      Net Neutrality more accurately states that all destinations be treated equally.

      The ISP cannot make a deal with google to throttle my traffic to microsoft and yahoo but give me fast access to google.

      The ISP cannot throttle my connection to netflix because it made a deal with amazon. Nor can it host its own video streaming service and throttle my connection to 3rd party services.

      In other words, proper net neutrality prevents ISPs from ACTIVELY using throttlling to advance the relative functionality of a service it would prefer you to use over an equivalent service from somewhere else.

      ISPs can still throttle torrents to ensure voip traffic moves through. ISPs can also still have deals to have netflix servers onsite if they wish, which are lower latency and faster than accessing apple or amazon servers which are not onsite; however they make reasonable best effort for that offsite traffic. They can't deliberately cripple or throttle that connection.

      Finally, net neutrality also effectively prevents ISPs from turning around BILLING amazon and other 3rd party content providers for the "privilege" of having unthrottled access to the ISPs customers -- this is something the ISPs would LOVE to do.

    12. Re: Because it is. by guevera · · Score: 1

      What's the problem with running two streams 24/7 on a 10mbit connection? Should be able to handle it.

    13. Re: Because it is. by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Cable providers spend more each year just in upgrades to their copper network than the cost of upgrading the same number of customer to all fiber. It's not an issue of money. They have a good thing going and unless there is a reason to go fiber, they don't want to rock the boat. "Don't fix what ain't broken". The only reason they are not going fiber is because of the lack of competition. Google comes in with 1gb for $70 and they freak out. I'm sure Google could easily offer 1gb for $100 if they couldn't get all of the help from the city.

    14. Re:Because it is. by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Do you really want your voip call to break up because the line is slammed with my linux ISO download?

      This should not happen in the first place, QoS or not. Any fixed-line ISP in a city should never, outside of sporadic events like a DDOS, have congestion on their network. If they do, they should be sued for false advertisement.

    15. Re: Because it is. by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      At work with 10-Meg metropolitan fiber, no problem. At home, I pay 10% the price for a 15/5 plan; I would be kidding myself if I thought I could get the same level of service. The $ savings justifies it though, within reason.

      I think Verizon's business FIOS plans are about double residential rates, which should give you less contention.

    16. Re: Because it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as I hate the large ISPs, your reasoning is complete nonsense. Voice traffic should take priority over your torrent traffic for many reasons, one of which being that E911 service is often provided through VoIP. Police and hospital communication flows over VoIP. Makes perfect sense to drop important communications just so you can download XXX-Anal-Addicts-19.mp4 through your torrent, right? Because this is essentially what you are saying, because you're definitely not reporting an emergency or providing life-saving prescription information to a pharmacist via BitTorrent, you ignorant twat. With your reasoning, there should be no need to pull over for an ambulance or a fire truck while driving down the road, because your need to hit up the 7-11 for some more RedBull should not be superseded by some IDIOT having a heart attack.

      Try working for an ISP and see how "cheap" bandwidth and routing hardware is, smart guy. Providing 1:1 network capacity is impossible, even if you're the largest interconnected network on the planet. Let me ask you - last time you were quoted for 120 10Gb/s circuits around different parts of the US - was it "cheap"? Were those 100Gb cFPs and associated modules that support hierarchical QoS and distributed forwarding for the core network "cheap" from your preferred router vendor?

      I'm not arguing for dropping traffic during normal, non-congested times, but there are definitely reasons why congestion requires proper handling of packets. In addition, if there are *customers* of yours that *want* to pay for preferential service, you should be allowed to do that. However, forcing non-customers like content providers, and customers alike, to pay for preferential treatment is a no-no.

      That said, I also think this guy's blog post is BS - you can't receive information from a Level 1 FiOS support tech and act like Sherlock Friggin' Holmes busting Professor Moriarty when they answer a question and they clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

      "But he has a traceroute!"

      Yeah - tell me - how does the return path look? What's the load on all the routers? How do the routers deal with exception traffic like ICMP? Traceroute is not the nail in the coffin that this guy tries to make it out to be.

    17. Re: Because it is. by Bengie · · Score: 1

      You pay 10% the price because you don't get an SLA, not because of the bandwidth. Dedicated bandwidth to-and-from nearly any city in the world is under $1/mbit. If you used your 15mb connection 24/7 and had fully dedicated bandwidth to anywhere in the world, it'd run you about $7.5/month. How much are you paying? More than $7.5 I bet.

      #1 Cost for a dedicated business line is the SLA
      #2 Cost is the physical line, it must be maintained
      #3 Cost, which represents less than 1% of the total cost, is the bandwidth.

      1 and 2 are both relatively fixed costs, which is why 10x the bandwidth only costs 2x the price. Something along the lines of 10mb for $1000, 100mb for $2000, and 1000mb for $4000. Once you start to get into the 10gb and 100gb+ speeds, bandwidth is crazy cheap, with a current min of about $0.4/mbit. But this price drops about 50% every year.

    18. Re: Because it is. by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Providing 1:1 network capacity is impossible

      Not anymore. New tech in the past 3 years that is no commercial available. 400 1gb port chassis with 4x100gb uplinks and 37tb/s-100tb/s core routers with 100gb ports and DWMD-Ethernet multiplexers that take 10gb and 100gb Ethernet ports and can mutiplex up to 16tb/s of any combination of 10gb and 100gb links over a single fiber with a max range of 700km over common fiber and no repeaters or re-generators.

      Newer tech coming down the pipeline has routers with 1pb/s of routing with 1tb/s ports and DWMD-multiplexers that can move 850tb/s down a single fiber.

      You still think we have a bandwidth issue? Yes, this will take many years to get phased in, but it is here and ready.

    19. Re:Because it is. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      No. No proposal of net neutrality has even done that. Could you point to the version you are thinking of? The ones that are on congressional record (introduced and failed, or thoroughly discussed) all allow for oversubscription, QoS and throttling. It just can't be anti-competitive. If Netflix is throttled, but Verizon's video services aren't, that'd be illegal under net neutrality. But oversubscription, and the resulting slowdown would be legal, even if *all* video were slowed to improve HTTP in congested times (provided throttling all video doesn't give Verizon a competitive advantage).

    20. Re: Because it is. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Oh, we aren't talking about what one anonymous coward's fantasy is, but what appears in every serious submission for regulation for net neutrality. If they are committing fraud or false advertising, that's a different issue than net neutrality. Don't smear net neutrality with your inability to understand laws.

    21. Re: Because it is. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I bought a 100 Gbps port from Alcatel Lucent recently. I could have bought a car (small, but new) for the same price. And when you are done building that network, it'll sit 99% idle. What's the benefit in that?

    22. Re:Because it is. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      It's been tried and failed. In addition to not understanding how residential ISPs operate, you also don't understand how the courts operate. Got it.

  45. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hint: Socialism is the politically correct way to say communist onthis side of the pond.

  46. This Seems To Be What I Am Seeing As Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was frustrated that Netflix was stuttering on my 25/25 FiOS connection. Netflix should only be taking a very small percentage of that bandwidth (~2-3 Mb).

    As FiOS was getting expensive in my area ($90 for 25/25), I switched to Cablevision. The experience is like night and day.
    Cablevision smokes FiOS for Netflix, YouTube and other video sites in general.

    1. Re:This Seems To Be What I Am Seeing As Well by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      I moved from DSL to cable because Netflix was spending too long buffering. Supposed to be about 10x faster on the downstream but still that little spinning circle is a way-too-frequent experience. Keeping the cable though as it help with the "fallback" viewing method.

  47. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe it would require not to throttle one host/network/server for another.

    They should still be allowed to prioritize services with latency issues (such as VoIP/Skype/Etc) over ones without them (buffered streaming video).

    They should not be able to prioritize one streaming video service over another, just because one involves them getting payed (HBO go for example).

  48. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Shoten · · Score: 2

    The only thing competition does is to create monopolies, since the whole point of competition is to eliminate competitors.

    "This word you keep using...I do not think it means what you think it means" -Inigo Montoya

    Competition does not lead to monopolies. Competition and monopoly are literally antonyms; they are the opposite of one another. So let me ask you this...if not competition, what would you propose to prevent a monopoly?

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  49. Nope, not a service to consumers by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    They are throttling "cloud providers" ...which are a service...

    Wrong, "Cloud Providers" are multiple sets of IP's to Verizon, nothing more or less. To a company AWS is a service, but not to the consumer of the data.

    Given any ACTUAL service - say Netflix - why Netflix is free to send stuff directly to consumers instead of storing it on a cloud provider.

    Thus no SERVICE is impacted by Verizon simply letting the natural bottleneck that happens around cloud providers because they have a lot of data people access exist without addressing...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Nope, not a service to consumers by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So if they throttle the Netflix service (by port/protocol or however they do it), they are throttling a service, but if they throttle all Netflix IP addresses, it's not throttling a service? I disagree.

  50. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Scowler · · Score: 1

    I RTFA. Nowhere does this blogger compare Netflix traffic to similar service from someone like YouTube. Illegality under the normal understanding of "Net Neutrality" would require showing a bias between two similar sources of traffic.

  51. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by maharvey · · Score: 1

    There should be an app for that...

  52. How long before I have to buy Internet "channels"? by Gordo_1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The Premium package gives you access to all your streaming favorites like YouTube, Hulu Plus, Netflix along with dozens of foreign movie sites you've never heard of.
    The Friends & Family package gives you access to the people you want to keep in touch with, when you want to keep in touch with them, over your favorite NSA-sponsored proprietary social networking site: FacePalmSpace.
    Our Adults-Only package allows you to stream all your favorite German Scheiße porn tube sites!"

    Don't think so? Bookmark me, wait a couple years, then come back and mod me "Insightful".

  53. Poor english by Yaur · · Score: 1

    The key line from the transcript is "yes, it is limited bandwidth to cloud providers". You can translate that bad English into : "Verizon is limiting bandwidth to cloud providers" and get incensed or "Verizon has limited bandwidth to cloud providers" and have a complete non-issue. Given how unlikely it is that a low level CSR is going to know about Verizon's super secret throttling system I'm going with the latter.

    1. Re:Poor english by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The key line from the transcript is "yes, it is limited bandwidth to cloud providers". You can translate that bad English into : "Verizon is limiting bandwidth to cloud providers" and get incensed or "Verizon has limited bandwidth to cloud providers" and have a complete non-issue. Given how unlikely it is that a low level CSR is going to know about Verizon's super secret throttling system I'm going with the latter.

      The latter is exactly how I read the chat session with the CSR. Think about it, all bandwidth in the Internet is actually limited...to the speed of the router port (or whatever) that the link is connected to. Network links do not auto-magically increase and decrease "on demand", because if they did, the ISP would have to provision for "peak demand" and accept the various costs associated with "excess unused capacity" during slow periods.

