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Reason To Hope Carriers Won't Win the War On Netflix

Nemo the Magnificent writes "A few days ago we talked over a post by David Raphael accusing Verizon of slowing down Netflix, by way of throttling Amazon AWS. Now Jonathan Feldman gives us reason to believe that the carriers won't win the war on Netflix, because tools for monitoring the performance of carriers will emerge nd we'll catch them if they try. I just now exercised one such tool, NetNeutralityTest.com from Speedchedker Ltd. My carrier is Verizon (FiOS), and the test showed my download speed at the moment to be 12 Mbps. It was the same to Linode in NJ but only 3 Mbps to AWS East. Hmm."

213 comments

  1. Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by deconfliction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, one extremely popular destination on the internet is safe, because throngs of angry users will raise a stink. But what about all the small players who get throttled into oblivion before their innovations get a chance to have the kind of army of defensive consumers that Netflix has?

    This is an information warfare[1] campaign where the Establishment is trying to make sure they stay there indefinitely, safe from all new comers.

    [1] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4766259&cid=46193879

    1. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Sique · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason being that those small players aren't interesting enough to design specific net traffic rules for them. And if they grow big enough to appear on the provider's radar, they are so wellknown, it will be noticed if they get throttled.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, one extremely popular destination on the internet is safe, because throngs of angry users will raise a stink.

      Well, I wouldn't say that. For example, P2P was throttled because of its bandwidth consumption... and was rescued by the "user community", even though there was no large corporate interest behind it. But your point is taken: this could represent a huge barrier-to-entry for startups.

      Folks, there is a simple solution to all this: pressure the government to classify ISPs as Title II Common Carriers, as they should have in the very beginning. (Corporate lobbying prevented it.)

      Make them common carriers, and a huge set of problems essentially goes away overnight. Net Neutrality is built-in. Snooping (including government and corporate snooping) is prohibited. Etc. It may not be perfect, but it's just a vastly better world, all around.

    3. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      And if they grow big enough to appear on the provider's radar, they are so wellknown, it will be noticed if they get throttled.

      I'm not sure you understood my point. My point was that without Network Neutrality, and with throttling, the Establishment can keep them from growing in the first place. Or did you understand that? If so, please clarify your point.

    4. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by alostpacket · · Score: 5, Interesting

      if (trafficSource != VerzionOnDemand && trafficSource != Netflix) {

      degradePerformance(); //slightly and randomly degrades performance

      }

      Seems relatively easy from a logic point of view.

      Would anyone notice if they randomly started dropping UDP packets? Your average web user would see pages load just as fast. Statistical analysis would have to be very large scale and long term to notice a trend that couldn't be attributed to the normal fluctuations of speed and reliability of the internet. But home users could get a subtle difference in viewing experience for video from their ISP and a competitor.

      In reality, ISPs simply need to slack on peering arrangements so their competitors are hammered during peak usage. Something Verizon has already been accused of.

      This all leads me to think the real problem is the vertical monopoly/integration of ISP and content provider. If the government doesnt step in, we'll continue to see this war over and over just with ever shifting battlefields. Even with common carrier, we would likely still have ISPs pulling these tricks. regardless of whether they can charge Netflix more.

      *obviously it's more complicated than the pseudo code above

      --
      PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
    5. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      ... If the video was delivered via UDP.
      UDP for video calling, good idea. Nice and real-time.
      For anything else, pointless. You'll need to deal with the dropped/out-of-order packets with no benefit, except maybe less RAM usage for buffering. I'd rather have quality video thanks.

    6. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by pepty · · Score: 1
      With Verizon it's not necessarily about Netflix - they now offer cloud computing services that compete directly with AWS.

      Verizon signs-up Oracle to tackle Amazon in the cloud

      http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/011014-verizon-oracle-277603.html

      Verizon Plays Catch Up with Cloud Computing, Storage Offerings

      http://cloudtimes.org/2013/12/18/verizon-plays-catch-up-with-cloud-computing-storage-offerings/

    7. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by alostpacket · · Score: 1

      You're right, looks like most video services use a form of TCP with different strategies for chunking and ack'ing. Not sure why I thought video streaming was done using UDP. [pdf source]

      Thanks for the correction.

      --
      PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
    8. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      Won't stop them dropping random UDP packets to entice VoIP users to go back to fixed line though...

    9. Re: Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Video On Demand is not UDP. It is (very much) buffered TCP. RTP is usually TCP. Video conferencing, VOIP and such.

    10. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by icebike · · Score: 1

      Sure, one extremely popular destination on the internet is safe, because throngs of angry users will raise a stink. But what about all the small players who get throttled into oblivion before their innovations get a chance to have the kind of army of defensive consumers that Netflix has?

      Nobody is going to slow down some small player, because, well, they are a small player.

      But slowing AWS blocks a boat load of people who go there for hosting precisely because the have become popular and they need to scale.
      The point of the test mentioned in the summary is that it makes it easy to compare the various sites, side by side.

      My results on that page is that AWS California gets 1/3 the speed as AWS Oregon, but linode Freemont is worse.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    11. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My point was that without Network Neutrality, and with throttling, the Establishment can keep them from growing in the first place.

      Can, yes, but I think what Sique was saying is that they won't know to bother those sites until the sites have grown to the point where such disruptions would be noticed.

      I don't agree, but that is what I think Sique meant.

    12. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you're getting it. The point is, how does one grow big enough to matter when the deck is stacked against them from the start?

      It's the same problem new grads face in the current job market. Employers want skilled employees, but if none of them will hire those without experience, how are they to build said experience?

    13. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 1

      Um, AWS caters to anyone, just put your innovative project on an AWS VM, and you'll have no worries of throttling, everyone will think you're Netflix!

    14. Re: Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Sique · · Score: 1

      RTP is usually UDP. At least that's what we are configuring. RTP/tcp doesn't make much sense -- in a real time setting, you don't have the time to do much error correction. Either the packet arrives in time, or it doesn't. If you would start buffering VoIP, which you need for real time error correction, you would get strange pauses in your phone calls. SIP is mostly TCP though, at least for WAN connections.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    15. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by silanea · · Score: 1

      Considering that they are doing their best to kill fixed lines and go all IP I do not see that happening. They might very well be tempted to somehow degrade experience for any VoIP service but their own, but then we are back at the Netflix situation.

      But I am sure you could fix all that, end world hunger and save the whales with a custom hosts file...

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    16. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by budgenator · · Score: 1

      If what your doing on the internet, fits in the parameters set by the incumbent of what a good netizen does you'll be fine;
      hanging out on an irc channel, no problem irc is just a den of hackers anyway back to dial-up speed for them, in fact lets just block any Well-Known Ports for anything except plain vanilla ports like HTTP, POP, FTP, it's just stinky long-haired, neck bearded linux hippy using them anyways.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    17. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 1

      If the Telco's can get away with theft of $300 billion, they can get away with pretty much anything.

      Welcome to Kleptocracy, Government for thieves by thieves.

      http://www.newnetworks.com/bro...

      --
      google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
    18. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by rioki · · Score: 1

      Actually it makes sense to use UDP. With TCP, when one packet is out of order / dropped you delay all remaining packets. With UDP you either forget about the packet if you wish and continue with the rest of the data. This is especially important for real time streaming or VoIP. Then again, if you only "stream" an entire file for replay, you can basically use clunked HTTP 1.1.

    19. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verizon wants anything in the world OTHER than for you to go back to fixed line. There are lots of regulations on POTS that Verizon would rather avoid by providing your with VOIP over FiOS. POTS regulations require a certain level of reliability, backup generators, etc. VOIP has no such regulation.

    20. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. How?

    21. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by anyGould · · Score: 1

      if (trafficSource != VerzionOnDemand && trafficSource != Netflix) {

      degradePerformance(); //slightly and randomly degrades performance

      }

      *obviously it's more complicated than the pseudo code above

      Probably not that more complicated, though - when you consider that my cable company already offers me a choice of *nine* different plans, ranging from 10-250 Mbps down, and 512Kbps - 15Mbps up, it's pretty clear that I'm already being throttled. It'd be pretty trivial (to the point that I would be amazed if they weren't doing it already) to add a bit of code that ups the speed to their Favored Partners.

      I miss the good old days, where companies had to compete on speed (I remember dial-ups hyping that all their lines were 56K!)

    22. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Hence why I said "UDP for video calling, good idea."
      If you drop a packet you get video corruption that may not get corrected until the next keyframe. That's why you use different codecs/codec settings for real time video than you do for other video.

    23. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by chakan2 · · Score: 1

      Nobody is going to slow down some small player, because, well, they are a small player.

      I think you are looking at the logic for this backwards...what will happen is the ISPs will prioritize traffic to the big players, and slow EVERYTHING else down. If you are a favorite with a large user base, you get the majority of the tubes. If not, too bad, you'll never get enough of the tube to make a dent.

    24. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by icebike · · Score: 1

      what will happen is the ISPs will prioritize traffic to the big players, and slow EVERYTHING else down.

      Well that is exactly OPPOSITE of what this article is all about, where big traffic is getting throttled by big ISPs with competing service.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    25. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      what will happen is the ISPs will prioritize traffic to the big players, and slow EVERYTHING else down.

      Well that is exactly OPPOSITE of what this article is all about, where big traffic is getting throttled by big ISPs with competing service.

      You do realize you are on a comment subthread right? While you are correct that this is not what the ARTICLE is about, it is as a point in fact what the parent thread (that I started, and got modded 5 insightful) is about. Context matters.

    26. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Agreed. How?"

      Get on the mailing list at EFF.org. Sign their petitions and email your congressfolk.

    27. Re:Sure, Netflix is safe, what about the rest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The specifications for VoLTE i.e. cellular service over SIP have per-service guaranteed bandwidth QOS baked in. The cell company can trivially prioritise connections to their own SIP servers and degrade everything else.

  2. Assasination politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kill those who trespass against the free flow of information.

  3. Fuck Beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    10 minus 1 until logoff for one week.

    1. Re:Fuck Beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who the fuck modded this down?

    2. Re:Fuck Beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, 9?

  4. Fucks everyone else on AWS too by hsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even bigger issue is, if you are hosting your infrastructure on AWS, your customers will get slower service.

    In the end, I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur. I pay GOOD money to my shitbag carrier to get access to my content. If I pay for 50MBPS download, I don't give a fuck what content it is, I want 50MBPS.

    1. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      If I pay for 50MBPS download, I don't give a fuck what content it is, I want 50MBPS.

      Your "shitbag carrier" only controls their own network. The internet is a collection of networks. The "shitbag carriers" ability to influence your speeds ends at their network edge.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Bengie · · Score: 2

      And your ISP's shit-bag provider should be providing full speed on their network also, and so and and so forth. While a single server with a 1gb connection can only handle at most 10x connections at 100mb/s, but as long as that connection is not at full utilization, you should get it.

