Bandwidth throttling bastards

[Klast Brell]

Has anyone heard of Comcast cable throttling bittorrent traffic?
Any suggestions for a way of getting around this?

Taking 48 hours to download 2 gigs is ridiculous.

[Ddrak]

The might be, and if they have a good way of detecting it (ie more sophisticated than looking at port numbers) then there's not much you can do. Call them and bitch about the WoW patcher going slowly.

Dd

[Finglefinn]

You know what's funny, my ISP calls it a "FAP Policy," which I found quite funny. FAP stands for Fair Access Policy. Here's the policy:

WildBlue estimates that a small percent of customers account for a disproportionate share of data usage on the WildBlue network. To ensure that all WildBlue customers have equitable access to the WildBlue network, WildBlue has implemented a Fair Access Policy (or “FAP”). WildBlue sets usage thresholds on the amount of data you can upload and download within stated time periods. If you exceed these thresholds, WildBlue will temporarily limit the speed at which you can send and receive data over the WildBlue access network. You will still be able to use the WildBlue Internet access service but your speed will be slower. In cases of extreme and continued violation of the FAP limitations, your service may be suspended. WildBlue may use other traffic management and prioritization tools to help ensure equitable access to the WildBlue network for all customers. Your WildBlue Internet access is not guaranteed and is subject to this FAP.

Based on an analysis of typical customers, we have set a rolling 30-day limit on data usage per customer, called a Usage Threshold. As shown in the table below, this threshold varies based on the service plan you selected. For each service plan, the Usage Thresholds are significantly above the amount of data that is used by a typical customer. Every day, we measure your upload and download data usage (“Actual Usage”) to determine if your total Actual Usage, as aggregated over the previous 30 days (“Usage Total”), exceeds the Usage Threshold for the service plan that you selected. At any time, you can see your Usage Total versus your monthly Usage Threshold under the Customer Care section at wildblue.net.

We will notify you via your WildBlue contact email address if your Usage Total reaches 80% or more of the Usage Threshold. If at any time your Usage Total is above the Usage Threshold, we will reduce your WildBlue access speeds, typically to 128 kbps in the downstream (from the Internet to you) and 28 kbps in the upstream (from you to the Internet) until your Usage Total is 80% or less than the Usage Threshold. Once your Usage Total reaches this level, your access speeds will be restored to the original speed levels by the next day.

You are likely to avoid any limitations imposed by the FAP if your use is typical of the majority of Internet users and consists primarily of Web surfing and a reasonable amount of downloading. The table below shows the monthly Usage Thresholds for each plan. These limits specify the amount of data that you can upload and download before your access speed is reduced. Please note that your Usage Total is far more likely to exceed the Usage Thresholds below if you use peer-to-peer file sharing programs, you use a webcam or you download full length movies, large quantities of music files, full software applications or similar high-bandwidth activities.

WildBlue FAP Monthly Usage Thresholds
Upload Threshold (MB)....... Download Threshold (MB)
Value Pak......2,300........................7,500
Select Pak.....3,000.......................12,000
Pro Pak.........5,000........................15,000

It's all bullshit and I hate it. Needless to say, my speeds have been cut several times.

http://my.wildblue.net/download/legal/p ... 012007.pdf

[Rsak]

And here I was thinking I was paying them all that money for that bandwidth... whether I use it 24/7 or not at all.

[Embar Angylwrath]

See if you can get Roadrunner in your area. They have a standard 7 Mbps download speed. Its a bit more pricey, but its one of the best out there.Its kinda cool, because in the past couple of years, they've upgraded, at no charge, all the accounts. They started at 3 mbps, then went to 5 mbps, and now stand at a standard 7 mbps.

Upload is considerably slower though. About 600 kbps.

[Ddrak]

ISPs sell bandwidth on the expectation that no one is actually going to use anywhere near their share of it. They can't do it any other way - the cable companies don't have the internet capacity at any of their exchanges to come close to flooding more than a couple of users at once.

So, they end up either letting users fight for their portion of the available bandwidth or they start introducing throttling (whether announced or unannounced) to essentially give priority to the lower usage customers. This throttling is done by downloading the speed limits directly into your cable modem's configuration.

Klast may be a victim of throttling, or a victim of a bunch of other people hitting the same pipes he's trying to hit. Either way - not much you can do about it short of changing ISPs.

Dd

[Minute]

Yeah and good luck doing that. No one can touch cable speeds. DSL in any variety is a joke compared to my 8mbps, same goes for WiFi, Sat, ect. They pretty much have a complete and total lock on the market here.

[Rsak]

I used to be of the same opinion Minute until the cable modem couldn't stay up reliably and the company lied to me, broke appointments, and gave shit for service. I told the company to go to hell and cancel all my service. The DSL I have now is slower, but more reliable. And the cable company is so incompetent they are giving me free cable TV.

[-=Xilanthanax=-]

Sorry, DSL can't touch cable where I'm at either.

[Kulaf]

My cable here in my neck of the woods is pretty good:



That's from WA to Los Angeles.

With Comcast you need to watch how badly they are limiting your upload throughput. Since bittorrent self throttles based on how much you share it might be a double whammy.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

which is odd when compared to the closer server.



and to LA, which isn't too bad really.

[Bahd Zoolander]

Maybe you should download midget porn instead. It's smaller.

[Njorls]

Maybe you should download midget porn instead. It's smaller.

Very nicely done.

[Taxious]

I used to be of the same opinion Minute until the cable modem couldn't stay up reliably and the company lied to me, broke appointments, and gave shit for service. I told the company to go to hell and cancel all my service. The DSL I have now is slower, but more reliable. And the cable company is so incompetent they are giving me free cable TV.

I have pretty much the same experience with Comcast cable. They don't have any competition so they can treat people like shit and get away with it. The minimum basic internet-only package is over 50$/month, which I hear is pretty expensive compared to California and other states' prices. I get so angry dealing with them/putting up with their prices, that I usually just settle with DSL.

FiOS wru??

[-=Xilanthanax=-]

I like the Cincinatti test.



LA isn't too bad either.

[Partha]

Mine's pretty good, then. I never bothered to check before.

[Kulaf]

Yeah that's good. Chicago has a really wide pipe. Do your results change at all when you hit another city?

[Mukik]

Maybe you should download midget porn instead. It's smaller.

definite hall of flame material

[Klast Brell]

Apparently comcast was aggressively throttling. http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-throttl ... mpossible/ No wonder It was taking me 36 hours to get a gig downloaded.
Fortunately the article points to a possible solution http://www.whalesalad.com/2006/08/27/tu ... -over-ssh/ A royal pain in the ass, but at least it's a start.

[Ddrak]

Call Comcast and chew up their tech support time. Do so regularly. Encourage all your friends to do this as well. This will show up on their internal reports, and if you're persistent enough will show that it's actually costing them a bunch of cash for the increased support burden.

Dd