      Perhaps Verizon has finite amount of bandwidth between them and Netflix ISP? If they are "direct peering", then the typical traffic arrangement on the Internet between "direct peering partners" is equal traffic exchange in both directions at some agreed upon percentile, typically 95th percentile. Every month there is some degree of negotiation between peering partners over "equal traffic exchange", even if there is a contract in place. (been there, done that)

      We know FiOS promises lots of bandwidth (in the form of high speeds) to the end user. I think many folks see that as "happy days on the Internet". There was a /. article that referred to an orignal web posting elsewhere of a dude in SoCal that ran up the monthly FiOS bandwidth usage to 77TB; the due was sharing all sorts of stuff with friends. The FiOS folks called him to ask about what was going on and the dude admitted to running servers. You know the typical ISP response to that, right? I don't remember if the dude correctly understood FiOS issue with running servers on a residential service.

      Ok. So if lots of people run Netflix, then ISPs have to provision up lots of bandwidth to support that, or, they deploy the Netflix caching servers (see netflix blog about that). If the traffic patterns between the user ISP and Netflix ISP are asymmetrical, the user ISP is probably going to get a bill for the bandwidth in excess of "equal traffic exchange" to Netflix ISP.

      If you think the concept of "equal traffic exchange" is a unique creation of the Internet, nope. It occurs between long distance voice carriers and sometimes between local exchange carriers and long distance carriers, but always with monthly billing reconciliation where 1 party or the other writes the partner a check for the "excess traffic".

      It all comes down to who is going to pay for the bandwidth. It might be as simple as bundling up a few more 10GE ports on the routers, or maybe moving to 100GE, but all that assumes the various ISP routers are co-located with Netflix ISP. If they are separated by some distance, someone has to pay a carrier to handle the traffic between the 2 endpoints (user's ISP and Netflix ISP), or if the user ISP is big enough then they update their own infrastructure to support Netflix traffic (fat chance of that happening).

      So, I kinda see why the guy in the blog is tweaked given the chat session log, but I also think he should read his own blog more closely. Notice this comment:

      Frankly, I was surprised he admitted to this. I’ve since tested this almost every day for the last couple of weeks. During the day – the bandwidth is normal to AWS. However, after 4pm or so – things get slow.

      That should tell you and the dude int he blog that the ISP (FiOS in this case) is probably provisioning their links for average daily use, not peak demand use...since 4pm is roughly when people start getting home on the East Coast (the blogger is the the Dallas TX area).

      So a "peak provisioning" strategy kinda makes sense like buying a super expensive car and only driving at 10 MPH about 95% of the time; there is a lot of excess capability going unused and that car buyer might be better served in their wallet by a Yugo. OTOH there is the concept of "conspicuous consumption" to consider...but I digress ;-)

  54. Astound cable in CA/MN by Archfeld · · Score: 1

    My cable company has been metering us for several weeks now following a slight overage in our data limit. They charged us 15 bucks for exceeding 100 GB in a calendar month, thanks to a Tera-Online download and a busy month with Netflix. The corporate media companies are going to finally succeed in their dream of channelizing the net and making it just another TV medium dominated by commercial adds and controlled by the media oligarchy. Welcome to the future...it is a place of dim hopes, shattered dreams and corporate citizenship. The Idiocracy lives...

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  55. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by briancox2 · · Score: 2

    I also am a libertarian/conservative-leaning voter who, I believe, has to have a similar view to you. But on Net Neutrality, the freedom of the people cannot be protected by giving freedom to an oligarchy. In the modern day, the people are not only subject to the limitations of law. More and more, they are subject to the rules set by corporate oligarchies. In the US, unlike in Korea, there is a gentlemen's agreement amongst internet providers to limit the speeds that we should expect. The capitalist idea of personal property has been perverted over the last 30 years by the use of EULA's that is prevelant, which teach people that they only own their computers to the degree that MicrosoftApple tells them they can.

    If you would prefer a company that provides freer computing or freer internet service, there's really no where to run.

    Unless you exercise your free-market right to go shopping for a new government. Brazil is looking pretty good to me.

    --
    We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
  56. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

    For what it's worth, we just did this with our Family plan (ditch V for Tmo) - and, can verify, 2 weeks of normal 4G data usage on TMo totalled about 20 Meg, setup as a mobile hotspot and give the kids tablets with Netflix - ran through 480 Meg of data in like 5 minutes - I don't think there's any throttling going on there...

  57. Not directed towards Netflix, that's the point by SuperKendall · · Score: 0

    If it's directed towards Netflix, yes it was.

    Which we know it wasn't; the whole point of the article was that HIS services were being impacted because supposedly "cloud providers" IP addresses were rate throttled. So it's not Netflix, it's everyone, which is uniform and thus OK under any definition of Net Neutrality.

    But please, be more enraged on behalf of abusive corporations.

    Fuck you. I'm trying to point out that Net Neutrality exists as a tool of complacency to make you THINK the government cares at all about what corporations do to you. If you are to dense to see that, and you apparently are, then I hope you enjoy living in the hell you promoted.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Not directed towards Netflix, that's the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dear God, can someone call this kid's parents already?

  58. Closest so far by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Net Neutrality at its core says: "you may not treat traffic from one location/company/program differently than you treat data from all other locations/companies/programs."

    Verizon (allegedly) is not; they are treating all Cloud Providers equally.

    They are not throttling any one company. They are simply allowing a bottleneck in the network to exist to "cloud providers".

    Which would happen to impact Netflix, yes, but also impacted the guy that wrote the article who is not Netflix - he's just being treated equally.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Closest so far by sjames · · Score: 2

      Then why does his office connection that goes through the same router not see any of that congestion? RTFA and get back to us.

    2. Re:Closest so far by DaHat · · Score: 1

      This is what Comcast in the Seattle area has been doing for a bit now... their link to Netflix is overburdened most of the time and have not prioritized upgrading it at their own cost... the net result, all traffic to/from Netflix via Comcast is treated equally poorly.

    3. Re:Closest so far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      10 bucks says they aren't doing it to their own Redbox service.

    4. Re:Closest so far by lgw · · Score: 2

      Equality of any kind between traffic on a home residential connection and traffic on a business connection has nothing at all to do with Net Neutrality. All Net Neutrality says is "you can't do company-specific throttling". Verizon wasn't, they were (apparently) throttling all cloud sources equally (obviously as a way to throttle Netflix without targeting Netflix), which was legal under the rules.

      The rules weren't well thought out.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re:Closest so far by sjames · · Score: 1

      They were apparently throttling AWS specifically (because it just happened to be where Netflix is) but only for residential accounts. Business accounts in the same circuit didn't have the problem.

      Meanwhile, even if it was all (literally all) cloud services, it would still be discriminatory throttling. Just like it's still racism even if you hate all Caucasians equally.

    6. Re:Closest so far by lgw · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't be "discriminatory throttling" under those FCC rules, was SuperKendall's point. Just because something is called "Net Neutrality" doesn't mean it does what you want - even before regulatory capture perverts it.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  59. Exactly, Spirit != Reality by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    That doesn't mean that what Verizon is supposedly doing doesn't violate the spirit of what people want net neutrality protection against, however.

    That's exactly my point. What people want is this.

    But it's not what they are getting, it was never what the FCC proposed, it's not what they will ever do. And yet people are all up in arms because the FCC is not allowed to control ISP's even though it will do nothing in the SPIRIT of why people want Net Neutrality.

    Net Neutrality is a hollow label simply used to sell a bad product.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Exactly, Spirit != Reality by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I very much disagree that simply because we don't now, and have never had true net neutrality, that means we can't ever have it. We can have it, but we have to fight for it.

    2. Re:Exactly, Spirit != Reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Net Neutrality is a hollow label simply used to sell a bad product.

      Net neutrality is the label for what we want. If the proposal does something different then it's not really net neutrality any more than Velveeta is really cheese or Andy Samberg is a comedian.

  60. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Qzukk · · Score: 1

    l100.dllstx-vfttp-93.verizon-gni.net

    My canceling my phone service and telling them I'm switching to T-Mobile because of cloud throttling.

    Wake me when T-Mobile offers FTTP, until then keep pretending you have a clue what you're going on about.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  61. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because Net Neutrality requires them to treat all packets equally. If they throttle AWS they have to throttle packets from their own FiOS TV also. That's what stops them. Hope that answers your question.

  62. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because it would be illegal, and they would be subject to legal repercussions, unlike now. What part of this do you find confusing?

    Oh, right.

    And so would extending Obamacare deadlines by Presidential fiat.

    As if our government cares about legality...

  63. Apple, meet Orange by mcmonkey · · Score: 2

    Comparing a residential account and a business account? I don't see a story here.

  64. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, did you just mention a major corporation and the phrase (sufficient deterrent) in regards to penalties in the same sentence?

    Where's my ROFLcopter?

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
  65. My ISP still lable them as 'Tech Support', LOL!.. by rts008 · · Score: 1

    Well, I have no experience with Verizon, a few calls to my ISP tech support(Suddenlink.net) I have made convinced me that they would be no help.

    One in particular some years back:
    *Stillwater, Oklahoma: Internet service was down again...a frequent occurrence at that time, but usually only for short periods.(they were "upgrading the infrastructure", so I generally cut them some slack) This time it had been about 16 hours.
    The weather was admittedly pretty bad, heavy wind, heavy rain, lightning, cold, etc...*

    I call tech support:
    Me:I cannot access the internet. The modem is not connecting with you.

    'Tech': well, the internet is down temporarirly. We're sorry, but we are trying to get it working again as quickly as we can.

    Me: The internet is down, the whole thing?

    Tech: Yes, the whole internet is down. During the storm earlier, a truck hit a pole in town and took down the whole internet.

    Me: A truck hit a pole in town, and took out the whole internet? Hmmm...Thank you, goodbye.

            *ROFLCopter with rib cramps!*
    So, for those of you that thought you knew how the internets work, think again! I now have the means to control the whole internet....because I know which pole it is!!!!

    But don't worry, for the measly sum of one million dollars, I will put a truck proof barrier around it.

    After all that's a nice internet you got there, it would be a shame for something to happen to it...*fires up chainsaw* ;-)

    About the only useful information I can get out of them is whether it is a regional problem, city problem, or neighborhood problem.
    If it's none of the above, then I can safely deduce that the problem is between the house and the pole in the back yard, and put in a service request.

    Fortunately I know enough networking to trouble shoot and support/manage my own home LAN, so I guess this is good enough for my purposes.
    Unfortunately, I'm not the typical residential/home user, who may not have that knowledge or ability.

    --
    Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  66. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Proper net neutrality legislation would define suitable actions for an ISP near or at capacity during peak usage. Because in that situation, stuff is getting throttled, and I sure hope my http or SMTP request has higher priority than somebody's torrent or video stream. QoS is a good thing.

    And THAT'S exacly why government regulation sucks.

    By restricting what's allowed, you've precluded competition, innovation and improvement.

    Sure it's necessary at times - you don't want no government regulations on driving cars, for example. You sure don't want "innovative" driving of semi trucks at 100 mph.

    But in a technology field? Where the results are you get data at 3 mb/sec instead of 6?

  67. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by i+kan+reed · · Score: 0

    Yeah, well beta slashdot conflicts with good taste.

  68. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess "Slashdot Beta Tourette's" is the winter bug going around this year...

  69. Traceroute doesn't lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The 125:1 bandwidth difference between work and home is in VZ's network.

    That doesn't necessarily say that they are discriminating against AWS traffic.
    (All Internet traffic may be slow, except for the special case of Speedtest?)
    The same test results could be from more congestion in the home feeder network than that for business.
    (One might expect less congestion in the higher priced business service.)