      Nutshell. While your ISP can't control anything beyond their edge, your ISP or any of its links should NEVER be the reason, and your ISP should make sure the same is also true for anyone they link with. The core network should never be a limitation and only the end-points should be.

    3. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I wish I had a provider good enough to be called shitbag. :(

    4. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by jklovanc · · Score: 2

      In the end, I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur.

      They tried but a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down their rules.

      Two judges, with partial support from a third, said the commission has the authority to regulate broadband access but had failed to show that it has a mandate to impose the anti-discrimination rules on broadband providers.

    5. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know if it's a "bigger issue". It's certainly part of the issue.

      ISPs want to charge big content providers (like AWS and Netflix) for using more bandwidth.

      But everybody has seemed to keep forgetting that bandwidth is already paid for by the end-users. This is just a way for the big ISPs to double-dip. That very definitely should be prevented.

      And please, nobody give me guff about how people pay for "average data rates" and how Netflix saturates the infrastructure. U.S. customers already pay among the highest rates for some of the slowest service in the Western world. All because of the ISP oligopoly. U.S. cable companies have made record profits almost every year, and haven't been re-investing those profits in infrastructure in proportion.

      Make them Common Carriers under Title II, and end the insanity.

    6. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the end, I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur.

      The courts ruled that the FCC's rules exceeded their jurisdiction. So, they "let it occur" because they don't currently have the Legal Authority to stop it.
      It's important to know that this is not actually occurring, it's just people speculating and making Doom and Gloom predictions. Any Carrier blocking/throttling Netflix or Amazon is going to sign their own death warrant when their customers find out the service they PAY for is being blocked because their ISP are a bunch of fucking retards.

      I pay GOOD money to my shitbag carrier to get access to my content.

      No, you pay money to get access to the internet, so that you can reach whoever is actually providing the content. If your ISP had the content, you wouldn't need internet at all. For example, cable TV.

      If I pay for 50MBPS download, I don't give a fuck what content it is, I want 50MBPS.

      Well then you'd better go purchase a dedicated bandwidth connection, because your "buffet style all you can eat" internet is not guaranteed to give you connectivity at all, let alone for any guaranteed speed/bandwidth.

    7. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My fear is that they'll be made Common Carriers under Title II, but under an amended and fine print clause which states they're not subject to 'certain' broad rules. Don't think it can happen? Have you not been following politics for the last 3 decades???

      Just how much backbone does the FCC and Congress have? If it's anything to like we've seen lately, not much!

    8. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      You're arguing in favor of a 1 to 1 contention ratio. You can get such a connection today if you'd like it, you'll just have to pay a lot more for it.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    9. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Bengie · · Score: 1

      You're arguing in favor of a 1 to 1 contention ratio. You can get such a connection today if you'd like it, you'll just have to pay a lot more for it.

      I already have that and I pay $100 for 50/50. I get those speeds to every IX in the USA and Europe at all times of the day. I get less than 1ms std-dev of jitter from Chicago to LA during 8p-11p, ditto to Dallas and NYC, and about 3ms of jitter to almost all of Europe(London, Paris, Munich IXs) along with my 50/50. It's quite normal for me to be seeding 30mb/s to a single IP in the faster cities in Europe, that have 100mb/s connections as standard. I average 10GB-15GB/hour seeding during peak hours, and I can still play video games with sub 10ms pings and I don't even use QOS or traffic shaping.

      I can even stream 4k YouTube from Europe Datacenters without buffering.

      What does my trace route looks like? My ISP, Level 3, Level 3, Level 3, Level 3, Level 3, IX, Destination.

    10. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by i.r.id10t · · Score: 1

      Yup. Wherever it leaves Amazons data center to whoever provides service to Amazon - thats it, Amazon has paid for their connection. Everything else is peering agreements or smaller services buying service from larger ones, up until it leaves the end-user's ISP and hits their cable/dsl/dialup modem/carrier pigeon/whatever, at which point that end user is payign their service provider for their traffic or rather right to access at a particular speed.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    11. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I pay about $2/mbit/month for dedicated bandwidth from my local ISP. Why can't his ISP also charge the same amount?

    12. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I wanna drive 90 MPH during commute on I-80 in SF Bay Area. Sadly, the congestion just won't let me. Ever stop to think, no one is throttling anyone, it's just congestion? Pipes are only so wide ya know. There is a limit, and it could very well be there's no malicious or spiteful intent, there's just too many of us driving on the net.

    13. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Your analogy breaks down in that most ISPs over-charge for their services. It's more like you pay $10mil/year for a 10 mile stretch of I-80 that should be all yours, but you're not getting it. Dedicated bandwidth is only $0.45/mbit, $45/month should get you 100mbit of symmetrical dedicated bandwidth, plus line costs.

    14. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

      and haven't been re-investing those profits in infrastructure in proportion.

      Could you clarify this? In proportion to what?

      --
      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    15. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So if they provide me with 50 Mbps on their network and then connect their network to the Internet with one dial-up line they've done their job? I don't think so. That's basically how Verizon is operating now. I don't know what changed at Verizon in the last couple of years. They used to be an awesome wireless and ISP, but now they're a corporation I wish could be executed in the slowest, most painful way possible.

    16. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 2

      You cannot expect the corrupt Telcos who stole $300 billion of US taxpayer money
      to do anything remotely in the realm of honest.

      Welcome to the Kleptocracy.

      http://www.newnetworks.com/bro...

      --
      google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
    17. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Pick one, because both are true:

      (1) in proportion to the increase in profits

      (2) in proportion to the amount invested by other developed nations, per user

    18. Re:Fucks everyone else on AWS too by mgcarley · · Score: 1

      ISP Name please?

      --
      Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com) // t: @mgcarley
  5. Net Neutrality by nurb432 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Has already been abandoned by the FCC, so better get used to it.. Its only going to get worse.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Net Neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a worthless post. Basically, all you have done is say "Is not!" to an "Is too!" statement. Completely content-free and lacking absolutely anything of value... much like the rest of your life, I suspect.

    2. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 2

      The FCC tried.

      Two judges, with partial support from a third, said the commission has the authority to regulate broadband access but had failed to show that it has a mandate to impose the anti-discrimination rules on broadband providers.

    3. Re:Net Neutrality by deconfliction · · Score: 2

      The FCC tried.

      Two judges, with partial support from a third, said the commission has the authority to regulate broadband access but had failed to show that it has a mandate to impose the anti-discrimination rules on broadband providers.

      You forgot to mention (if I'm not mistaken) how the court practically invited the FCC simply to invoke common carrier regulation as the legally proper way to achieve it's Net Neutrality anti-discrimination rules. While the "FCC tried", the FCC also _has not tried_ to reinstate Net Neutrality via its legal authority to regulate common carriers that way (vs 'information services'). The FCC, also, after a year and a lot of press, has never given me a single sentence of analysis of my 53 page Net Neutrality complaint I filed with them, via the Kansas Attorney General's Office, over GoogleFiber's (terms of service) blocking of residential servers. (after my cause inspired some protesters in Utah, Google backed down and narrowed the blockage to 'commercial servers', whatever that means. I.e. a Quake3 server is a commercial server making money for Id Software. Somehow that is OK, but god forbid any innovator in their own home makes a profit)

    4. Re:Net Neutrality by nurb432 · · Score: 2

      Right, the court told them how to do it in no uncertain terms, and they effectively looked the other way.

      So it sort of proves our point.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    5. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      The classification is the main issue:

      In the court case, the FCC said its rules aren't common carrier regulations because "Verizon is free to offer or decline to sell broadband Internet access service to any end user. Verizon need not hold itself out to offer service indifferently to anyone.

      Re-classifying them as common carrier would open up a whole different can of worms. The FCC is waiting for Congress to change the rules.

      Somehow that is OK, but god forbid any innovator in their own home makes a profit

      They are only prohibiting commercial use of consumer grade contracts. There is no prohibition for the innovator getting a business line contract and making money at home.

    6. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      Congress said don't do that.

    7. Re:Net Neutrality by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      They are only prohibiting commercial use of consumer grade contracts. There is no prohibition for the innovator getting a business line contract and making money at home.

      "commercial use of..." huh?? Are people who sell knick knacks on Ebay engaging in "commercial use of consumer grade contracts"? (yes, they are). Are people who agree to view advertisements on gmail in exchange for 'free' use of a service that costs money to run engaging in "commercial use of consumer grade contracts" (yes, they are). Network Neutrality was intented to prevent giving ISPs arbitrary power over such things. Without it, ISPs can charge consumers extra to visit, e.g. Netflix, or FoxNews, or PlannedParenthood. ISPs *should not have* that arbitrary ability to discriminate amongst traffic. It should be none of their business whether or not the primary profiteer of my used bandwidth is Microsoft via Skype, or myself personally.

    8. Re:Net Neutrality by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      48 of 535.

      Not exactly a consensus.

    9. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      Those are the ones who sponsored the bill. The article refers to many other who have made similar comments.

    10. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      None of those examples requires a server at the customer's house and therefore are not relevant. The restriction is about servers not browsing.

    11. Re:Net Neutrality by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      None of those examples requires a server at the customer's house and therefore are not relevant. The restriction is about servers not browsing.

      Actually, after a couple 5 year old kids started holding up protest placards in Utah, GoogleFiber backed off the 'servers' and made it just about 'commercial servers'.

      If you want an example including a server- Quake3 server, making money for Id Software.

      The point is that there is nothing about a server as opposed to a client, that makes it 'dangerous to the network' in a way that (back when we thought the FCC's Net Neutrality rule was enforceable, pre-verizon-ruling) can reasonably fall under the 'reasonable network management' NetNeutrality clause.

      There is *no* technical reason why writing my own closed source competitor to a Quake3 server and running it from my residence should be blocked from the network. It is just normal internet udp/tcp over ip traffic. Doesn't hurt anyone. Doesn't cost the ISP more to pass the traffic than it does to pass Skype client traffic.

      The whole point of NetNeutrality was to keep the ISP from being in the position to determine and shape the winning and losing applications, services, and devices that use the internet. The Network was supposed to treat them all Neutrally. packets are packets. Just like it's not the ISPs position to discriminate against packets going to a PlannedParenthood server, it should be their position to discriminate against packets going between my game or web server and clients around the globe. Sure, go ahead and balance my traffic equally with my neighbors. But if I'm using less traffic, upstream and down, than my neighbor Skype chatting with their grandparents and Netflixing in the evening, *then I should not have to pay more for the same amount of service, just because I use the service for different things*. The internet was supposed to be "general purpose technology" (that phrase was bandied about a lot in the FCC's Network Neutrality document).

    12. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      Doesn't cost the ISP more to pass the traffic than it does to pass Skype client traffic.