    The other interesting test is the 234:1 home bandwidth difference between Speedtest and AWS.
    That looks a bit fishy. To be useful, Speedtest should be representative of what an application would see.
    Looks like there is something in the path which is preventing this.
    Almost like Speedtest has been tweaked to make things appear better than they are.
    Perhaps that is a Net Neutrality, or at least a reasonable disclosure violation?

    None of this may relate to Network Neutrality, but the Speedtest difference says that VZ has opportunity for significant improvement in the usable bandwidth for their Internet access service.

    It is interesting that this started soon after the FCC rules were relaxed. Perhaps the Congress can tighten these back up.

  70. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by OakDragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    We made one, but the data being returned kept dropping out for some reason.

  71. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sjames · · Score: 1

    A fat fine from the FCC might help if we had solid net neutrality. A reminder that their past compliance will be considered when they wish to expand their spectrum usage wouldn't hurt.

  72. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

    Yes, because most people totally have 4 or 5 great options for high speed internet service.

    Oh wait, actually I meant 1 or 2, but sure. If there's true competitive pressure then things change.

    Just like how Comcast offers faster internet speeds in some metropolitan areas. Not coincidentally those are the exact same areas that happen to have Verizon FiOS. Where their only competition is DSL? Not so much.

  73. A way to get back speed you paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Blocking ads & hardcoding a fav site (like netflix.com): Hosts do more w/ less (1 file) @ a faster level (ring 0) vs redundant browser addons (slowing up slower ring 3 browsers) via filtering 4 the IP stack (coded in C, loads w/ OS, & 1st net resolver queried w\ 45++ yrs.of optimization):

    ---

    APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit:

    http://start64.com/index.php?o...

    (Details of hosts' benefits enumerated in link)

    Summary:

    ---

    A. ) Hosts do more than AdBlock ("souled-out" 2 Google/Crippled by default) + Ghostery (Advertiser owned) - "Fox guards henhouse", or Request Policy -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...

    B. ) Hosts add reliability vs. downed or redirected DNS + secure vs. known malicious domains too -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... w/ less added "moving parts" complexity + room 4 breakdown,

    C. ) Hosts files yield more speed (blocks ads & hardcodes fav sites - faster than remote DNS), security (vs. malicious domains serving mal-content + block spam/phish), reliability (vs. downed or Kaminsky redirect vulnerable DNS, 99% = unpatched vs. it & worst @ ISP level + weak vs FastFlux + DynDNS botnets), & anonymity (vs. dns request logs + DNSBL's).

    ---

    Addons are more complex + slowup browsers in message passing (use a few concurrently - you'll see) - Addons slowdown SLOWER usermode browsers layering on MORE: I work w/ what you have in kernelmode, via hosts ( A tightly integrated PART of the IP stack itself )

    APK

    P.S.=> I.E.-> Blocking out adbanners alone gets you back TONS of speed/bandwidth - up to/on avg. 40% less to download per page per site typically (for online time you PAID for adbanners rob you of no less), & hardcoding in a favorite like netflix.com does even more & makes you more reliable vs. downed DNS or redirected/hacked/cracked ones (faster than calling out to a remote DNS, which IF you use the ISP one, odds are it's STILL unpatched 5++ yrs. later vs. the Kaminsky redirect flaw DNS has)... apk

  74. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sjames · · Score: 1

    OK, what would explain it? The traffic went the same route until the last hop. They happily verified that there was not a general congestion problem on his local segment. Then, the CSR admitted they were throtrtling. RTFA!

  75. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Petron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, they are confused by an unclear description of "net neutrality".

    I've seen some places (non-fox news) describe "net neutrality" as "Enforcing traffic to be at equal speeds"... which is not the case. People using that description would be against it because they believe it would mean all web traffic would be slower, to match the speed of the slowest server... That reeks of "All must be fair, so we must race to the bottom" and "Everybody gets a trophy" that many people disapprove of.

    If you inform them that Net Neutrality is against throttling speeds, and having customers get what they paid for... then most of those against, turn sides.

    I see it as we either need to enforce Net Neutrality, or enable a free market, where we have more than one or two choices for broadband (or any other utility).... If we had 10+ ISP's to choose from, this wouldn't be an issue, one would not throttle, and that would force the others to compete. But we don't have a free market... and too many of those in power (both in government, and the big TelComs) would lose money to allow a free market.

    --
    if (it != oneThing) it = another;
  76. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by xvan · · Score: 1

    If by "this side of the pond", you ignore anything that's below Río Bravo, then you might be right...

  77. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My guess is it would be Netflix that would report the slow speeds through Verizon, not consumers. Netflix has control over a large number of the client software implementations and likely reports back the speed available to stream. They could also add a data collection piece to let viewers enter in the advertised speed of their connection (i.e. It looks like you've got a 25mbps/10mbps connection, is that correct?)

    There's power in data...isolated slowness incidents can be discounted, but if you've got 100,000 instances across multiple cities, it becomes harder to deny. It might not ever come to a legal fight...having half your customers call you to ask why they're not getting anywhere near their advertised speed could be very costly for Verizon.

  78. Re:Sample size of 1? MUST BE TRUE by sunking2 · · Score: 1

    As evil as they may be they were by far the easiest and most accommodating when I had to deal with my mothers accounts after her passing. All I had to do was give them the $ of her last bill to show it was me and they even gave me money back retroactive to the date of her death. TMobile on the other hand wanted to keep billing me until I had full power of attorney to cancel her account. What a nightmare they are.

  79. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What? You're starting to make no sense. If your only argument is that they will get around the law then stop. We already know this argument. We have it for every fucking law we talk about. So let's put that aside and discuss the merits of the law. Since you're argument applies to all laws, it's ultimately a red herring.

  80. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by pagedout · · Score: 1

    Oh my, that is probably the best use of that quote I have seen in ages.

    --Thanks!

  81. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Cognitive dissonance is the term.

    In this example, a libertarian is getting harmed by a corporation and blames the government instead.

  82. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by dave562 · · Score: 1

    According to the article, it has nothing to do with circuit capacity limitations. The user had two different classes of account (home and business) that were going through the same router. The only difference was the accounts, not the hardware.

  83. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by bhcompy · · Score: 1

    Actually, it still isn't illegal. Verizon has been in a battle with Cogent in LA over peering because of streaming services and games chewing up all the bandwidth and both of them wanting more money from each other. They aren't touching the data going through their peered connections on an individual level, instead all the data suffers. This doesn't violate net neutrality. They are neutrally fucking everyone that happens to get routed through Cogent by Verizon.

  84. Couldn't this just be contention? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many business links are uncontended. Home links are often contended. The first ISP router is different between the two traceroutes. A contended home link will always slow down during peak use times.

    1. Re:Couldn't this just be contention? by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure exactly what you meant be "contended", but an ISP should never oversubscribe their last mile to the point of congestion. Modern last mile networks, even if contented, should have no congestion as long as they're not horribly oversubscribed.

  85. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by mythosaz · · Score: 1

    Verizon CSR is, essentially, the lowest tier job in the English speaking world.

    Actual bandwidth details will tell the truth, but it's much, much more likely that a Verizon worker bee is simply an idiot, or just repeating nonsense he overheard and misunderstood while on his smoke break.

  86. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by pagedout · · Score: 1

    Awesome, so now Biden gets to decide who's traffic goes first... I hope all your emails start with your professed love for the Democrats or its the 10kbps bucket for you.

  87. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Collusion.

  88. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by spitzak · · Score: 1

    Most people support laws against murder because they think it will reduce the number of murders.

    Yet it is obvious that murder still happens even though the laws exist.

    Therefore I conclude that there should be no laws against murder! Um, wait...

  89. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Rockoon · · Score: 2

    The different accounts subscribe to different service tiers. This is like complaining that your cheaper 768Kbit account cant stream Netflix HD but your more expensive 5Mbit mid-tier account can.

    The business account is probably paying several hundred per month, and for that the account gets a different level of service, perhaps one that doesnt degrade so much during prime-time.

    I'd be pretty pissed off if my $200/mo business plan was treated equal to your $65/mo residential plan, that your $65 gives you the "Net Neutrality" right to fuck me out of the better connection that I am paying for.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  90. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by unrtst · · Score: 1

    Letting links degrade isn't illegal. Throttling is.

    Expanding on this... the post summary says he tested from both a verizon customer connection, and from a business class connection, and that both took the same path (eg. traceroute). In that scenario, the transit ilnks are the same (minor assumptions needed here), but that doesn't mean the link to the user is the same (the last mile) or the links from the local hub to verizon. Over subscribing home user cable, dsl, and dial up has been common practice for ages - that's not going away.

    A couple more points:

    1. The example has nothing to do with net nutrality. Net nutrality means that your connection to {some service / ex. Netflix} is not rate limited in preference to paths to {some other service / ex. Hulu or ISP's own service} from your same connection.

    2. The source matters here. You can't compare service levels between different offerings. If you have dial up, and your friend has value level DSL (0.5 - 1 Mbps down / 384 Kbps up), and another guy has the fastest consumer DSL (7.1 - 15 Mbps down / 768 Kbps up), and another guy has FiOS (really fast), and your office has a T3/DS3 (symetric 45 Mbps), you can't complain about "Net Nutrality" when one is slower than the other.

    A better example test would be two services running on Amazon cloud (or two services in any given colo), where both should be able to achieve the same speeds, and can be tested to do so from a tertiary point (another ISP), but when using your connection you notice a substantial difference in performance to those two services - meaning one is getting preferential treatment.

    There may be cases where the net nutrality flag can be thrown and the remote services could be on completely different networks, but that gets far more difficult to prove through testing. Any point along the separate paths could be a problem; they could have different peering agreements and varying connections to exchange points; the services themselves could preform very differently and have substantially different infrastructure; etc etc etc.

    In the end, the post is saying that a business class connection is getting better service. I'm shocked and appalled! NO SHIT!

  91. It's even worse this way! by Xenx · · Score: 2

    1, 5, 10, 100 difference services. It actually makes it worse if they're intentionally throttling MORE individual services. Each service affected under "cloud" is affected individually.

  92. Netflix pays for their connection. I pay for mine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You get plenty of money, assholes.

  93. piratebay still works fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nothing of value was lost

  94. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is nothing wrong with what he found. This doesn't mean netflix is being throttled for him. Essentially there are 3 QoS tiers.

    1. Speed Test Sites
    2. Business Customers (More expensive)
    3. Residential Customers

    There use to be a lot more before net neutrality(Bit torrent and netflix rated fairly lowly), but that caused too many complaints, so really only the speed test site one has survived. All his results say is that with the exception of Speed Test, he was getting less overall bandwidth on residential than on business. This is expected during times of congestion.

    There is only 1 correct solution to a congested network and it is QoS based on the amount of traffic you have generated during peak periods (or overall). Every node is guaranteed a certain amount of bandwidth (128k/s). At the beginning of every month, everyone starts out on tier one. Once you use a gigabyte you move down to tier 2, 10GB tier 3, 100GB tier 4..... All data from one node is treated the same and this make people that rarely use the internet get things fast and people that abuse the network get slower and slower as not to interfere with everyone else.