      Consumer grade prices are based on consumer grade usage. Consumers are people who sleep, have jobs, etc. Much of the time they are not using the net connection. There are basically physical limits on how much a person or small group of people can consume and that limit is far below the bandwidth limit. Contrast that with a commercial server that could be pumping out nearly bandwidth traffic 24/7. This high traffic costs money to support. That is why there is difference in pricing between consumer and commercial connections. If you want a commercial connection then pay for it. It is about charging different rates for commercial and non-commercial connections.

      Sure, go ahead and balance my traffic equally with my neighbors.

      Then it becomes a pay per use connection and nobody likes those. and It takes a lot more monitoring from the ISP side which will raise costs and prices. Also, if your traffic is similar to your neighbour's there is very little chance that the ISP will even look at it. The no commercial clause is really in there to have a legal basis for cutting off abusers.

    13. Re:Net Neutrality by Bengie · · Score: 1

      A few customers using data 'like' a commercial server is not an issue, it's if word got out that you didn't need to pay for a dedicated line and hosting companies came flocking to your residential lines, there would be an issue.

      The ToS is to scare off companies from making blatant abuse of their networks, but a few residential customers doing it is not an issue. Most ISPs can handle a few outliers, what they can't handle is an over-all shift of their entire user base. Regular users who host high data servers at home are outliers in a residential setting, but high usage users are the norm in hosting companies. You don't want to advertise yourself as easily abused.

    14. Re:Net Neutrality by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      few residential customers doing it is not an issue.

      It is not an issue until someone goes to court and says "they can do it why can't I" and get a ruling to nullify that part of the TOS. Rules have to be applied to everyone or they become invalid.

  6. Faster to AWS than Linode by Enry · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm on FIOS with their 50 down/25 up plan. Linode in Newark is 48Mbps, AWS East is 60Mbps. Just saying that a particular path is slow doesn't mean that it's Verizon interfering - it's more likely something else that's causing the problem.

    1. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just saying that a particular path is slow doesn't mean that it's Verizon interfering - it's more likely something else that's causing the problem.

      Dude, you're forgetting the talking points of the modern internet crowd. Any and all unexplained slowdown is the result of ill intention by ones ISP. The fact that the network is a broad collection of networks that your ISP has no control over is irrelevant. Congestion at a peering site two networks removed from your ISP? That's Verizon's fault! Google doesn't give Youtube the money to upgrade their infrastructure? Verizon's fault!

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re: Faster to AWS than Linode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well and who's fault is that?
      It is the ISPs which HAS been doing throttling and bandwidth shaping.
      It is not like it comes out of the blue.

    3. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I got similar results and I watched Netflix last night and had 1080p for most of the movie with a few hiccups here and there. Sometimes it's worse if I'm trying to watch during peak hours, but for the most part I don't have many issues.

    4. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      You're out of date. it's not the ISP.
      The slowdown is caused by NSA packet inspection.

    5. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by swillden · · Score: 1

      Google doesn't give Youtube the money to upgrade their infrastructure? Verizon's fault!

      If YouTube is slow for you, it's not because it's slow at Google's end. This is why Google is starting to rate carriers by video performance, because they're tired of being blamed for what carriers are doing (or not doing). The rating project is so far only rolled out in Canada: http://business.financialpost....

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    6. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 1

      I'm seeing faster speeds to AWS too, 60mb down from AWS California, about 35-40 on Linode Fremont. Charter cable here.

    7. Re:Faster to AWS than Linode by pdclarry · · Score: 1

      I'm on FIOS with their 50 down/25 up plan. Linode in Newark is 48Mbps, AWS East is 60Mbps. Just saying that a particular path is slow doesn't mean that it's Verizon interfering - it's more likely something else that's causing the problem.

      I was able to duplicate your results with my FIOS 50 down/35 up plan). Speed to AWS was FASTER than the benchmark speed test (60 Mbps for AWS, 48 for the benchmark, 50 Mbps for Linode). If this is throttling they're doing it wrong. I repeated it several times and got similar results.

  7. So the test by CTU · · Score: 1

    I got comcrap(comcast) and I guess I am not being throttled? AWS East test gave me the speeds I was signed up for tho Linode, Atlanta, GA shown a higher speed (like 20MB higher) So guessing ether AWS was just bogged down or something cause it be silly to think it is working in reverse :P

    1. Re:So the test by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I got a 50mb connection and got 48mb-50mb to all of those servers. I also did "speedtest.net" and got 38mb-45mb to London, Paris, and Germany. Your ISP may want some better routes.

    2. Re:So the test by CTU · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but only paying for a 25MB connection and so getting more then I am paying for is a good thing

    3. Re:So the test by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Depends. I get exactly what I pay for. 50/50. I get it everywhere it counts and at all times.

  8. Lawyers are the best hackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most likely the lawyers will ban someone from using such tools.

  9. Telus hates Netflix by Buck+Feta · · Score: 1

    Here in Canada, Telus is one of the Big 3 service providers. I toured their central office, and their chief network technician showed me the new transmission infrastructure they were planning "because of Netflix". The increased traffic because of Netflix alone is costing the ISPs money, no doubt about it. It will end up costing us, as consumers. No reason to throttle if they're investing in bandwidth instead, just raise the cost.

    --
    I am Audience.
    1. Re:Telus hates Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In marxist manitoba,
      You goys still have to smoke outside the bar in sub-zero temperature?

      Incredible to thing the ails of your southern neighbor are effecting the everyday life of Canucks everywhere.
      Surely theres a law preventing extreme and counterproductive (read "backward") policies from infesting the good Canadian company and govt policies??
      It seems not only has the aipac-lobby corrupted the usa through-and-through, but it`s (the aipac-lobby`s) vile and sinister totalitarian agenda seems to be permeating through the walls of Parliament! Must be stopped.......

      =) Cold Cracker

    2. Re: Telus hates Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cost them money? Or cost you money paying top price for shit tier? They skipped along fine banking billions. Time to spend that.money you stole and improved your own infrastructure

    3. Re:Telus hates Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course their preferred business model is raise costs and NOT invest in bandwidth. Without network neutrality they will do just that. Remember, they will increase costs no matter what as Wall Street is expecting a minimum of 10% profit growth per year.

    4. Re:Telus hates Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They oversold, not predicting that people might eventually actually start using those stupid big pipes. Then they started to. And still the ISPs sat on their asses until it started to get close to tipping.

  10. I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur. by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    They are letting far too many things happen, they are either asleep at the wheel, or have been paid off. Either way, us consumers are the ones that are going to lose in the long run. The ones they are supposed to be protecting.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did the FCC let this occur? The FCC is the poster child for regulatory capture, that's how.

    2. Re:I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur. by jonwil · · Score: 1

      Its not the fault of the FCC, the FCC said "ISPs must do xyz", the ISPs went to the federal court and challenged it and the federal court said "we agree with the ISPs that the FCC doesn't have the right to require the ISPs to do xyz"

  11. I'm with you buddy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Goodbye Slashdot. I'll remember you as you were, and not what you've become.

    1. Re: I'm with you buddy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Were all going to boycott Slashdot, together as one. Time to unite. Fuck Beta.

    2. Re: I'm with you buddy by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Boycott? Really? Is that really necessary? Isn't it enough to point out the flaws, and, if the new site becomes inevitable and is no good, just leave then?

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    3. Re: I'm with you buddy by ZenMatrix · · Score: 1

      Thank you.... you don't have to use the beta, leave constructive criticism and if they don't listen leave. So sick of the beta comments.

    4. Re: I'm with you buddy by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Maybe it is necessary. I don't want Slashdot to die, but unless the beta site undergoes radical changes that is what will happen. I'd rather the decision to scrap it or do a major re-write to make it more similar to the classic site was committed to before taking the pressure off and risking having the site die when one day without warning classic is gone.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  12. Comcast still net neutral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    As part of the agreement made for Comcast to purchase NBC, they have to follow the FCC's net neutrality rules for 7 years regardless of what may come from court cases.

    1. Re:Comcast still net neutral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As part of the agreement made for Comcast to purchase NBC, they have to follow the FCC's net neutrality rules for 7 years regardless of what may come from court cases.

      If Net Neutrality was struck down, how can the FCC enforce something that is illegal in the view of the courts?

      You can write anything you want into a contract, and good for you if you can get someone to sign it, but if the contract has provisions that violate current law, which do you think wins in court? I hope the standing law at the time wins in court and not the contract.

      FYI - I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.

  13. Not evidence by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 2

    You can't make a trend from one data point, nor are all routes created equally.

    I do believed that Verizon would do something sleazy like this, but this certainly isn't proof of that.

    1. Re:Not evidence by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 1

      Exactly. The vast majority of internet users (even those that can network their own houses and fix their friend's computers) don't know what a "hop" is or that there are usually a dozen+ computers between them and their internet destination. And if any of these links is slow, for whatever reason, there's going to a general slowdown. That makes it very difficult to determine if you're being throttled, if you're the victim of bad DNS routing, or if there's some random problem that you can't solve from your end.

    2. Re:Not evidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't make a trend from one data point, nor are all routes created equally.

      I do believed that Verizon would do something sleazy like this, but this certainly isn't proof of that.

      Agreed. It's like saying, "Let's increase road taxes sky high because my commute home this afternoon took 15 minutes longer than usual."

      In the David Raphael blog post he made a comment that he seemed to avoid analyzing.He noticed that some hours of the day his speed was good and some hours of the day his speed was slow. he failed to make "the short leap in logic" to realize that even the Internet has a "rush hour".

      If anyone truly understood ISP peering, links & billing between them, and the concept of "Internet rush hour", they would realize that adding bandwidth just to handle peak loads is too costly. I would take the bet that most if not all major ISPs have detailed graphs (maybe even every 5 minutes data points) that show their upstream and downstream traffic loads "by link", "by carrier", "by protocol", "by destination", etc. Those ISPs can easily "slice and dice" that data to learn where the real loads are coming from and when they occur.

      What I can't stand is Netflix not paying the cost of the bandwidth they use. For $8 USD per month (or whatever it is nowadays), they get the end user "hooked"...like a drug addict. End users figure for $8 USD they can stream whatever and whenever they like; a reasonable asusmption and not unlike the days of "unlimited Internet".

      What part of $8 USD is contributed to disverse bandwdith on Netflix part? If Netflix were so whiny about it's users getting throttled, why don't they ask Verizon and all the other ISPs which "Tier 1" ("Internet transit carrier...and the last I heard Netflix primarily uses Cogent...and Cogent ranted about ISPs throttling Netflix...Google it!) is best to peer witht hat ISP? Why does Netflix take the "me me" attitude like a spoiled "tweener" kid? Why should Netflix care so long as they get their $8 USD (or whatever) every month from each subscriber?

      I don't think Netflix cares about it's subscribers. Really. If Netflix really cared about it's subscribers Netflix would work with ISPs to add bandwidth and Tier 1 carriers and peering points. Oh, and Netflix should "return to reality" and admit the Internet has a "rush hour"...many due to Netflix's addictive product.

      I think Netflix should be regulated, just like other "addictive products" such as drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      As for /. Beta. No thanks. Ugly UI. Wasted space. Way too radical a change. And Timothy down-modding everyone that complains only proves his/her job performance/review/bonus must be tied to /. Beta success. So F-beta and Cott-Slash.

    3. Re:Not evidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's DNS routing? Do you mean DNS caching, or DNS proxies? Or do you mean "...if you're the victim of bad DNS or bad routing..."?

  14. Low Standards by tom229 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How do these articles with multiple spelling mistakes and typos keep making the front page?

    --
    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    1. Re:Low Standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Beta.

      captcha: recall

    2. Re:Low Standards by Arker · · Score: 1

      The submitter typically dashes it off in a hurry, afraid someone else will get it in first. He figures the 'editors' can fix an odd typo or whatnot before posting. He has not been here very long, or he would realize they never do. They just pick one of the two dozen nearly identical submissions at random and post it, maybe with a snide editorial comment added, but they never proofread anything.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
    3. Re:Low Standards by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 1

      The submitter typically dashes it off in a hurry, afraid someone else will get it in first. He figures the 'editors' can fix an odd typo or whatnot before posting. He has not been here very long, or he would realize they never do. They just pick one of the two dozen nearly identical submissions at random and post it, maybe with a snide editorial comment added, but they never proofread anything.

      Generalizations usually fall down. I've had submissions reorganized before, and in one case had an additional clarifying link added. Just because something's mostly true doesn't make it always true ("never").

  15. You can't switch back forever. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Admins have already said Beta will be the only choice when it goes live.

    1. Re:You can't switch back forever. by Dan667 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      they are going to lose a lot of people like digg did when they rolled out their redesign. I wonder why they are ignoring this self inflicted threat to their profits.

    2. Re:You can't switch back forever. by TheRealDevTrash · · Score: 0

      In the words of Drew Curtis. You. will. get. used. to. it.

      --
      I used to be /dev/trash but Slashdot no longer allows slashes for usernames.
    3. Re:You can't switch back forever. by TheRealDevTrash · · Score: 0

      profit?

      --
      I used to be /dev/trash but Slashdot no longer allows slashes for usernames.
  16. Buck Feta by turkeydance · · Score: 0

    isn't he a Star Wars bounty hunter? or something like that. even she said: Fuck Beta.

  17. His point is that we are not a free market by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Natural monopolies need to be regulated.

    1. Re:His point is that we are not a free market by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are regulated by nature.

  18. Re:Beta. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Dice doesn't own slashdot.jp? wikipedia: "currently owned by OSDN-Japan, Inc."

  19. Please learn about IXP by macpacheco · · Score: 1

    Internet Exchange Points.
    If you are a customer of a large nationwide ISP accessing a large content provider present in the same country, you aren't going to have to go through any 3rd parties, as your ISP will exchange traffic at the closest IXP (directly). There around 50 IXPs in the USA alone. Many Hundreds worldwide.
    So the theory that the problem is elsewhere doesn't sound very credible.
    If they have trouble connecting to the closest IXP, in all likelyhood you'll see a broad slowdown.
    I know a thing or two about this. I'm an expert on this stuff.
    In all likelyhood, it is Verizon throttling AWS so they can charge a premium to keep their traffic unthrottled.
    To be pessimistic 80% of US ISP bandwidth is the result of direct peering between two ISPs or and ISP and the data center where content is hosted (or mirrored). The fiber cable where data passes might be leased (extremely likely), worst case having a large L2 ethernet switch from the IXP between the two side's border routers.

    1. Re:Please learn about IXP by Enry · · Score: 1

      Please learn about traceroute.

      I don't have specific sites to go to (the site linked doesn't tell you what they're connecting to to test) but I have to go on the assumption that both AWS and Linode are eating their own dogfood. Going to Linode takes me through Level3 whereas going to Amazon takes me through Qwest. As soon as I've gone two hops (my local router, the other end of my FIOS link) I'm on divergent paths. By hop #5 (out of ~18 hops) I'm off the Verizon network.

      But you're the expert.

    2. Re:Please learn about IXP by macpacheco · · Score: 1

      Verizon uses Level 3 or Qwest to get to AWS ?
      Insane. Get off Verizon. Don't go back, ever. I know, impossible. Sorry.
      I'm from Brazil. I thought Verizon was a nationwide carrier, are they ? Only small/medium ISPs do that.
      The possibility is AWS isn't large enough to have carrier status. So Verizon don't want to peer (they want AWS to buy bandwidth) but they might have peering agreements with L3 and/or Qwest. And L3 and Qwest certainly have peering status with Verizon. So they follow the cheapest route.
      But a carrier as large as Verizon should have tens of Gbps of bandwidth to exchange with AWS (considering just netflix being hosted at AWS). More than enough to peer.

      Anyhow, this just shows that Verizon is punishing their customers by not doing direct peering. That part I can say without further information. They are bartering their customer bandwidth demand for ransom with AWS / Netflix. There might not be explicit throttling, they just throw that bandwidth through an already congested link.

      I'm sure Netflix would be willing to pay fair backbone costs. But Verizon wants to profit from it instead. This has been extremely well documented between Netflix and Comcast. Netflix offered to peer at Comcast regional centers. But Comcast considers Netflix revenues made using Comcast customers to be something they are entitled to profit from as well (directly from Netflix).

    3. Re:Please learn about IXP by macpacheco · · Score: 1

      In Brazil the three largest national backbone carriers reject peering from anyone but the 10 largest other backbone carriers (not an exact number, but a list of rules that reject all but the pretty big ones). Foreign backbones also reject peering, but that makes a little more sense (I'll peer with you in Miami, but not in Brazil, otherwise I'm giving you a free link to my customers abroad, in Brazil I sell links).

      Their strategy is if they reject peering (as a cartel), chances are fifty/fifty the other side will have to buy a link from one of them. But in practice the other large carriers that do peer openly end up getting that business.

      We have a huge IXP in Sao Paulo (the largest metroplex in the country). Most medium ISPs and almost all content providers are present at the Sao Paulo IXP and peer. Its not really a single IXP, but rather 10 points of presence connected directly by 10 or 100 Gbps links. Connect to one POP and you're connected to everybody.

      Maybe the USA is regressing to a cartel of the largest boys peer, but anyone a bit smaller is left out. Troubling.

    4. Re:Please learn about IXP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please learn about traceroute.

      Different expert here. Traceroute shows you only the routers which are set to respond. You won't see layer 1 equipment, switches, or a large variety of other network appliances. Traces CAN give you some good information, but there is often MUCH more to the story than a trace will ever tell you.

      As for how your traffic gets wherever it's going, that depends on how your ISP peers, and how the owner of the IP's peer, and how they announce their BGP routes.

      Also, I see a lot of people talking about Direct Peering. Yes, that helps. BUT direct peering actually violates Net Neutrality because that is technically giving preference to a specific provider, since traffic to/from them does not go through the outside internet, but DOES still use the "internet" marked circuits internal to the Carrier's network.

    5. Re:Please learn about IXP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verizon uses Level 3 or Qwest to get to AWS ?

      Perhaps AWS chooses not to allow Verizon AS701 into AWS data centers? That is the business/choice of AWS.

      Perhaps Netflix and/or AWS does some goofy BGP stuff that overlooks Verizon AS701 as a good, maybe best route to Verizon FiOS customers? I don't know, just speculating here.

      Insane. Get off Verizon. Don't go back, ever. I know, impossible. Sorry.
      I'm from Brazil. I thought Verizon was a nationwide carrier, are they ?

      They are a nationwide, actually worldwide ISP. Ever heard of MCI? That was merged into Verizon years ago. Look up "BGP AS701" on Google. "VerizonBusiness" is comprised of the old "InternetMCI" operation and probably lots of other bits too.

      Only small/medium ISPs do that.
      The possibility is AWS isn't large enough to have carrier status. So Verizon don't want to peer (they want AWS to buy bandwidth) but they might have peering agreements with L3 and/or Qwest. And L3 and Qwest certainly have peering status with Verizon. So they follow the cheapest route.

      Don't confuse "cheapest route" with "best route". A cheeper carrier might take your traffic through BFE before it gets to where you want it to go. Even an intelligent analysis of BGP route annoucements at the Netflix end (by an experience BGP router engineer) combined with "ping" & "traceroute" stats still doesn't guarantee much. As another poster elsewhere in this thread has mentioned, there can be other bits of hardware in the path that do not show up.

      But a carrier as large as Verizon should have tens of Gbps of bandwidth to exchange with AWS (considering just netflix being hosted at AWS). More than enough to peer.

      Don't confuse "tens of Gbps of bandwidth" with actual physical conenctions. Just because fiber optics can support traffic at incredible speeds doesn't mean the terminating end systems have the physical capability to use it. Example: In many cases within a data center, a fiber optic link used to support 1Gbps of traffic could just easily support 10Gbps or 100Gbps of traffic IF the optics at each end of the link can support it AND any intermediate infrastructure can support it.

      Perhaps the problem is a case of "lack of router ports" on 1 side or the other? Vendors, like Cisco and Juniper and so on, don't give away cards for routers for free, especially high-end "core Internet class" hardware. Or what if the terminating routers are separated by physical distance greater than that of a data center? Like in a different building across town? Who pays for the work to "clear out & qualify" the bandwidth required between the 2 end points? Netflix? Nope. They are CHEEP because why else, other than lousy unstable AWS "expandable & collapsable infrastructure", would they use AWS instead of building their own setup in data centers they (Netflix) controls with peering decided by Netflix? Look at the talent they don't have to hire that know how to do "Internet-class network infrastructure". Netflix impresses me as nothing more than a bunch of "whiny lazy spoiled brat server admins" and "network-clueless programmers" ("It runs fast on my desktop so it must be fast on the Internet, right?") that know how to feed & capitalize on addictive habits. Sounds like a "drug pusher", eh?

      Anyhow, this just shows that Verizon is punishing their customers by not doing direct peering. That part I can say without further information.

      Proof requested of your assertion, please.

      They are bartering their customer bandwidth demand for ransom with AWS / Netflix. There might not be explicit throttling, they just throw that bandwidth through an already congested link.

      Proof requested of your assertion, please. The David Raphael blog post on his experiences doing traceroutes to netflix from FiOS proves the Internet has a "rush hour". Internet bandwidth

    6. Re:Please learn about IXP by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Direct peering doesn't favor one over the other, it makes it cheaper for the ISP. An ISP's trunk should never be congested and should be connected to a Tier 1. If both of these is true, then you're not perfering anyone over anyone else. The default state of the Internet is for an ISP to use a Tier 1 as their default. Any peering being done is to reduce costs. Increased performance is an indirect result of reduced costs.