    As a small enhancement you can allow people to mark their packets ahead of time as tier 1,2,3,4 and it counts against the allocation for that tier. This way a well behaving customer can always have tier 1 bandwidth for voip and use bit-torrent all month at tier 4.

    This is really the only fair QoS policy for residential customers. Otherwise ISPs just need to stop over-subscribing and build out their network.

  95. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

    I feel like it's more a consequence of cognitive dissonance than cognitive dissonance itself, but I suppose quibbling over such details is just being puerile, huh?

  96. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Business class may have higher priority when going over the same internal link. If that link is congested, the residential users will feel it, but as long as the total number of business bandwidth doesn't go past link capacity, they won't feel it.

  97. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Bengie · · Score: 1

    We're talking about backbone links, so very high speeds. QoS is a bad thing here. It comes down to this. Would you rather have a 100gb link with QoS or a 400gb link with no QoS. They're the same price.

  98. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by anagama · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I see it as we either need to enforce Net Neutrality, or enable a free market, where we have more than one or two choices for broadband (or any other utility).... If we had 10+ ISP's to choose from, this wouldn't be an issue, one would not throttle, and that would force the others to compete.

    Why is this not yet ranked +5 insightful.

    I recently moved to a place where I can't get Comcast (thankfully). Even though I'm out in the country instead of in town -- everything is so much better. Youtube and Netflix don't buffer like they did with Comcast, they just play. My internet bill went from $75/mo to $50. So better and cheaper. Of course it could have been different as there is only one provider here too, but I got lucky this time and my provider isn't such an ass as Comcast. But that's just the luck of the draw.

    You simply can't treat a monopoly like a free market -- these terms are antonyms and reality demands different treatment. Believe me, if there had been competition, I would dropped Comcast faster than a fetid turd, but there wasn't and so I bitterly paid my bill and sucked it up.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  99. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sjames · · Score: 1

    According to their CSR and backed up with evidence, they are throttling. RTFA!

  100. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by shipofgold · · Score: 2

    I agree...the blogger has two data points, connects them and thinks its a "trend".

    If you look at the traceroutes at the bottom of the blog, which he seems to believe make an argument for his point, the top two IP addresses are different between business and residence. The "residential" route could simply be overloaded due to everybody firing up netflix when they get home.

    The OP has a genuine beef that he should get better bandwidth to Netflix, but he would have made a much better argument if he would have posted speed results to YouTube, dslreports, and other diverse sites not hosted on AWS....

    Until then just two data points connected by a straight line...

  101. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by anagama · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many banksters went to jail for tilting the entire fucking world economy over a cliff?

    Oh yeah, zero.

    You can even launder money for terrorists and drug cartels and be punished with nothing but a partial deferral of your annual bonus.

    As Matt Taibi put it:

    Wow. So the executives who spent a decade laundering billions of dollars will have to partially defer their bonuses during the five-year deferred prosecution agreement? Are you fucking kidding me? That's the punishment? The government's negotiators couldn't hold firm on forcing HSBC officials to completely wait to receive their ill-gotten bonuses? They had to settle on making them "partially" wait? Every honest prosecutor in America has to be puking his guts out at such bargaining tactics. What was the Justice Department's opening offer -- asking executives to restrict their Caribbean vacation time to nine weeks a year?

    http://www.rollingstone.com/po...

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  102. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by unrtst · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I can't if you're being sarcastic. I hope so.

    If your version of net neutrality says they can prioritize traffic that they feel their customers need more than others (ie. SMTP over torrent), you are giving them free reign to say, "we feel the most important traffic is this proprietary protocol XYZ that we just came up with and which we use exclusively, which delivers streaming video from our servers and select partners. And the least important traffic is Netflix."

    The point of net neutrality *should* be, IMO, something akin to a common carrier status - they're all zero's and one's, and they are not allowed to differentiate or prioritize any of those on any given link. They can simply route them through china and around the world and back, or shove everything to/from 69.53.0.0/16 though a single T1 to MAE-EAST (though that does hit on a slipery-slope grey area).

  103. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Obfuscant · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you inform them that Net Neutrality is against throttling speeds,

    Except that isn't what net neutrality is about. Net neutrality has nothing to do with residential and business accounts getting different data rates (which is the complaint in the original article.) It isn't about residential users seeing congestion because there are too many other users on their net segment. One hundred people on your net segment all browsing media-rich websites while you're trying to watch a movie on Netflix and your movie stalls isn't a violation of net neutrality. And it isn't even about the throttling of speeds when you overrun the limits on your data plan.

    It IS about preferential treatment for certain data SOURCES. And this is going to be something that is hard for a user to prove since it will take more than "netflix sux but youtube still rocks", or "netflix at home sux but netflix at work rocks". And it will take a LOT more than some undocumented alleged rambling from a front-line tech support person.

    And, I dare say, you will still have a lot of people who disapprove of net neutrality if you tell them that it would prohibit their ISP from giving their Netflix stream priority over someone else's web browsing. "So what if it takes five seconds for their web page to load instead of one, if them getting it in one means my Netflix hiccups?" (Perhaps this displays why using Netflix as the quintessential argument FOR net neutrality is a poor idea, since it is easy to dismiss it as just selfish people who want their movies to run without interruption even if it means everyone else's network experience suffers.)

    or enable a free market, where we have more than one or two choices for broadband (or any other utility).... If we had 10+ ISP's to choose from, this wouldn't be an issue,

    Well, unfortunately, we've already seen that a totally free market won't result in 10+ ISPs because there won't be enough money to keep all of them in business. Even back in the heyday of dialup ISPs our area only had three or four at best (not counting the AOLs of the world, which I wouldn't call a real ISP anyway), and they tanked because they couldn't keep customers when faster access came around. Heck, some parts of this state had NO ISPs until the state stepped in and provided it as a kind of "extension service". The one local ISP that survived the transition resells DSL for the local telco, so even that "competition" isn't really competition.

    No, to get those 10+ ISPs there will have to be heavy subsidies, and that creates something very different than a free market.

  104. who cares about the internet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares, get rid of Net Neutrality, get rid of the government subsidies for these large ISP's, let the market decide and maybe we will have newer ISP's popping up and competing against the larger ones like verizon. Killing net neutrality might even kill off verizon, comcast, time warner cable, or even the internet. I doubt in today's economy people will shell out more $$$ for the same services they had before at lower cost. We lived fine before the internet and we could do it again and if this is false and our whole economy tanks, well, blame the greedy assholes of this world.

    1. Re:who cares about the internet. by sir-gold · · Score: 2

      You have it backwards, it's the large ISPs that are subsidizing the politicians.

  105. good description. Also, can't block spam, prioriti by raymorris · · Score: 1

    That's a good description. You show how people change their opinion depending on how it's described. They may switch.back to being against when you point out "may not discriminate based on content or origin" means no more spam filters. That denial of service attack must be delivered with the same priority as the tele-medicine feed, the way one bill was drafted.

    This There are several other similar problems. They probably CAN be solved if the bill is written VERY carefully, but it's tricky. Comcast may decide that YouTube ads are spam

  106. Re:Verizon - I am Paying 10mbps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But when family is using Netflix it is under 1mbps...! I give Time Warner Cable 5 out of 5 when it comes internet speed, while I will give verizon -infinity of 5 score...!

  107. I know this much by koan · · Score: 1

    Comcast is throttling newsgroups, any file over ~2GB gets slowed to nothing.
    The behaviour is consistent and predictable, and it started after the recent FCC ruling.

    Expect more of this behaviour.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  108. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by dave562 · · Score: 2

    What you should be pissed about is that you have to pay for a "business plan" in the first place. Back in the 90s when telcos started selling DSL and other high speed services to residential customers, there was not any difference. I had a 384k DSL feed at home that was just as fast as the 384k DSL feed at the office.

    The limitations are completely arbitrary and 100% due to the fact that the telcos and ISPs are cheap bastards and will do everything in their power to avoid upgrading their infrastructure.

  109. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 4, Informative

    Our cable (and hence cable modem) went out for a day recently (we use Cox). My wife set up a mobile hotspot from her T-Mobile phone in a spot in which she had LTE service and went about her life as normal, meaning streaming Netflix in the background while she works. It turns out that at LTE speeds, Netflix feeds you rather high reception, and you can go through a 2.5 GB limit in less than two movies. So, she was throttled for the rest of the month to 2G speeds.

    Supposedly they do not throttle on the unlimited plan. They are very clear on the 2.5 GB plan that they will throttle after the cap (but will not charge extra) and they did in fact throttle (and I was fine with that--that was all we paid for, and in the typical month is faaaar more than enough). On the unlimited plan, I question how much Netflix streaming they would really tolerate.

  110. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sjames · · Score: 1

    If they gave a damn, they wouldn't make their public face such a lowly position.

    However, the other evidence is there in TFA.

  111. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. I'd be totally against net neutrality if we actually had choice. Let consumers decide who they want to use. Having just the telco or just the cableco as your options for broadband doesn't really make for a free market - though of course both would argue that that's exactly what it is. If I despise Verizon's throttling of bandwidth then I can "vote with my dollars" and go with Comcast or some other incumbent cableco. But then what if they're just as bad as Verizon, which they probably will be (i.e., they're also throttling B/W with Netflix who competes with them for content so why shouldn't they?)?

    I'm not sure what the solution is or if there even is one. While we have quite a lot of existing fiber in most cities and towns nearly all of it is owned by the incumbents - probably 99-100% in most places.

    To build a competing provider is a non-trivial, long-term undertaking. Winfirst, which blew through nearly $1B during the first dot-com boom and bust, was attempting to build an FTTH provider from scratch in the Sacramento region, but even with all that cash it barely made a dent going street-to-street to build out the infrastructure. Surewest (formerly Roseville Telco) owns the remnants of that network but even they are actually an incumbent provider themselves who picked up the Winfirst assets for pennies on the dollar.

    My thought is Google may be our best hope to unseat the incumbents. They have very, very (VERY) deep pockets and seem to be the most viable option to offer an alternative to the incumbents but it's going to be decades before they even cover 5% of the incumbents' footprint.

    In the meantime, what to do? Probably not a whole lot but I do feel like the marketplace will speak eventually. If excessive throttling is going it's almost certain they're going to be looking at massive lawsuits and not just from consumers but from Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc. Utility company laws on the books are highly complex and almost certainly have potential loopholes for consumers to go after the incumbents for not providing service.

  112. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Scowler · · Score: 1

    Well, if an entire metro-link is swamped under, you are already at the point where a whole building of CSR's might not be enough. Regardless, I would think QoS is optimally implemented as far downstream as you can manage, especially if you normally expect congestion problems to be fairly localized in nature.

  113. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

    As I read the terms, they only allow you to "Hotspot" 500Meg on the unlimited plan, so I suppose they would continue 4G service to the phone but somehow throttle hotspot service.

    However, as I read the terms, there was no Hotspot service at all on our 500Meg limited data plan, and yet, there it worked, right up until we slammed into the limit. If you want to eat data fast, try jumping around fast forward and rewind in video, that's what the kids love to do. I let my wife be the guinea pig - see if she notices a problem with 2G speeds for the next 10 days until our month rolls over - she's already noticed the "you're over your data limit, would you like to buy an upgrade" beg messages, but I think I've got her convinced that they don't mean anything when we're home on WiFi, and don't matter much on the road.

    I got the Nexus 5, and I don't think they (TMo) really know where my data goes, nor would they have a way to shut off only hotspot functionality... I see how they could do it on the other phones with their custom firmware installed. I suppose they could tell when I consume data faster than a phone can by itself (though, Chromecast could get pretty hungry...), and send me nastygrams telling me to stop it, but if they want to throttle the Nexus 5, I think they'll have to throttle the whole connection?

  114. Re:good description. Also, can't block spam, prior by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    That denial of service attack must be delivered with the same priority as the tele-medicine feed, the way one bill was drafted.

    Not quite that bad, if you assume that the DOS is not a legal use, but almost. FCC 10-201 says "No blocking. Fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices;", so while the unlawful DOS can be blocked, any blocking based on an RBL would be illegal under this rule. And this rule is the existing FCC rule that was overturned by the courts but a recent bill was submitted to re-enact it.

  115. Does VZW Slow down the Beta site? by RendonWI · · Score: 1

    If so, I am in favor of throttling the traffic. Fuck the Beta site.

  116. did it help? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

    You chose to also ignore that due to that same blind hope.

    what did you do, beyond getting all high and mighty on forums like this? further, did it help?

  117. You don't have DSL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    America doesn't have broadband (DSL eg ADSL) over regular phone lines? it's cable, satellite or old style modulation? you poor buggers.

    Most of the UK have the option of up to 120Mb/s (150 coming this year) over cable and in the region 30Mb/s over phone lines (lower depending on distance from the exchange)

    No limits on our services, we *do* have the law that *should* of been passed in the states.

    America - A wonderful country ruined by greedy companies.

    1. Re:You don't have DSL? by sir-gold · · Score: 1

      There is DSL in the US, but the existing copper lines are so multiplexed and oversold that DSL speeds max out at about 10 megabit.

      The way telecoms in the US are set up, you either put up with whatever crap service the local provider offers you, or you simply go without. You can't just switch to another provider, because there isn't one.

    2. Re:You don't have DSL? by neminem · · Score: 1

      Strictly speaking, in a lot of places you do have the choice between a single DSL provider, and also a single cable provider. They're both equally crap, though, so you might as well just stick with one no matter how crap it is, because switching won't help (and will probably result in another massive headache and taking time off work, as the installation tech totally fails at their job.)

  118. Exactly What Net Neutrality Would Have Prevented by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Before you open your mouth, maybe you should at least read what you're trying to pretend you know about, and then disclose the material you're pretending to have interpreted so other people can read it, too.

    If people were actually intelligent in this thread, they would mentally put the onus on you to prove your claim. But since they appear not to be, and since you appear adamant to malevolently spread your personal ignorance like the disease that it is, here you go:

    Page 40, paragraph 68 of the actual FCC "Net Neutrality" Order (Preserving the Free and Open Internet) explains what you seem to be ideologically missing from your brain:

    A person engaged in the provision of fixed broadband Internet access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access service. Reasonable network management shall not constitute unreasonable discrimination.

    And here is the relevant note on what potentially constitutes reasonable discrimination for this type of scenario, from page 41, paragraph 73:

    Use-Agnostic Discrimination. Differential treatment of traffic that does not discriminate among specific uses of the network or classes of uses is likely reasonable.

    Allowing a bottleneck to exist only for "Cloud Providers" discriminates against a class of uses for network traffic, and is therefore unreasonable, which inhibits the intent that "the ability to select which traffic gets priority lies with individual subscribers."

    So, kindly go to hell. I am tired of civilly dealing with pieces of shit astroturfers like you that only seek to spread lies that match your fucking agenda. This post isn't even here to convince you (since that's incredibly unlikely given the ignorance you've already displayed) but to give the truth (and the resources to read it themselves) to anyone who might have even had a seed of a doubt enter their minds because of your malevolence in misinforming the public.

    The situation presented in TFA is that a Verizon representative allegedly claimed that they were limiting bandwidth to "Cloud Providers" which is an unreasonable discrimination of network traffic according the text of the FCC's own order. Not sorry if facts and actual documents hurt your brain.

    This is exactly one of the many situations the FCC intended to enforce via Net Neutrality.

  119. Stop by The+Cat · · Score: 0

    Stop fighting this on net neutrality. You've already lost that fight.

    Start fighting this on monopoly. You've already won that fight.

  120. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by litehacksaur111 · · Score: 1

    Net neutrality means that you cannot discriminate against the packets that are being requested. For example, it does not matter I am shipping by UPS, I only pay based on the size and weight. What you are suggesting is that UPS be allowed to open my package and inspect the contents and then charge me based on the value of the contents. Now I bet you will say why don't you use another company, but there are only 3 shipping companies USPS, FedEx, and UPS. If UPS can get away with this practice, I am sure FedEx will do the same. Somehow you are not able to understand simple facts which conflict with your ideology.

  121. No... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You're still missing the point of net neutrality, it should have nothing to do with what you're mistakenly calling "common sense QoS".

    If I'm paying for access to the internet, at a bandwidth of 20MB/s, then whatever I decide to do with my 20MB/s should be treated as equally as whatever you do with your xMB/s that you're paying for. For example, while you're watching cat videos and liking posts on facebook.. you should be able to do that at a speed or capacity that you are paying for. If I'm downloading a file my traffic better damned well be given the full pipe that I'm paying for. My useless 100GB file download should be slowed just as much (in a real time basis) as your useless facebook posts or streaming cat videos if there is a network congestion problem.

    Now... if you have Verizon FIOS (for example) and Verizon were to offer a service other than Internet access over it's infrastructure, such as say... TV or Phone then it is Verizon's prerogative to QoS that data at a better service level than internet traffic over it's internal network - up to and including it's device that terminates in your home. But it should be prohibited - by law - from making traffic from youporn.com take a lower priority than youtube.com just because it decided to do so.

  122. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Bengie · · Score: 1

    I fully agree, but they could also just design their network to not have congestion at the "local" level. I think this was estimated to cost about 1% more to the entire cost of a new fiber network.

  123. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops by thule · · Score: 1

    Why would it be illegal to have a saturated peering link? Are you saying that the government would control to whom and what the link speed for each peering link should be?

    I'm not saying that the Verizon to AWS link is saturated for this reason. I'm just pointing out that Verizon could handle all traffic in a neutral way to the letter of the law and still have an issue with traffic going to AWS/Netflix. It would be the responsibility of Netflix and Verizon to work out a mutually beneficial agreement that would carry the traffic without congestion between their respective networks. That is exactly how this all works right now.

  124. Shades of grey, not black and white by DavidRawling · · Score: 1

    No, it means anecdotal evidence is to be taken as better than no evidence whatsoever. Not everything is black and white, one side of the fence or t'other.

    Consider this as a scale - Peer reviewed, multiple-source reproducible trumps anecdotal evidence, but anecdotal evidence is still better than the absence of any evidence on either side.

  125. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    Uhhh...you never actually worked helpdesk, have you? Or even dealt with them for any length of time? Let old Hairy clue you in, helpdesk guys usually don't know a damned thing that isn't written on a little sheet sitting in front of them and "pulling stuff out of their ass" is pretty much SOP. Hell when I used to have to deal with the Hughesnet helpdesk for several rural customers I HAD TO TEACH THEM because they didn't know the basics of how their equipment worked! I don't know how many times I got "I didn't know you could do that, we are recording so would you please walk me through it step by step so I'll have it when a customer has that problem?" from the Hughes guys and this was tier one! Tier 3 had one answer and that was "reboot" LOL.

    So while i don't know if Verizon is fucking Netflix and it wouldn't surprise me if they were you REALLY can't go by the word of a helpdesk guy because they know less than nothing in most places.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  126. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see it as we either need to enforce Net Neutrality, or enable a free market, where we have more than one or two choices for broadband (or any other utility).... If we had 10+ ISP's to choose from, this wouldn't be an issue, one would not throttle, and that would force the others to compete. But we don't have a free market... and too many of those in power (both in government, and the big TelComs) would lose money to allow a free market.

    In addition, both of the two wires I can buy broadband from are control by people who want to sell me a service that completes with Netflix.

  127. Re:How long before I have to buy Internet "channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate you, but I'll have 2 adult channels please!!

  128. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sjames · · Score: 1

    Actually, I am mostly going by the evidence presented. The part about the CSR is mostly a dig at Verizon and the many other companies that for some reason choose to be represented by people who know very little about anything relevant (often including English). They deserve the reputation their poorly paid representatives give them.

  129. no its not doing it to everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i have the most coveted of all verizon 4g plans the unlimited and I can attest that my connection to netflix is hd all the time with full buffering and quick loads. more than likely the intermediary connections of the two services are causing problems. like one device might have the slower data roaming enabled.

  130. Verizon screws up Skype too by Kludge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Verizon screws with Skype too. I was trying to run Skype at a friend's place. The latency was terrible, making the program unusable. So I fired up a connection to my VPN service, which in theory should increase the latency, because it is an extra hop. Running through the VPN fixed the problem, and I could use Skype.

  131. Re:Not just traffic - those reverse DNS on tracero by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or you can simply choose to not play at all and use one of the fine alternatives from Google (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4) or OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220). I prefer OpenDNS because they return in-region CDN nodes more reliably than Google - who can send you across the country to fetch content for some unknown reason. Verizon may be many things, but Dr. Evil they are likely not.

  132. Re:How long before I have to buy Internet "channel by theskipper · · Score: 1

    Insightful. Very similar, but this one is a little more polished: http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...

  133. I hate the new layout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please revert

  134. contructive criticism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    - the fonts change between comments for some reason? sometimes an arial and then others times new roman
    - nav bar follows me down the page. screw you i never use those buttons!!!
    - slashdot has never been about being modern and sleek. Instead it's always been quick loading and simple, so much CSS and AJAX on this site it makes me want to puke!!!!

  135. Comcast Throttling Netflix too... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    I went to play a 3D streaming movie and Netflix said internet connection was too slow.

    But I did a speedtest on laptop 50mbps, and did it on my LG TV...and got 39mbps. Which exceeded Netflix's recommendation.

    So I am suspicious that Comcast is throttling already too.

  136. Verizon: Ca-a---n yo- -- ere-- e-- no--w *tshhh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember that Verizon was the one that charged over $150/mo. for unlimited calls within the country (verizon to verizon only) with limited text messaging capabilities without internet support. They are the ones that would proclaim that they need to charge so much because you can go "anywhere" in the US and have the best coverage available. They are the ones that said that they would deliver the best service whenever a new technology comes about. But now? Throttling internet speeds, image caching (hell for web developers), and their price platform is still way too much. In contrast, even third world countries pay as little as $15 / mo. for unlimited internet at 7mbps which is more than fast enough for streaming video and torrents if you need to go that far and usually these third world countries have to pay 4x the normal cost for electronics. Verizon has NO EXCUSE to charge so much with such little delivery. Sure, they can start throttling service as much as they want but ultimately their competitors will be the ones getting that business and they know this because most people simply don't pay attention or don't care to be run over by big businesses.