      The biggest issue with peering is no perfering one service over another, it's peering then letting the link get congested. Letting your trunk get congested will make many many people mad, but letting a specific peered link get congested rarely result in every one of your customers getting up-in-arms.

  20. Bittorrent cost them more than Netflix by macpacheco · · Score: 1

    The reality is today's routers and fiber networks are one thousand times faster than 1995 at the same cost (from 155Mbps to 100Gbps). And price is dropping constantly.
    They can save more money by dropping Cisco/Juniper and going open source than trying to throttle anything.
    Trying to throttle 100Gbps backbone links is like trying to drink from a firehose. They should only throttle bandwidth they pay per Gbps (international links).

    1. Re:Bittorrent cost them more than Netflix by Bengie · · Score: 1

      100gb trunk is slow, 10tb-100tb is the new hotness. Take 100-1000 100gb links and multiplex them over a single fiber using DWMD. 1pb/s is just over the horizon, already a working prototype.

    2. Re:Bittorrent cost them more than Netflix by macpacheco · · Score: 1

      Do you work for an ISP or a Carrier ?
      Provisioning ratios are still in the range of 20Kbps to 500Kbps per broadband user.
      Back in the 1.5Mbps ADSL times, ISPs provisioned on a 18:1 ratio, so 85Kbps per user.
      Even as speeds increased to 10 to 50Mbps, bandwidth consumption didn't scale, so I bet those 50Mbps broadbands are provisioned at about 200Kbps per user or less (50:1 easy).
      Users don't download all at once.
      Most users don't do torrent.
      The bulk of today's links are still 10Gbps. 100Gbps isn't very common yet.
      Links = DWDM tributaries. Either 1Gbps, 10Gbps, 40Gbps or 100Gbps (assuming all ethernet).
      There is a lot of 10/40 Gbps aggregation using WDM (less than 16 channels).
      You only see that kind of DWDM aggregation between metroplexes.
      I would bet Verizon don't need more than a single 100Gbps (or 10 x 10Gbps WDM) from Seattle to San Francisco for instance, or from Phoenix to LA.
      Of course if the Phoenix to LA fiber comes from DFW, then you're likely to carry all in the same fiber cable, but not necessarily on the same strand.
      Long distance fiber cables are 36 to 144 fiber strands. Do you use a single strand using a pretty expensive system or use multiple strands (concentrating only the really long range traffic on the DWDM system). Cheaper (less strand) cable too small difference.
      Just because tech exists, it doesn't mean carriers are using it.
      Most optical tributaries in the world use only bi-di WDM (TX and RX on the same strand) or even no WDM (two strands for a single link).
      More overseas fibers also don't use 100Gbps tributaries yet. Regeneration equipment (deep underwater) needs to be replaced to upgrade.
      And routers with only support for 10Gbps are way cheaper than 100Gbps capable ones.

      I worked for a small carrier that served a dozen small ISPs with 3Gbps, estimated about 50k users downstream, not your 10Mbps plus users, but still all Mbps plus service. That was last year. I estimate 100% of Brazil's bandwidth to North America and Europe fits in 100 10Gbps links easy. 100 million users. One DWDM system would take care of everything. Of course internal bandwidth is more than that.

  21. Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The FCC wrote the Net Neutrality rules in the first place. It was the federal courts that struck them down, declaring the FCC doesn't have the authority to enforce net neutrality.

    We're blaming the FCC now for...reasons? I realize "fuck beta" and all, but at least target your hate on a reasonable target. The FCC charged up this hill for us, and got shot down in flames.

    What exactly do you expect they could be doing differently that would help?

    1. Re:Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The FCC made the decision on how to classify internet service providers which lead to this being an option. When they tried to take back just part of their decision the courts said it they didn't have the authority due to how they classified ISPs. They still have the option of going back and reclassifying ISPs to give themselves the authority to enforce neutrality.

      So yes we are blaming the FCC because they made the mess and thus far has refused to do what they have to (and the courts say need to and are legally able to) do to fix the problem for good.

    2. Re:Wait. what? by AnontheDestroyer · · Score: 5, Informative

      The court said the FCC DOES have the authority to enforce network neutrality, just not under its (the FCC's) current classification of ISPs. That is, the FCC has ISPs classified as "information services," rather than "common carriers." The court ruling says the FCC does have the power to enforce net neutrality against "common carriers," but does not against "information services." The court, but all reasonable interpretations I've see, is right. What needs to happen is ISPs need to be reclassified as "common carriers," or something very similar, but right now all of our politicians and the FCC head in particular are bought up by those same ISPs. There is a reason net neutrality did not last very long after the Citizen's United ruling.

    3. Re:Wait. what? by Solandri · · Score: 1

      The FCC wrote the Net Neutrality rules in the first place. It was the federal courts that struck them down, declaring the FCC doesn't have the authority to enforce net neutrality.

      We're blaming the FCC now for...reasons?

      The other two respondents already answered, but perhaps not as clearly as they could have. The FCC had two choices - they could categorize ISPs as common carriers, or as information services.

      Common carriers are like phone companies. They provide the lines, but they cannot control who has access nor what is conveyed over those phone lines. If you call up to request a phone line be installed at your house, they are not allowed to say no (as long as you can pay). But in exchange, they are not liable for what is transmitted over those phone lines. If a drug deal happens over the phone line, the phone company cannot be hauled into court for facilitating illegal activity.

      Information services (the current FCC classification for ISPs) are the opposite. The ISP can control who they provide service to and what service they provide. But in exchange, they are liable for what's transmitted over their lines. If a customer is torrenting movies, the ISP can be hauled into court for facilitating illegal activity. This is why all of them roll over and hand over customer data when a proper DMCA claim is filed - they don't want to end up having to pay for their customers' copyright infringement.

      The last bit is the reason why the FCC classified ISPs as information services. The RIAA/MPAA didn't want to go through the trouble of tracking down by themselves individual users who were filesharing. They wanted the ISP to do the work for them - collect usage data, hand it over to them (via the feds), and shut the person down when ordered. So they pressured the FCC, and the FCC classified ISPs as an information service. But then the FCC tried to pass net neutrality rules as if the ISPs were common carriers. The courts rightly said "nuh uh, you can't have it both ways." Either they're an information service or they're a common carrier. You cannot say they control and are liable for the data they carry in one case, but they're not allowed to control what data they carry in another case.

      So yeah, it's the FCC's fault. For deciding to be the RIAA/MPAA's lapdog instead of thinking of what was best for The People.

    4. Re:Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not just RIAA, it's the spammers. Spammers can claim immunity from carriers restricting, or throttling, their abusive services if the ISP's are designated as "common carrier". And actually prosecuting spammers is a *nightmare* in court, because the local police or district attorneys will not cooperate in prosecution. It's not that they like spammers, it's that they consider the cases "too small".

      I went through this with the Secret Service and wire fraud by spammers. If it didn't involve at least $30,000 in damages from a well defined and willing to prosecute individual or specific company, they could not be be bothered. The large scale but small to individual damages made them basically immune, until ISP's got wise and started writing restrictions on spam into their contracts. Making the ISP's "common carriers" would remove the ISP ability to restrict spmmers.

    5. Re:Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he FCC charged up this hill for us, and got shot down in flames.

      to be honest, however, the fcc didn't try very hard to fight for consumers.. seeing how it's run by a former cable industry lobbyist. unfortunately the lawmakers in washington are also owned by cable and teleco industry, so we likely will never see actual laws on the books protecting net neutrality to ensure that internet connections we pay for are what they should be, big dumb pipes.

    6. Re:Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. The way ISPs are classified must change. The broadband monopolies are the problem here, and their influence on the FCC in the first place created this issue.

    7. Re:Wait. what? by Altus · · Score: 1

      Well they clearly fucked up when they categorized internet providers which resulted in the ruling. I have yet to see an explination of their categorization that doesn't leave the FCC looking incompetent or corrupt. This court ruling seemed pretty inevitable and its not clear that there was a valid reason for them to not make them common carriers in the first place.

      So there is some argument, but if the FCC responds soon enough (by re-categorizing internet providers) I think you have to give them the benefit of the doubt... if they don't well that further makes them look incompetent or corrupt.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    8. Re:Wait. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Two words: common carrier

    9. Re:Wait. what? by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      The FCC was/is more interested in pageantry than anything. In typical fashion they avoided strategically valuable hills and planted "Net Neutrality" flags atop indefensible positions that ensured their fighting forces minimal casualties. In fact, the FCC played the impotent coward and completely ignored "Common Carrier" hill--the one hill that would have ensured a decisive, and lasting victory for the consumers--simply because it had some scary people with money guarding it.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  22. Not a large enough sample size by killhour · · Score: 1

    I also have Fios, and I actually get faster download speeds from AWS east than I pay for (75/35). I'm getting 85.83mpbs according to netneutralitytest.com. Now I'm not saying that Verizon isn't doing this for anybody, but they certainly aren't for me.

    1. Re:Not a large enough sample size by TuballoyThunder · · Score: 1

      Same here. I'm on FIOS and I'm getting about 70 MBPS to AWS East.

  23. This is getting old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a network engineer at a rural ISP I can tell you it isn't as easy as you think. Websites that try to tell you your speed to see if your provider is throttling you in some way are flat out wrong the majority of the time. You'd be surprised as to how many emails/calls we receive from customers who constantly do speed tests that show mixed results and constantly challenge us on it, claiming they aren't getting their full speed. They go use sites like Speakeasy or some of the other popular ones, do a test to Chicago and get only 2mbps, then get 8mbps from Atlanta, then 6.5mbps from San Francisco then the next day the results are completely different and it's our fault somehow even though they have their full speed to our network edge and have available bandwidth. Sometimes they call up and say they aren't getting their full speed and it's because we're slowing them down or scamming them only to enable monitoring on their equipment and see that they have a computer doing Windows updates in the background and some other device is connected doing some downloading as well. We try to educate them as to what is going on and be helpful, try to have them turn off the offending device or process and try again. Do they listen? Nope. We're evil because the Internet said we were. Everyone is out to get them. Complaints come in from customers who pay for 3mbps but get 2.9mbps on speed test and we need to fix it now!! As far as getting what you're paying for, that's never completely possible even when paying for a dedicated connection. It's a very large gray area with too many variables. Most connections are "up to" X speed. Yes, you pay for 50mbps down, but does the site you're transferring from and every node along the way have 50mbps available upload speed in your direction so you can achieve that? Is there sufficient upload latency and enough available upload speed to make sure the TCP ACKs are being received in a timely manner so that the window size can be increased and download speed can be boosted? There are too many variables to consider and end users just aren't willing to listen because it's so easy for them to just claim we're lying to them. They prefer this conclusion for some reason. At our ISP, we do not throttle any protocol or service, nor do we treat any website differently and that includes our direct competitors. As far as oversubscribing goes, unless you're in an area where bandwidth is absolutely dirt cheap it's impossible not to. Hint: We pay over $5,000 per month for a 100mb/100mb connection because we're in BFE. Do you think that we can compete cost wise with the cable company and phone company who are giving away bandwidth for next to nothing without oversubscribing? Give me a break. Personally, I don't mind the arguments that all traffic should be treated equally, because it should be, but these "click here to see if your provider is throttling you" websites have to stop because they're just too inaccurate and told tell the whole story. The calls always end up on my desk when there isn't a problem in the first place because a website they saw convinced them something is black and white when it just isn't. Stop. Stop. Stop. Thank you.