  137. Now that you mention it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wouldn't be surprised if someone is already developing one.

  138. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have the T-Mobile unlimited plan, and I've only hit 20 GB/month so far, no throttling as long as I don't touch the tethering-the tethering is limited to 2.5 GB on the Unlimited plan unless you ask for more.

  139. net neutrality has never existed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    anyone who thinks it did, does, or ever could has a fundamental misunderstanding of TCP/IP and store-and-forward networks in general.

  140. Same here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As soon as the court handed down it's decision Netflix has slowed down here too! FiOS in Columbia MD.

  141. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AcidPenguin9873 · · Score: 2

    You are looking only at one side of the link. There's two sides.

    What will stop Verizon from doing this?

    Netflix pays Verizon for 100Gbps upstream links at various peering points in the country for whatever Verizon wants to charge. If Verizon doesn't provide 100Gbps from those links because of a bottleneck on Verizon's own network, Netflix sues them for breach of contract. It's Verizon's job to guarantee Netflix that 100Gbps throughout Verizon's network. Repeat for Netflix on AT&T, Google fiber, TimeWarner/Comcast/whatever cable network.

    If Netflix doesn't want to do this, then their Verizon-based subscribers will have shitty service. At that point they will either deal with it, or cancel Netflix, or cancel Verizon and switch to an ISP that Netflix does have a traffic contract with.

    How does Net Neutrality play a role? Verizon can't refuse to offer Netflix access to their network, or artificially slow down Netflix's traffic on their own network once there is an agreement between Netflix and Verizon. I'm not sure if net neutrality also specifies that Verizon can't charge arbitrarily high prices for network bandwidth to certain companies. That is a good question.

  142. Comcast by pwileyii · · Score: 1

    I'm currently using a VPN when using Netflix on Comcast. In my tests, I've found the buffering takes about 4 times less time when using the VPN and the quality is significantly better. When I perform speed tests on my Comcast connection, I get around 30 Mbps download rates. My guess is that Comcast is directing Netflix connections through a shaper or fixed bandwidth pipe in order to limit the amount of data travelling over their network. I have noticed this problem within the last year or so, when I first got Comcast in my area this was not a problem and Comcast behaved just as it now does over the VPN connection.

  143. Selling the cake and charging to eat it too by sir-gold · · Score: 1

    Verizon justifies throttling netflix because they feel netflix somehow owes verizon money for carrying all that data.
    What Verizon forgets about is that their own customers ALREADY paid for that data, through monthly ISP fees.

    This is no different than setting up a toll road, and charging a toll to the cargo trucks for using that road, while at the same time charging the cargo owners a separate fee for the right to to ship cargo via that same road.

    Sorry Verizon, you can't sell us the cake and then charge a separate fee to eat it too.

  144. Re:Verizon: Ca-a---n yo- -- ere-- e-- no--w *tshhh by sir-gold · · Score: 1

    ultimately their competitors will be the ones getting that business

    What competitors? Verizon gets away with crap like this specifically because there IS no competition.

  145. Telia? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't be surprising if they are in his BGP....

  146. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by david999 · · Score: 0

    You can change your user agent in the web browser on your computer to fool T-Mobile into thinking you are using the mobile browser. No data cap unless you go way overboard and keep streaming movies all the time.
    Also use PDAnet http://pdanet.co/ to connect the cellphone to the pc.
    Do not use the usb connection but instead bluetooth or wifi as T-Mobile can somehow detect the wired usb connection back to your pc. PDAnet will be coming out with a version with the ability to also change the user agent.

    From their site under Help:
    When using PdaNet+ T-Mobile shows a web page to subscribe their tether plan. What can I do?

    You will need to hide tether usage from T-Mobile using USB mode. On the computer side click on the PdaNet tray icon and select Settings->Hide Tether Usage->Level I. Also turn on flight mode and turn it off to reset the data session if you are already blocked.

    Download for Firefox.
    http://chrispederick.com/work/...

    Display the user agent you have:
    http://www.iopus.com/imacros/d...

  147. another one by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    In my area, Time Warner absolutely, undeniably is. This is a 15 megabit connection and netflix sometimes drops to extremely low quality after a long time of watching while my ping is still really fast and a bandwidth test was still 15 megabits (with Netflix paused).

  148. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by TClevenger · · Score: 1

    (Perhaps this displays why using Netflix as the quintessential argument FOR net neutrality is a poor idea, since it is easy to dismiss it as just selfish people who want their movies to run without interruption even if it means everyone else's network experience suffers.)

    Yeah, stupid selfish customers actually wanting to use the 6 Mbps they paid for.

  149. Cancel Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
  150. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by SerpentMage · · Score: 1

    Oh good god, you don't need subsidies to have 10+ ISP's. You are mistaking that to have choice you need 10 lines running into your house. The problem at heart is one of who owns the lines and who owns the data over the lines.

    Take electricity for example. You can have multiple companies feed in the electrical system, and pay for a particular company because the carrying costs is identical for each company. The problem and this is where the true monopoly lies is the last mile. The company that owns the cable into the house is the one dictating the charges. And we continually fail to address that issue.

    Adam Smith in his papers addressed this issue quite clearly. His opinion was that the government was not to own the monopoly, but that the government was to dictate a trust owned by the private market. This means only one cable will run into your house. However, the costs for that cable is split evenly across all companies. The concept for the most part is implemented in Switzerland and Germany. Namely the government dictated that other providers can run data across the cable that enters your house. Thus then you do get 10+ providers without government subsidies.

    Now before you squawk "oh Switzerland and Germany are not that big as America" I am going to refer to the fact that I have a house in the mountains and it has 15 Mbps Internet access. This house is in what North Americans would call the boondocks. At our house in subburbs we have 150 Mbps access. I accredit this to growing the pie, not allowing a single company to own the pie.

    --

    "You can't make a race horse of a pig"
    "No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
  151. CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is time to get a class action lawyer involved. If they want to intentionally cripple video streaming on a network connection they have sold you then screw them. 1) this story will help warn others away from their shitty service and 2) They are intentionally downgrading a service they sold. They may not be constrained by net neutrality but that isn't the only legal recourse. They did not disclose that they were doing this when they sold you your connection.

  152. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by RivenAleem · · Score: 2

    When you get a good provider, you shouldn't hide who they are. If they are being decent, then you should give them credit where it's due. Who are you with now?

  153. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by flyneye · · Score: 1

    Then there is the alternative; to fight back.
    Verizons throttling Netflix amounts to stealing the money paid for movies + time invested.
    The contracts amount to bait and switch. Their customer service exists ony as a straw institution.
    This makes them swindlers.
    Stealing from thieves is good form.
    If they steal your money, steal their service.
    Period.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  154. Its Time... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

    ...to stop hogging the net with continuous streaming videos for hours. There's just a limit where some things become unreasonable, and laying millions of miles of fiber to support the delivery of crap like NetFlix delivers is just insane. If it were doing some _good_, like maybe carrying educational materials or something, that'd be different. But watching "Tremors" for the 14th time just because you can just isn't worth all that cable-laying. Its a waste. Buy the damn DVD or Blu-Ray and be done with it. C'mon...

  155. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'Well, unfortunately, we've already seen that a totally free market won't result in 10+ ISPs because there won't be enough money to keep all of them in business. Even back in the heyday of dialup ISPs our area only had three or four at best (not counting the AOLs of the world, which I wouldn't call a real ISP anyway)'

    This was not a free market, more like crony capitalism.. Legislation was passed (bought) by large cable companies that gave them the 'edge' and lead to snuffing out any smaller competition. It became a race (and still is) to hang/bury cable in densely populated areas, obviously corporations with more capital and influence got their jobs done faster.

  156. per-subscriber traffic shaping by Chirs · · Score: 1

    The only fair solution is for the ISP to shape traffic per-subscriber.

    If the subscriber wants to prioritize different traffic types then they can do that internally once it hits their equipment.

    1. Re:per-subscriber traffic shaping by Bengie · · Score: 1

      They already do traffic shape per customer, it's called provisioning. Unfortunately, most ISPs over-provision.

  157. per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solution by Chirs · · Score: 2

    ISPs can still throttle torrents to ensure voip traffic moves through.

    No! If I dedicate all my bandwidth to torrents and you dedicate all yours to VoIP why should you get preferential treatment?

    The only fair solution is for an ISP to do per-subscriber shaping within their network. Each subscriber gets throughput relative to the bandwidth that they paid for. Traffic type shouldn't matter when comparing traffic for two different subscribers.

    If an individual subscriber wants to prioritize VoIP over torrents they can do that on their own equipment (or have the ISP do it for them). But that should affect only the traffic for that subscriber, and should have ZERO impact on any other subscriber's traffic.

  158. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No comment no the stupidity of streaming netflix in the background while she works? To me that is the just conspicuous consumption.

  159. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by vux984 · · Score: 1

    Get rid of beta. It sucks.

    If an individual subscriber wants to prioritize VoIP over torrents they can do that on their own equipment (or have the ISP do it for them). But that should affect only the traffic for that subscriber, and should have ZERO impact on any other subscriber's traffic.

    You apparently have no idea how the internet actually works.

    Even if your ISP actually did something that idiotic and kept every subscribers data in its own bucket, as soon as the traffic moves up to a peer its all in one bucket and the peer doesn't know or care which data is yours and which is someone elses.

    No! If I dedicate all my bandwidth to torrents and you dedicate all yours to VoIP why should you get preferential treatment?

    Because you aren't buying a fixed bandwidth allocation from your ISP unless you are leasing a T1 or something.

    And again, even if you do have a leased T1 with fixed dedicated bandwidth that you can allocate however you like... that's only yours up to the ISP. As soon as the data reaches a peer, its "mixed up" with everyone elses data, and your ISP has no control over how the peer prioritizes its data.

    -------
    Beta Sucks. Cancel it.

  160. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least with net neutrality the Feds could do something useful for a change...

    T-mo: Their "4G" sucks where I live now. It didn't initially, but a few months after receiving a n4 the other year the HSPA+ went from PDQ to eh... I figured that it MIGHT just be the phone, but nope, got a n5 last Oct & "4G" basically gives me HSPA+ without the perma-stalls & I'm supposedly in "very good" to "excellent" coverage area of a major metropolitan city.

    Verizon just simply put has the best coverage and speeds, but their rates are idiotically high, and they pull stupid BS like this -> I'll just suffer with T-mo, at least it's better than Sprint which was like flashing back to 56kbps dialup although voice was pretty awesome(seems to me that CDMA does voice WAY better than GSM) and AT&T well let's just say that they make Verizon look good...

  161. "Treat all traffic equally" might be right. by Wierdy1024 · · Score: 1

    You don't have to put special traffic throttling rules in to make the service shoddy. Instead you can simply refuse to upgrade the router connecting your Verizon residential service to Amazon AWS. Since that ancient router is still stuck on a 1Gbit link shared amongst all users, service will suck.

    But they can legitimately say "We don't discriminate traffic". Just they do discriminate when deciding which bits of their network to upgrade, and the bit connecting to Amazon isn't being upgraded anytime soon.

  162. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really? As an intelligent (assumed, not confirmed) person on slashdot you're really going to try to argue this point? How much extra bandwidth is the big V giving you for being a shill?