    - ISP Guy

    1. Re:This is getting old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen brother.....

    2. Re:This is getting old by Bengie · · Score: 1

      We pay over $5,000 per month for a 100mb/100mb connection because we're in BFE

      Ouch.. wtf... Around here, Level 3 sells 1gb dedicated links for $6k/month.

  24. Better way to spend money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rather than pay a per-customer fee/bribe to Verizon spend the money on an ad campaign: "How fast is Verizon (r) "15 Mbps" Internet?" "We tested actual download speeds for 12 Verzon customers in [your area]; here are the results.

    When Verizon sues you over the ad campaign start your counter-suit for $3x

  25. Won't work... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To me it looks like comcast is already giving prefrential treatment to the speed test sites.

    I can get some amazing results from most of the speed tests out there.

    And my real world actual results hardly ever come anywhere close to those results.

    In practice i get about half the speed that i'm paying for. And the speed tests say i'm getting.

    The system is already being gamed to make comcast look better than it really is.

    -oh yeah. fuck beta too. 10th to the 17. slashdot dies. zero traffic.

  26. Small sample/Bad methodology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.internetphenomena.com/2014/02/evaluating-netneutralitytest-com/

  27. Public Exposure by ExecutorElassus · · Score: 1

    Right. Because citizen activists publicizing how big powerful entities do horrible things when the government is too chickenshit to stop them really worked wonders in the case of the NSA's mass-surveillance program. Not to mention extraordinary renditions, offshore torture, firing DAs for not investigating bullshit "voter fraud," lying to Congress, lying to the UN, to the American public, etc etc.

  28. fios outperforming expectations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have the 15 down 5 up fios package (standard) for about 5 or so years now, and for some reason i get >20 down and ~5 up for all of the servers on the website.
    Some (eg the ones closest to me) get almost 25 down.
    Heck, even the linode one all the way on the other side of the country got 25 down.
    So far fios has gone well beyond my expectations.

  29. Wrong Design by Etherwalk · · Score: 1

    Nutshell. While your ISP can't control anything beyond their edge, your ISP or any of its links should NEVER be the reason, and your ISP should make sure the same is also true for anyone they link with. The core network should never be a limitation and only the end-points should be.

    This would be a really bad way to design a network--it would result in building for tremendous overcapacity. Realistically, it is exceptionally rare that a customer will use his entire pipe for the entire month. Designing for that would be like designing a house with the assumption that one sumo wrestler will be living on each square foot of flooring.

    Providers should be able to rely on certain historically tested assumptions when they size their pipes--like what is peak load for a suburban community with x-thousand-users?

    Put another way, everyone in NYC does not use 12 MBps at the same time. In fact, if they do, the RIGHT response is to not let it all through--because it means there's a *massive* DDOS going on.

    1. Re:Wrong Design by Bengie · · Score: 1

      This would be a really bad way to design a network--it would result in building for tremendous overcapacity.

      Most of the Internet is built this way already. The Internet backbone is mostly idle and under-utilized. About 80% of the fiber that was installed for the backbone has gone unused as technology keeps pushing data transfers faster and faster.

    2. Re:Wrong Design by Tim+the+Gecko · · Score: 1

      Most of the Internet is built this way already. The Internet backbone is mostly idle and under-utilized. About 80% of the fiber that was installed for the backbone has gone unused as technology keeps pushing data transfers faster and faster.

      Let's take round numbers - 100 fiber pairs between a pair of major cities, with 80 of them unused, and (say) 1Tbit/s on the other 20 pairs. That's 20Tbit/s of backbone capacity, and you might think of it as 80Tbit/s "unused". However, to bring those fibers into use, you need to sink the capital costs for the routers, optics for the 10 or 100Gbit/s ports, and the DWDM equipment. That's not a trivial cost, and people will need a business case for turning up new capacity.

      It's a lot easier to upgrade the core than the edge, but the core router ports certainly aren't sitting there at some low utilization all the time.

    3. Re:Wrong Design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Put another way, everyone in NYC does not use 12 MBps at the same time. In fact, if they do, the RIGHT response is to make sure as hell it is available next time

      FTFY

    4. Re:Wrong Design by Bengie · · Score: 1

      The routers aren't, but the fiber is. Core routers are not meant to be past 50% utilization. Once 95th percentile reaches 50%, the router/link needs to be upgraded. This keeps the core from having congestion. The core can handle anything you throw at it and you'll pay fairly for using it.

  30. Comcast not throttling? by Zephiris · · Score: 1

    Someone else mentioned that Comcast has to follow net neutrality rules for a few years regardless of court rulings. It's getting full speed to AWS during Primetime for me (single data point, but people keep saying it's an issue during prime time).

    There's been much discussion lately about how to prove whether Comcast is throttling Netflix, or if Netflix is simply vastly over capacity and throttling everyone.
    Netflix using and depending on AWS is quite the opposite of their claims lately (toward the end of 2013), that they have a separate distributed network and offer to put netflix servers on-premesis with ISPs (as long as the ISP drops peering charges).

    Given that Amazon has enough bandwidth to cover them, and given that Amazon isn't being throttled (at least by Comcast), then it appears pretty definitive that Netflix simply isn't increasing its AWS scaling as demand increases, despite posting record profits. Shock of shock, Netflix likes extra money rather than ensuring reasonable service for all of its paying customers.

    Even if Verizon is throttling it any, Netflix is probably throttling it considerably harder based on recent reports and local tests.

    Also, if the submitter is paying for FiOS and only getting 12mbit max... A( I'd better hope that's on the 15/5 plan, B( dear god, why is that as expensive as Comcast Blast! and only 15/5? Comcast is in the process of making the same tier 105/12 (currently 50/10). (I got 60mbit on all of the 'net neutrality' tests linked.)

    --

    "A Goddess rarely smiles for she is forced by others to be an island unto herself." - Zephiris
    1. Re:Comcast not throttling? by adri · · Score: 2

      The video content isn't coming off of AWS. It's coming from the Open Connect Appliance Platform.

      (I'm on the OCA team at Netflix.)

  31. Re:Beta. by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dice doesn't own slashdot.jp? wikipedia: "currently owned by OSDN-Japan, Inc."

    Correct, Dice Holdings does not own the Japanese Slashdot and Sourceforge brands or sites. These were split out and sold by VA Linux in 2007, before the sale of the American subsidiaries to Geek.net, and thus not part of the deal. That the buyers chose to call themselves OSDN is going back to the roots - by that time, OSDN had become OSDG.
    As it is, Japanese Slashdot buys advertising space on Slashdot.org for Japanese customers from Dice Holding, and translate articles into Japanese. That's about as far as the cooperation goes.

    Anyhow, at this time, slashdot.jp appears to be the bigger brother, with more traffic than slasdot.org.
    Perhaps they can buy out slashdot.org too. I for one would welcome our new Japanese overlords.

  32. Really? This again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In case you missed it the first time (and the submitter obviously did), there is little objective evidence to support Verizon or other carriers are intentionally throttling AWS, Netflix, or any other content provider. What is happening is that the Internet service providers and the Internet content providers are in a showdown, waiting to see who will blink first and absorb the costs of more bandwidth (power, pipe, and ping) required for high-quality streaming video. The result may seem like the "action" of throttling, but it really is the "inaction" of both the service providers not increasing bandwidth and content providers not paying for more bandwidth.

    This dispute will probably get resolved within the next six months once enough people complain and/or discontinue service(s). But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of planting FUD on the front page, okay?

  33. Hmmm what? by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

    It's not Verizon, or if it is they aren't doing it to everyone. I get the same speed results hitting AWS anywhere that I get doing just about anything else. I pay Verizon for a 75 megabit FIOS connection that in reality usually does about 83, and that's what I just got hitting AWS East.

  34. one way to win is choice by Dan667 · · Score: 1

    Google Fiber has come to two US cities. People should be asking how to get it rolled out faster in other cities or how to get other companies that won't throttle to setup shop

    1. Re:one way to win is choice by tverbeek · · Score: 2

      Yeah, Google Fiber will be great for accessing YouTube and Google Maps. It might not be quite so effective for accessing services that compete with Google.

      Google is no different from Comcast or Verizon or AT&T. Without governmental enforcement of net neutrality, carriers cannot be trusted to provide equal service to competing services.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  35. impotence by tverbeek · · Score: 1

    "because tools for monitoring the performance of carriers will emerge nd we'll catch them if they try."

    Oooh! Some geeks will "catch them". That must have these megacorporations (with Congresscritters on their payrolls) just shaking in their boots.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    1. Re:impotence by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      It can actually work. The advent of cheap tests for lead and other toxins, of GPS for home survey work, and of cell phones for photographing criminal behavior have all altered what people or companies can do without detection and prosecution.

  36. Akamai != AWS... by motd2k · · Score: 1

    If only people knew how content delivery worked. Netflix don't deliver you the video from AWS, so worrying about the 'throttling' of AWS connections is slightly ridiculous.

    1. Re:Akamai != AWS... by adri · · Score: 1

      .. and we have almost stopped using Akamai too for video. We serve it ourselves now.

  37. Amazon internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It only means that Amazon must not go into the internet business to ensure their dominance. Don't think that would get past Bezos do you?

  38. Re:Beta. by BLKMGK · · Score: 2

    Untrusted Java app? No go...

    Yes, Beta sux and I too will leave if it becomes the new default!

    --
    Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
  39. Why does that matter? by TheRealDevTrash · · Score: 0

    Oh no! They caught us! They'll certainly go to another provide-----hahahahahahahaha

    --
    I used to be /dev/trash but Slashdot no longer allows slashes for usernames.
  40. Re:Beta. by JMJimmy · · Score: 1

    There's a selection of various tests for various types of throttling you don't have to use the Java one... http://www.measurementlab.net/... - it's also a very well known and trusted site http://www.measurementlab.net/...

  41. That argument makes no sense by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    The thing is, if anyone wanted to target anyone it would be Netflix, since that's where a huge majority of the traffic is, and also it theoretically competes with video offerings from other carriers.