  163. Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok braniac, cite one.

  164. You're defending them a lot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tell me again, which department do you work in at verizon?

  165. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by anagama · · Score: 1

    Wave:
    http://www.wavebroadband.com/a...

    It's a regional player.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  166. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 2

    What it involved in the case of the original reporter was a connection that would show high speeds with some data sources such as Speedtest.net, but at the same time show very low speeds with other data sources, notably Amazon AWS. (Throttling Amazon Web Services affects many online services, a notable case being Netflix.) The reporter's work connection, also through Verizon, did not exhibit the same selective slowness.

  167. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I say no blocking denial of service attacks and youtube has priority as internet surgery.

  168. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 1

    I wonder what Netflix thinks of this. Like, they want it to overtake regular TV, and it is no big deal to have the regular TV running nonstop in the background. But Netflix has to pay for that content she isn't actually watching. And they don't charge us more just because she uses (way) more than average.

  169. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 1

    And I should add--we are "cord-cutters." We cut cable a long time ago, except for internet. So, we have over-the-air TV or Netflix (cancelled Hulu for nonuse). Her office is in the basement, so really Netflix is it if there is going to be TV on in the background.

  170. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by Bengie · · Score: 1

    Because you aren't buying a fixed bandwidth allocation from your ISP

    I do and it's cheaper than the competition. 30mb/30mb for $60/month with an SLA on the GPON unit to make sure you get 30/30 even if the entire "node" is fully loaded. EVERY customer gets this. I have a higher tier, but not their highest 200/200.

    You want to know how the Internet works? Tier 1 backbone providers won't allow peering ports to go over 50% utilization. If they do, then the port needs to get upgraded, typically in less than a month. Congestion is unacceptable.

    My ISP subscribes to this same ideal. They advertise tiers as dedicated bandwidth for ALL users. They are a residential service, so there are some hick-ups because of missconfigurations or they are changing things around, but I've called in and reported that my ping was over 20ms when I normally got 8ms during peak hours, and they had me talking to an engineer and got the problem fixed.

    If you can show that you are regularly getting congestion in any amount, they will have you talking to an engineer to get it fixed.

    What about seeding P2P? "We are selling you unlimited dedicated bandwidth, as long as it's not illegal and you're not running commercial servers, transfer all you want". What if it becomes an issue, will there be data caps? "If we implement data caps, we will change the ToS, but there is no indication that we will". What about throttling? "We will not use throttling or QoS and we don't need to because we designed our network to supply dedicated bandwidth. We used throttling in the past, but it was not worth the management overhead and customer support calls".

    I was messing with my DNS settings the other month and got forwarded to an EU YouTube datacenter in Germany. I was streaming 4k videos at 45mb/s from 4,300 miles away(direct flight distance) during peak hours. Verizon customers are getting issues trying to stream YouTube from local CDNs.

    What crappy ISP do you go through that doesn't deliver what they sell you?

  171. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wrong... You have no clue what you are talking about. You've read things discussed at various levels of the chain and tried to join them all together and failed.

    I pay for a 6mb connection, so I have 6mb. My neighbor pays for a 6mb connection, so he has 6. If I download at the full 6mb, his connection should not be affected. AT&T slowing down my netflix stream to 1mb, would not help his connection speed at all. I would however give AT&T leverage to extort money from netflix to allow passage on the line that I've already paid for so that I will keep paying for Netflix.

    This is on par with something along the lines of UPS trying to charge both the sender and the receiver of a package. That's just not how it works.

    One could argue that due to over-committing data lines, that my neighbors internet could be affected, but that isn't what we are discussing. Over commitment is only ok as long as you can fill your commitment.

    This isn't a resource issue at all. If netflix is forced to pay for delivery(while there users are also paying for that same delivery), then the data will be delivered. In other words if you pay, it will be delivered. Seeing as how most of the technical revolutions in the past several years have been web based software from startups, expect this to end. A start up will simply not have the extra capital to ensure delivery. Twitter, even as large as it is, could have to start bombarding you with ads just to allow the data to flow to you.

    Most websites you visit, don't host all of the content that you see on the page. Images, video, ads, page scripting functions, are stored on other servers and displayed in portals, or functionality on websites.

    You must also note that other countries have internet connection speeds that blows even urban American area speeds out of the water.

    Quite simply, without net neutrality, if you use the internet, be prepared to start paying more for your usage or dropping in quality of service. The cost will be funneled down to you in one form or another.

    Not everyone seems to understand this:
    Businesses don't, and can't to a large extent, care about social issues. CEOs get bonuses for making money, and get replaced for not making money. In a capitalist market, rules and regulations must exist for the sake of not just internet, but humanity.

  172. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd be pissed off if I had to pay $200/month for a "business" plan. Around here, all Internet connections are "business grade". 24/7 no queue tech support all of whom live around here, next day on-site, dedicated lines, guaranteed bandwidth, SLAs, and most of the plans are $30-$80 with no bundling. Comcast is getting rocked, bleeding customers ever since the fiber rollout. The 2mb DSL could not compete, but at least it was guaranteed, but with fiber, we now have speeds over 100mb. You can also bring your own static IPs or purchase static IP blocks on all "residential" accounts. Customers going from 1mb to 20mb sure were happy. Price have not changed in over a decade. They just keep increasing the speeds but don't touch the bill.

    What were you expecting?

    I no longer use COAX in my house, all CAT6, even the TV set-tops.

  173. Re: Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops th by Bengie · · Score: 1

    ISP near or at capacity during peak usage

    This shouldn't happen. They should be fined for not delivering. At least fixed line ISPs.

  174. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This presumes that ISPs have worst-case capacity. That is a false presumption.

    Worst-case capacity means that (putting latency aside for the moment) if I want to torrent at 500KBps and your VoIP only works at 500KBps, the ISP must have at least 1000KBps of available throughput. In practice, that is almost never true, and it shouldn't be: peak capacity is reached so seldom that it would be a very bad investment for an ISP to build to the worst case. I don't want to pay for that bad investment, and am more than happy to spend less money on an ISP that is at least somewhat traffic-type-aware so that, when contention does arise, it will try to prioritize types of traffic that care more about how much bandwidth they have available.

    Tl;dr: ISPs are cheaper than they could be in part because they do the QoS/throttling themselves.

  175. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    The same thing that stops Chrysler from using substandard latches on minivans and ford from using substandard gas tank parts. Lawsuits over those issues got the practice stopped. No car maker will ever again deliberately kill people because they think the fix is 10% more costly than losing the lawsuit about it. The lawsuits got expensive enough that they fear the verdict enough to just do the recalls when the issues are pointed out. Unlike the oil industry, where the penalties are always below the costs of compliance.

    With net neutrality, someone would document the increased latency of Netflix over Verizon's vodeo services, and Verizon would lose a lawsuit for 3 months revenue from all "affected" users. That wouldn't prevent it from happening the first time, but the resulting lawsuit will make sure nobody else does it again, ever.

  176. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    And, I dare say, you will still have a lot of people who disapprove of net neutrality if you tell them that it would prohibit their ISP from giving their Netflix stream priority over someone else's web browsing.

    No version of net neutrality mentioned or proposed in congress has ever had that restriction (or the reverse, if that is what you are implying). So why are you pushing for people to hate net neutrality for something it's never done?

    Net neutrality would prevent Verizon from slowing Netlfix while keping it's own video services prioritized over everything else. But equitable slowing for the purpose of network integrity was allowed in every version of net neutrality proposed or discussed in congress (and every serious submission I've read outside it).

    I still don't understand how that lie has propagated (not that you are lying, but that it's been repeated so much that many believe it to be true). It prevents anti-competitive behavior only. It does not constrain most "fair" behaviors (such as limiting P2P or slowing all traffic of a certain type, unless done for anti-competitive behavior).

  177. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    There should be a name for the logical fallacy where someone explains facts with the belief that "if the other guy only knew what I know, he'd obviously come to the same conclusion". I know everything you know, maybe more, and still disagree. You've said nothing that disagrees with the other guy, but spent so much time explaining background.

    When I last dealt with buying or selling connections, you could buy "contended" service for about $1 per Mbps+line charge. Uncontended costs were about 10x that, often with the line charge being 10x as well, as when you get SLAs, the carriers preferred you move to T1/T3 connections, which can have SLAs that copper pairs can't. What ISP sells shit service? Every residential one. Are you seriously on here arguing that your commercial connection is better than a residential one, and that's why net neutrality is bad?

    Net neutrality is ensuring that in congestion, the QoS implemented is not anti-competitive. If ISPs do as you say and run congestion-free, the net neutrality will never have any effect on them. They'll never throttle/buffer anything. AT&T will not look at congestion issues, no matter how many times you call them, or whatever data you provide them. Many people have no other choice. Your suggestions are as practical as recommending they buy a GEO slot for $1,000,000 (no, I haven't shopped slots recently) and pay Loral $500,000,000 and launch their own satellite for 4 Gbps Internet to their house, landed at any number of earth stations for more per month than the average person makes in a year. I've recommended before, when the backhaul providers were squeezing us. But funding wasn't available for it.

  178. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by sglines · · Score: 1

    ISP's should be classified as nothing more than common carriers, just like the phone system. Imagine your local phone company throttling your voice communications to some company because they wanted to blackmail that company into paying more to connect.

    I pay for a certain bandwidth. Netflex also pays for a certain bandwidth. Verizon may have a legitimate claim that they are carrying more bandwidth than they are delivering to AWS. The conflict is between AWS and Verizon since Netflex is already paying AWS for bandwidth.

  179. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    No version of net neutrality mentioned or proposed in congress has ever had that restriction

    Of course it would. Net neutrality means NO PREFERENCES. That means that the ISP would be PROHIBITED from giving Netflix priority over simple web browsing. "And, I dare say, you will still have a lot of people who disapprove of net neutrality if you tell them that it would prohibit their ISP from giving their Netflix stream priority over someone else's web browsing." How could an ISP that is obeying any net neutrality law get away with throttling web browsing in preference to Netflix?

    But equitable slowing for the purpose of network integrity was allowed in every version of net neutrality proposed or discussed in congress (and every serious submission I've read outside it).

    If you read the sentence I wrote and though I was talking about "equitable slowing" when I said "priority over", well, I don't know how to fix that. I can only assume that you are one of the people who wants their Netflix to work all the time, every time, even if it means other people get slowed down to give it to you. That's "equitable slowing", right? Your movie packets get through, theirs get queued and delayed.

    I still don't understand how that lie has propagated

    What, you mean that net neutrality means no preferential treatment, either by slowing Netflix in preference to "normal" web, or slowing other people's web browsing in preference to Netflix? Gosh, I don't know how that lie could have started. Maybe someone who actually read the FCC order?

    So why are you pushing for people to hate net neutrality for something it's never done?

    The fact that you asked that question proves that you did not comprehend what you read. I "pushed" for nothing. I pointed out that there will be people who whine if an ISP cannot throttle others so that your Netflix can get through, and you conveniently made yourself known. And I was pretty explicit in saying that net neutrality would NOT allow them to do that, and that people who want their Netflix at the expense of others will oppose net neutrality because they can't be special users and get priority handling if net neutrality is enforced.