    So if you were to engage in ANY throttling, it would make way more sense to act against Netflix than anyone else.

    If Netflix is safe (and it is) then so is everyone else.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  42. Does it occur? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    In the end, I am unsure how the FCC lets this occur.

    First you have to say WHAT is occurring - no-one can say for sure right now.

    Why does it occur to no-one that AWS might well be throttling significantly long transfers? I get slower results to AWS East over the NJ server too, on Comcast. But I still get plenty fast speeds to AWS, it's not like it's crippling - just somewhat slower. There could be a lot of reasons for that.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  43. Not for me by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    On Comcast I get slower response to AWS East than the Linode NJ server.

    But AWS is still plenty fast. I don't think anyone is throttling AWS, I think that the people who are claiming it does have a very small understanding of what is actually occurring with the network traffic.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Not for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could be a bad router between you and AWS, too. Routing tables are not constantly updated, you know, and equipment does go down.

      Although it could be Comcast fucking with you, too. I would put the odds on either at about 50-50.

  44. Time to laugh @ your dumb ass more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like calling folks idiots? Like this from you troll http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ??

    Prove me wrong dumbass http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    It works, & gives folks what they want here (no beta site redirect foisted on them without asking, which is WHY I put it up... they did it to me 1 or 2 times, that beat it, & I gave folks what they wanted).

    You're also FREE to *try* to disprove 17 points of FACT that use of custom hosts files gives users more speed, security, reliability, & even added anonymity that I list here where you can download it, free -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...

    (Only thing is, on the latter, that FAR more skilled trolls than you have TRIED to, only to get shot down in flames each time, by yours truly)

    APK

    P.S.=> Come on big talker - go for it: I'll eat you ALIVE here publicly jsut to laugh @ your DUMB ass even more...apk

    1. Re:Time to laugh @ your dumb ass more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn, not you, again.

  45. I think... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think what he was saying is that the little guys aren't considered a threat to internet providers, and so the ISPs won't throttle connections to them. You figure, if an ISP runs around throttling everyone that is deemed a potential threat early on, people might start complaining and (in some areas, but not fucking mine) switch to a competitor that promises a truly faster connection.

    Throttling popular sites that get on the radar can be justified in the ISP's minds. These big sites create a substantial "burden" on the ISP's network, making throttling necessary in order to prevent the alternative of increasing prices. Consumers could easily buy into that, and allow it. The establishment won't prevent growth really. Growth helps to justify price increases that come out of nowhere and for no real reason (e.g. Cox). Netflix and Amazon, and Hulu are special cases though because these directly compete against the cable television business. ISPs that provide cable typically require you to have digital cable before they will give you internet. They're not just messing with us consumers, they are screwing with HBO and other content creators. There's a reason why we can't simply subscribe to HBO's streaming service without having it on our cable bills too.

    1. Re:I think... by ElBeano · · Score: 1

      Sique's assumption is that big bandwidth would be THE issue. It could just as likely be about content. If you give the carriers free reign on this, it could be used as a de facto form of censorship.

  46. Re:Verizon vs TWC - 3 2 1 GO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Negative Infinity out of Positive Infinity -> Verizon
    Positive Infinity out of Positive Infinity -> Time Warner Cable

  47. Actually, this is how peering agreements work by ezdiy · · Score: 1

    "Throttling" between autonomous systems is common.

    Think of it as series of tubes, and between some places, the tubes are thinner. Usually wherever AS POP meet and the exchange arrangement is not settlement-free, but capped to some numbers in (either) direction. Or the port is simply running red-hot.

    When two big ISPs refuse to reach a compromise on peering terms, it's usually the users who suffer. Think of the Sprint vs. cogent drama.

    Commercial internet worked like that since uh ... always. ISP peering is market driven - that is, there is clearly "demand" for data from AWS, but Verizon is a monopoly which can afford to extort AWS to cough up money, and Amazon/whomever are reluctant to cave in.

    Net neutrality term is a bit of oxymoron in the light of this, as there was never one to begin with. The problem is simply lack of last-mile competition in the US, as those operators are not pressed by competition to provide quality bandwidth to end users from relevant places as needed.

    Refusing to peer with competing service, and offering local service of their own is entirely legit as well. As long the consumer is given choice of different ISP to flee to....

  48. Yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everything but the providers own services will be throttled. So everything but the service providers services will be unusable from the start. That's what they want. Just make the damn law stating that they provide network connectivity and are forbidden from taking a peek at what data users are moving around. IT's none of their business anyways.

    Oh, yeah, this beta isn't very hot. Please fuck yourselves with a rake.

  49. Cedexis by coofercat · · Score: 1

    Sorry if this looks like I'm a shill...

    At $werk we had a company called Cedexis come in to see us. They have a service where they 'ping' their customers infrastructure from end-user's web browsers. The idea being that $user on $provider hitting $cloud gets different service levels for different values of $provider and $cloud (where $cloud can be anything, including your own datacentres). Thus, if $provider == Verizon, then maybe using MS Azure is better than AWS. If that was the case, then Netflix could use Cedexis to automatically route Verizon customers to Azure at the times of day when Verizon do their throttling, whilst leaving everyone else on AWS. It's actually possible to see what they would be doing for you right now on their website (they publish the core data publicly).

    I realise this doesn't solve the problem, but it works around it. Solving the problem means telling Netflix their service sucks and you're leaving, whilst doing the same to Verizon. Once Netflix starts hurting, they'll start lobbying, and once $other_provider starts doing better than Verizon, maybe they'll rethink their approach. Maybe.

  50. Identifying the throttle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think one of the things people are forgetting with this issue is to ask: Who is doing the throttling? Is it Verizon, or does Netflix(Amazon AWS) limit the bandwidth per user? You have to remember, at certain times of the day, Netflix dominates traffic in the US. It may be a logistical requirement on their end to limit people to 3 Mbps so they can accommodate all of their users. Certainly 3 Mbps is good enough for any Netflix streaming. I have a hard time imagining a situation where you need to stream @ 12 Mbps.

    You see this with download servers all the time(especially those that aren't hosted by huge corporations). You may have a 1 Gbps fiber line, but the server you're talking to maxes out at 200 Kbps per user, because it can't handle more than that. It's not your ISP being evil and controlling your bandwidth, it's just a fact of life when your computer/console/tv/etc is talking to a server that can't keep up with everyone's maximum bandwidth.

    I honestly don't know much about Netflix's network infrastructure, Amazon AWS, or anything along those lines, but while I was reading the article I couldn't help but feel there's necessary information being left out. I would also like to see whether other ISPs show the same speeds. The linked article claimed 50 KBps to Amazon AWS, which is a huge difference with 3 Mbps, and none of this information is showing data about speeds from AT&T or other ISPs.

    As another poster said, Verizon recently entered the cloud services ring, and that may have an impact as well. If I was an ISP I might be tempted to throttle bandwidth to my competitors as well.

    All in all, I think there's missing information here. I like to flame big ISPs as much as the next guy(especially cable companies) but I need more evidence before I'm convinced.

  51. What stops them playing the tools? by Admiral_Grinder · · Score: 1

    So we have tools to keep the ISP in check, but what keeps the ISP from playing the tools? Like the synthetic benchmarks for computer hardware and companies creating special cases for them, the ISP will do it too. Take for example a current tool, speedtest.net, it downloads and uploads a small file. However, Time Warner does a speed boost for the first Xmb( or seconds ) after which the speed drops. This does benefit to small amounts of data like email and webpages, but notice how it seems to handle that speedtest file quite well?

  52. Re:Hey bigmouth by twocows · · Score: 1

    Hey, I liked your post when I saw it, enough so that I even put it in my signature. But I think you're overreacting. He's an idiot or misunderstood or something, but that doesn't mean you should jump all over him in an unrelated comment thread.

  53. Maybe it's the Little Libertarian in me, but... by Chordonblue · · Score: 2

    What about: Netflix defending it's own turf? Why must the government step into everything?

    Now before you mark this as 'flamebait', consider this: What does Netflix and other providers have, that ISPs generally do not? A direct line of sight. Their own apps.

    Consider: What if Netflix decided to provide an 'ISP test', presented to the user when playback is poor? Or, conversely, what if Netflix just pulled a 'Time Warner' and displayed something like: 'Your ISP purposely limits the quality level of your connection to Netflix. Here's their number, and here are other ISPs in your area who do not'...

    Just an idea, and something the ISPs would have difficulty justifying.

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
    1. Re:Maybe it's the Little Libertarian in me, but... by Aqualung812 · · Score: 1

      Exactly this.

      People care more about their favored video service (Netflix, Amazon, iTunes) than their ISP.

      The content providers need to show how the ISPs affect the speed, and who the best option in your area is.

      --
      Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
    2. Re:Maybe it's the Little Libertarian in me, but... by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      The content providers need to show how the ISPs affect the speed, and who the best option in your area is.

      My GG..P point was that yes, Netflix and other established players are able to do this. The problem, that Net Neutrality was trying to fix, was that ISPs, perhaps ones that offer their own voice and video and other high bandwidth services that Netflix is competing against, can throttle *new entrants to the field before they become big enough to be any kind of a competitor to the ISPs own voice and video offerings*. In other words- I agree with your sentiment that Netflix can and should do this, and that can and will ensure Netflix doesn't get throttled into oblivion. *My problem* is that anyone who wants to be the next Netflix, can be throttled into oblivion before being influental enough to ensure ISPs don't get away with throttling them into oblivion.

    3. Re:Maybe it's the Little Libertarian in me, but... by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

      I agree with you, and perhaps my comment was poorly placed in the stream. But I'm not sure an FCC-mandated Net Neutrality would apply to the 'little' guys anyway.

      Let's say there was a complaint from, oh, I dunno, Aereo, for instance. You know, the guys who re-stream live TV from tiny antennas? Now here's a great example of a startup that ISP's (especially the cablecos), would LOVE to de-prioritize. So they do. And Aereo goes to the FCC and complains.

      Just how long do you suppose the process will take when you take into account the government's notoriously slow moving processes, and then everyone lawyering up with 'he said/she said' testimony, tech demos and the like? My guess is that it could be held up for YEARS, and meanwhile, who's paying for those government lawyers and bureaucrats all so someone can watch Monday Night Football or some reality show over their Internet connection?

      Not saying it's fair, just saying it sucks all the way around...

      --
      "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  54. a possible solution by fluffythdestroy · · Score: 1

    make sure your service is delivered through encrypted data packets. It's hard to analyse and nearly impossible to do so on the ISP's side. Lot's of vpn are growing and all vpn uses encrypted data and the more we advance in time and age then more encrypted data the Internet uses. So ISP's will have a hard time and they actually do have a hard time with encrypted data.