  180. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    Of course it would. Net neutrality means NO PREFERENCES.

    Your opinion of what you think it should mean is unrelated to what's actually in the bills. Try reading them again (or, likely, for the first time) and quote a section that would make throttling P2P in congested conditions illegal. You won't find it, because it's not there. But you are the one that's insisting it's there, so are the only one that can prove a positive. Go for it.

    What, you mean that net neutrality means no preferential treatment, either by slowing Netflix in preference to "normal" web, or slowing other people's web browsing in preference to Netflix? Gosh, I don't know how that lie could have started. Maybe someone who actually read the FCC order?

    I've read it. There's nothing in it that would have prevented an ISP from declaring Netflix to be real-time, and HTTP to be interactive, and give preference to real-time over interactive in congested conditions. Again, I can't prove it's not in there, without just quoting the whole thing and saying "see, it's not in there". Since you are so sure that reasonable prioritization in congested conditions would be illegal, please identify and quote the section that would do so.

    The fact that you asked that question proves that you did not comprehend what you read. I "pushed" for nothing. I pointed out that there will be people who whine if an ISP cannot throttle others so that your Netflix can get through, and you conveniently made yourself known.

    You are pushing hate. I do not now, nor have I ever, had a streaming Netflix account (I had a disc account before streaming, though). I'm only a person who has read the laws a number of times, and works for an ISP and discusses these legal issues on a regular basis. It's not about requiring that everything else be slowed to allow in Netflix. You are hating on one user, and using that as a justification for defending your opinion on net neutrality. You aren't quoting law. You aren't discussing what's in it. You are attacking a class of user you assert believes themselves to be privilidged. When you are interested in discussing net neutrality, let me know.

    I let myself be known? So you took my offense at your wrong statements to mean that I must be the "enemy" (a netflix user). I'm not. Like everything else you've said, you are 100% wrong on this. Please feel free to make more random wild guesses about net neutrality and such. At least now we know you present your incorrect opinion as fact, and have no actual knowledge over that which you speak.

    And I was pretty explicit in saying that net neutrality would NOT allow them to do that, and that people who want their Netflix at the expense of others will oppose net neutrality because they can't be special users and get priority handling if net neutrality is enforced.

    As you are speaking out against net neutrality (by outlining the harm you incorrectly think it does), should I also presume you are in the privileged class of netflix user? And if you wanted to point out explicitly that net neutrality would NOT allow it. Please point to the section that does so. The one thing completely missing in your rants is a link to anything that substantiates your incorrect opinion.

  181. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by Bengie · · Score: 1

    All I'm saying is that for a one time fee of $1,800 per house, every metro area in the USA can have dedicated 1gb/1gb Point-to-point fiber. Instead we're paying $2,000 per house for shared 320mb of copper.

    My argument is that fiber is not only faster, but it is so fast that an ISP can supply fully dedicated bandwidth and connections for LESS money than it costs to lay new copper or upgrade old copper, while supplying a full non-blocking Ethernet middle and last mile.

    I can buy a Raspberry Pi less cost than a high quality abacus. Guess which is faster. Hint: It's not the more expensive one.

  182. Re:per-subscriber shaping is the only fair solutio by AK+Marc · · Score: 1
    Great, but those with the means to lay the fiber aren't laying it. You are arguing that reality is wrong. That won't get you far.

    I can buy a Raspberry Pi less cost than a high quality abacus. Guess which is faster. Hint: It's not the more expensive one.

    Yes, but others see you as advocating forcing a Raspberry Pi on your neighbor, regardless of whether he wants it or not, and making abacuses illegal.

    I work for an ISP. I've pointed out some of the studies that compared "home run" fiber to GPON, and showed that "home run" was cheaper, but they were dismissed, as it's logically impossible to deliver more for less money, or so say the people spending the billions.

    And partly because then they lose control. If a homeowner owned his fiber from his house to a meet-me point in a CO, how can the person that laid the fiber extract infinite rent (extortion)? You'd have chaos. People choosing which carrier to use based on the carrier's performance. That type of freedom will not be allowed by the incumbents without a fight. And you are fighting the wrong fight. It's not with people on a message board about how "net neutrality" works (or should work). Net neutrality wouldn't be necessary if there were free choice. It's a requirement because the networks are all private and locked down. And that is why we'll only ever see GPON (and overloaded GPON,at that). If I could trace my fiber to a CO with a non-blocking path, I'd be able to put anyone else on the other end, and that is the problem.

    It'll take Google getting 10+ cities wired with dedicated fiber before the incumbents wake up.

  183. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    Your opinion of what you think it should mean is unrelated to what's actually in the bills. Try reading them again (or, likely, for the first time) and quote a section that would make throttling P2P in congested conditions illegal.

    Now you've converted web browsing into "P2P" to try to support your argument. Sir, if the law would prevent an ISP from throttling Netflix in preference to other web services, then it would prevent throttling other web services in preference to Netflix. Neutrality means "no preferences", not "well, it's ok because I want my Netflix and don't care about other people..."

    You are pushing hate.

    Bullshit. I simply pointed out that the people who want their Netflix movies in preference to other people's web browsing will be unhappy with any law that prevents them getting priority. Just like people who currently think other people's web browsing is getting priority over their Netflix are unhappy. The latter is the entire point of the original article! "Hey, someone is throttling my Netflix at home and it doesn't happen for my commercial account at work, and other things other people are doing aren't throttled, so I know it must be deliberate!"

    So you took my offense at your wrong statements

    Your twisted and ridiculous interpretations of what I said, you mean.

    to mean that I must be the "enemy"

    And here we go again. Show me where I called you "the enemy", or any Netflix user "the enemy". No, your decision to misread what I've said as an attack on net neutrality because it would prevent you getting priority for your Netflix in preference to other people's traffic shows me that you think your Netflix is a natural right and other people's network traffic isn't as important. Otherwise you'd accept that net neutrality would prevent your preferential treatment.

    As you are speaking out against net neutrality

    I am doing no such thing, and you need to stop trying to put words in my mouth. I pointed out that the sudden appearance of support for net neutrality that the GP claimed would happen if only it were presented to people in "the right way" was not likely to be unanimous. That's not "speaking out against net neutrality". It's a statement of human nature, which you've demonstrated is correct.

    It's not about requiring that everything else be slowed to allow in Netflix.

    I didn't say it was. In fact, I've said several times it means "NO PREFERENCE". How you can read "no preference" and think I said it means Netflix gets higher priority is beyond understanding. I was quite explicit in saying that people who would WANT Netflix prioritized over other people's traffic will be UNHAPPY that net neutrality would not ALLOW it. How you read that and wound up thinking I said the net neutrality would REQUIRE it is ... well, either stupidity or malice.

  184. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    Now you've converted web browsing into "P2P" to try to support your argument.

    No, I've never stated anything about web browsing. That you incorrectly assumed it doesn't make it true (for that or any other arguments of yours).

    Sir, if the law would prevent an ISP from throttling Netflix in preference to other web services, then it would prevent throttling other web services in preference to Netflix.

    Nope. Netlfix isn't a *service*, it's a *company* that provides streaming video services. If you throttled Netflix, you'd be breaking any version of net neutrality. If you prioritized HTTP over streaming video, you'd not break any version of net neutrality.

    Neutrality means "no preferences", not "well, it's ok because I want my Netflix and don't care about other people..."

    No, it means no deliberate anti-competitive behavior. You can't throttle Netflix but have your video services run at full rate. You also can't throttle much when uncongested (the exceptions are malicious traffic, and such).

    I am doing no such thing, and you need to stop trying to put words in my mouth.

    Yes, asking you to quote the definition of "net neutrality" you are using and then saying that since you are obviously not quoting a 3rd party, you are using a fictitious made up definition and incorrectly presenting it as fact. You don't understand what it is. Go read the bills submitted around it. Go read the FCC rules. You'll find all the official definitions agree with me, and not you.

    It was named by the same people that named the USA PATRIOT Act. The name doesn't define the rules. Only the rules define the rules, and you refuse to quote them. Presumably because you have no idea what they are.

    If you knew them, and I was as wrong as you say I am, then why wouldn't you quote them to prove me wrong? It's because the only person wrong here is you. Quote the rules that prove me wrong to prove me wrong. I'll be waiting. Forever (not that I'll wait forever, but that if I were waiting, I'd be waiting forever, because you are impotent).

  185. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    No, I've never stated anything about web browsing.

    I DID, and the statement of mine that you quoted did. You're telling me that statement is wrong, and now you prove you didn't bother reading it to start with.

    Here, I'll repeat it yet again:

    And, I dare say, you will still have a lot of people who disapprove of net neutrality if you tell them that it would prohibit their ISP from giving their Netflix stream priority over someone else's web browsing.

    "Web browsing". "Priority over". "WOULD PROHIBIT". It says nothing about Netflix users being "the enemy", and it certainly does not say that net neutrality requires the streaming video services receive priority over other web services. It says exactly the opposite. "Would prohibit". Do you not know the difference between "prohibit" and "require"?

    Nope. Netlfix isn't a *service*, it's a *company* that provides streaming video services.

    The use of the company Netflix is a shorthand way of referring to "streaming web services." Had you bothered to read the discussion, you'd have noticed that the GP started by referring to "AWS", and then moved to the specific example of Netflix. Is that your problem? You can't generalize from a specific company into a broader context of services similar to what they provide? You're stuck because you think I said that net neutrality laws referred to Netflix specifically?

    You can't throttle Netflix but have your video services run at full rate.

    And you don't think my statement about "no preferences" applies to that situation?

    If you knew them, and I was as wrong as you say I am, then why wouldn't you quote them to prove me wrong?

    Because you are wrong by putting words in my mouth when you claim I am trying to argue against net neutrality or that I've said that net neutrality demands preference for streaming video services (aka Netflix) over other web uses. Quoting the net neutrality laws won't change your deliberate twists of my words, it will only encourage you because you'll think you convinced me that net neutrality doesn't require such preferences when I'VE NEVER SAID IT REQUIRES THEM, AND HAVE, IN FACT, SAID EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. "It would prohibit" such preferences.

  186. Re:Your task: explain how Net Neutrality stops thi by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    Because you are wrong by putting words in my mouth when you claim I am trying to argue against net neutrality or that I've said that net neutrality demands preference for streaming video services (aka Netflix) over other web uses. Quoting the net neutrality laws won't change your deliberate twists of my words, it will only encourage you because you'll think you convinced me that net neutrality doesn't require such preferences when I'VE NEVER SAID IT REQUIRES THEM, AND HAVE, IN FACT, SAID EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. "It would prohibit" such preferences.

    You are the only one here with a reading problem. Net Neutrality would allow priority to be given to specific protocols, and throttling to be done as well. You argued with me on that point, indicating that whatever I'm describing can't possibly be "neutral". Whether your opinion is correct or not is unrelated to the facts around Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality (as proposed in Congress and implemented by FCC) allows for such preferences. That you think otherwise just exposes your ignorance. That you argue about it, while being wrong, shows your stupidity. If you weren't an idiot, then you could quote the rules to prove me wrong. You haven't because you can't. And you think that your inability to prove me wrong is proof that I'm wrong.