    I know that Bell Canada ISP throttles their service after 2h30 pm with p2p protocol but if you encrypt it using a normal port like 21 for example or even 80 if you want to go extreme with hiding yourself then you could do it and you won't be throttled. Thankfully, I have a Universe which is a reseller of ISP under Bell's flag so I'm not throttled since the company I'm with have a contract that states they can't throttle it.

    --
    PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
  55. Anti-competitive business practices by neghvar1 · · Score: 1

    If /when overwhelming evidence is found that ISPs are throttling Netflix and other such services, those services could sue for anti-competitive business practices.

  56. Net pseudo-neutrality by macraig · · Score: 1

    Am I the only prophet in the room? We will never have true network neutrality until the physical medium is fully publicly owned. Our telecom companies should be contractors to the common good, not infrastructure owners. That is the core problem: when they own the infrastructure, there's little we can effectively do with laws to regulate their behavior with it.

  57. What we need is by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

    Not only do we need apps and programs that monitor bandwidth being provided to different websites by service providers, but we also need a website dedicated to registering and amalgamating all such statistics in an open forum that automatically ranks politicians with respect to what they are going to do about it to increase speeds. Only when one can make political contributions and votes dry up at the first hint of bad news, will anything really change for the better.

  58. Can't wait to test this at home... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    The other day, I tried to stream 3D Netflix content. They list 6mbps service as needed. I did a speedtest from my laptop 50+, then from my LG TV 39+....

    Yet Netflix informed me my connection was too slow. So I am HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS. And will be very curious to see if this confirms my suspicions.

    http://netneutralitytest.com/

  59. Don't run away now viperidnz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Prove me wrong bigmouth -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... since you get off on calling others names, I am going to get off on watching you SQUIRM & make a further fool of yourself... since I know there is NO WAY you can prove my points on hosts files value to others in giving them added speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity.

    APK

    P.S.=> What's the matter bigmouth? Cat got your tongue all of a sudden?? It didn't when you called me an idiot... now, we'll SEE how the "idiot" really is here (you) viperidaenz...

    ... apk

  60. No Sir: It DOES mean that... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now, it's time to watch that little weasel SQUIRM here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... seeing him *try* to "dig himself out" of he hole he dug for himself...

    An EYE for an EYE...

    (Except he's going to lose his)

    APK

    P.S.=> He's a "BIG MAN" tossing names my way? Well, then let's see how BIG he is when he has to prove me wrong (and, I know DAMN WELL he can't)... apk

  61. Lawyer up? by darkonc · · Score: 1
    It may be legal for a carrier to administrate their network for quality control purposes, but when they start throttling a service that they compete with, they run into all sorts of legal barriers ...
    • unfair competition.
    • interference with contractual obligations
    • false advertising (they advertised N Mbit/sed .. they're delivering X<<N, without good reason)
    • etc. etc. etc.

    Class action lawsuit, anyone?

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  62. "we'll catch them". So? by neminem · · Score: 1

    "The carriers won't win the war on Netflix, because tools for monitoring the performance of carriers will emerge and we'll catch them if they try."

    Yeah, and then what? We'll all just cancel our internet and have no internet? That's likely. Given the choice between paying too much for crappy internet (what I have right now), and not paying and having no internet, I will continue to choose the former, thank you very much. Now obviously if a non-Verizon service were to come along and deliver on a promise of having internet that doesn't suck as much and/or was cheaper, I'd certainly drop Verizon in a second. But no such choice exists, and no such choice is likely to exist in the future the way things have been going. (I do have the choice to switch to Comcast. Big whoopdy-fracking-do, so much better, not.)

  63. Hey bigjouth: Why;re you running from this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't back up your b.s.? Abssolutely -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (You're a worm, nothing more...)

    APK

    P.S.-> Plus, obviously a NO-MIND "big talker", but when the chips are down? You run, forrest,=: RUN!!!

    ... apk

  64. Lucky? by mgcarley · · Score: 1

    I must be lucky: testing from home at http://netneutralitytest.com/ my speeds to Linode Atlanta are between 35 & 45mbit/s whereas my speeds to AWS East are between 50 & 60mbit/s. Fairly consistantly (I alternated between each site 3 times).

    Of course, I'm not with or carried by Verizon.

    --
    Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com) // t: @mgcarley
  65. Correlation Does Not Imply Causation by deconfliction · · Score: 1

    Consumer grade prices are based on consumer grade usage. Consumers are people who sleep, have jobs, etc. Much of the time they are not using the net connection. There are basically physical limits on how much a person or small group of people can consume and that limit is far below the bandwidth limit.

    The problem with this line of argument is the old "correlation does not imply causation". The whole in your theory is that it absolutely is possible for 'ordinary' 'consumer grade' uses to peg the bandwidth as much as any server. People can leave a Skype HD video chat on 24/7. People can use rsync to mirror mirrors.kernel.org.

    The style of argument you made has some connection the T-Totalers of prohibition. After all, if you can anecdotally point to some people who drank too much alcohol, and went off and murdered people, then why not make drinking alcohol illegal? The thing is, you need to make the rules and laws fit the actual problem. Don't block me from running a server just because you _assume_ I'll use more bandwidth than my neighbors. If the *real problem* is excessive bandwidth use- *make the rules and laws target that*. Making the rules target "commercial servers" instead of "levels of bandwidth use that kills everyone elses performance" only leads to a throttling of innovative _low bandwidth_ use of the internet that involves commercial servers.

    The real issue is marketing bullshit and lies. ISPs want to market "unlimited bandwidth, no datacaps" because that sounds super awesome. The problem is that it is FRAUD. The internet, as described by FCC-10-201/NetNeutraly is "general purpose technology". If the cable companies want to sell me a "gmail pipeline", then market it as a "gmail pipeline". Don't market as "internet service", because without the ability to run a _low bandwidth commercial server_, it IS NOT INTERNET SERVICE.

    1. Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      You can run your commercial server on a commercial connection problem solved.

    2. Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation by deconfliction · · Score: 1

      You can run your commercial server on a commercial connection problem solved.

      Certainly money solves many of lifes problems rather neatly.

      My problem I suppose was that I bought into this-

      http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-10-201A1_Rcd.pdf

      topic: FCC-10-201 Paragraph 13 ...
      (Under Section Heading:)
      The Internet’s Openness Promotes Innovation, Investment, Competition, Free Expression, and Other National Broadband Goals
      13.
      Like electricity and the computer, the Internet is a "general purpose technology" that enables new methods of production that have a major impact on the entire economy.(12) The Internet’s founders intentionally built a network that is open, in the sense that it has no gatekeepers limiting innovation and communication through the network.(13) Accordingly, the Internet enables an end user to access the content and applications of her choice, without requiring permission from broadband providers. This architecture enables innovators to create and offer new applications and services without needing approval from any controlling entity, be it a network provider, equipment manufacturer, industry body, or government agency.(14) End users benefit because the Internet’s openness allows new technologies to be developed and distributed by a broad range of sources, not just by the companies that operate the network. For example, Sir Tim Berners-Lee was able to invent the World Wide Web nearly two decades after engineers developed the Internet’s original protocols, without needing changes to those protocols or any approval from network operators.(15) Startups and small businesses benefit because the Internet’s openness enables anyone connected to the network to reach and do business with anyone else,(16) allowing even the smallest and most remotely located businesses to access national and global markets, and contribute to the economy through e-commerce(17) and online advertising.(18) Because Internet openness enables widespread innovation and allows all end users and edge providers (rather than just the significantly smaller number of broadband providers) to create and determine the success or failure of content, applications, services, and devices, it maximizes commercial and non-commercial innovations that address key national challenges -- including improvements in health care, education, and energy efficiency that benefit our economy and civic life.(19) ......63

    3. Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      Like I said, pay for the commercial connection and get commercial access. To my ISP (Shaw Cable) the difference is about $45/month. It is not a show stopper.

      Where in there does it say they ISPs have to charge everyone the same?

    4. Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like I said, pay for the commercial connection and get commercial access. To my ISP (Shaw Cable) the difference is about $45/month. It is not a show stopper.

      Where in there does it say they ISPs have to charge everyone the same?

      It doesn't say ISPs have to charge everyone the same. But what it does say is that *anyone* connected to the internet is allowed to use it for commerce. Without Net Neutrality (which is actually the current legal reality post-verizon-ruling), the ISPs have a free hand to charge whatever they want, for whatever reason. They probably couldn't get away with charging black people more, but there probably are some small ISPs in the bible belt that could get away with charging 100 times as much (or simply not offering) to get access to PlannedParenthood. That's a pretty bad situation. The right answer is that the ISP should not get to charge differently based on the _content_ of the packets transmitted. I admit, when I was younger, I was a leisse-fairre capitalist idealist, and did believe that companies should be able to charge whatever they want, to whomever they want. These days I'm somewhat more of a fan of "common carrier" regulation of certain critical infrastructure.

  66. Re:Beta. by xOneca · · Score: 1

    Neither owns Barrapunto (Spanish for "Slashdot") and it is also not thinking in updating to beta. At least for now...

  67. Workaround & Theory by konputer · · Score: 1

    I think I just proved that it's not evil Verizon blocking specifically Netflix traffic.
    I tried watching several things on Netflix and watched what IP's it connected to. Any IP that wasnt going over 2-3 MB (Megabytes) / sec I would block on the firewall.

    After blocking off the NYC and Telia IP's, it started connecting to DFW, ATL, and SJ and loading streaming vids very quickly!

    fast IP's
    108.175.41.186 ipv4_1.lagg0.c111.atl001.ix.nflxvideo.net - ATL Level3 3-5MB/s
    108.175.40.96 ipv4_1.lagg0.c001.atl001.ix.nflxvideo.net - ATL
    198.45.62.163 ipv4_1.lagg0.c054.sjc002.ix.nflxvideo.net
    198.45.63.154 ipv4_1.lagg0.c060.sjc002.ix.nflxvideo.net - sanjose / Level3
    198.45.63.155 ipv4_1.lagg0.c061.sjc002.ix.nflxvideo.net /sj level3 1.5 MB/s
    198.45.55.202 ipv4_1.lagg0.c153.dfw001.ix.nflxvideo.net / Dfw Telia

    SLOW IP's
    nyc
    198.38.96.158 - Telia
    108.175.42.193 ipv4_1.lagg0.c133.nyc001.ix.nflxvideo.net - nyc / Level3 500K
    108.175.43.167 ipv4_1.lagg0.c107.nyc001.ix.nflxvideo.net - nyc / Level3 500K

  68. .Don't waste my time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I choose to read the comments on a post. If you don't like change in general why not go elsewhere rather than waste everyone's time

  69. Verizon 4g LTE unbound by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Verizon 4G LTE isn't being throttled. If yours is I suggest you turn off data roaming.

    1. Re:Verizon 4g LTE unbound by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have steady 12 to 21 to all servers.