Comcast blocks some Internet traffic: Tests confirm data discrimination by number 2 U.S. service provider

i noticed this beginning several months ago. it also affects slsk although i found that if i quickly make connections to a vast number of users (>10000) the filtering stops. any other tips?

If you use azureus, their wiki has a good section on avoiding traffic shaping.

yah dont you just have to change the port

Virgin Media started using traffic shaping here this year.
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

Rogers Internet has been shaping for a loooooooong time, and while there are ways around it, most of my friends have abandoned BTs in favour of Usen et anyway.

i hate this shit

isn't great how we pay for them to fuck us over and tell us how to use the service we pay for? and, oh, they're a monopoly so have fun trying to fund another broadband service.

scum. bags.

can anyone tell me what this means?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/08/ces.comcast.ap/index.html

i'm guessing just "super fast hi-def videos on demand" and not actually "faster internet," but it's so full of marketing bullshit, comcast's trademark cagey answers and stuff that i have no clue about (DOCSIS 3.0) that i'm pretty much left with the impression i'll be paying more for cable internet and getting nothing for it.

no wonder i cant make slsk work. whats the trick around this?

Comcast can suck my non-existent balls. I have been on the phone with them over and over and over and over and I finally got some dude called Dwayne who actually claimed he had Curtis Mayfield on his iPod. But they still couldn't get it right. They were supposed to come to my house today and they called early saying "can we come early?" and I'm like "no you cannot fucking come early because my friend is here sleeping and he has to work today" and then I couldn't get it straight with their fucking customer service reps no matter how patient and how long I waited on hold and assholes who mixed my phone number with another one I've never even heard of and now they say their customer service is no longer open for the day. Well guess who's dick than can suck. Yep! Mine. Fucking assholes. That Dwayne guy said he had ZERO SADE on his IPOD! THE SHAME!!!

Wasting my time with their BAD SMOOTH JAZZ on the HOLD MUSIC! REALLY BAD SMOOTH JAZZ!

GREAT BIG FUCKING CORPORATION MOTHER FUCXXXXXXX

Actually it's prolly more secure to keep my internet connection anyway. I'm just sorry the salesman at my door wasted my time (and his).

At least now I CAN DOWNLOAD MUSIC IN PEACE.

Ok so i have been using these guys for a while, service has always been pretty spotty, but over the past month or so it has been REALLY spotty. After my 5th (6th? 7th? lost count) time on the phone trying to get some help and wading through "While we have you, can we interest you in a customer protection plan/upgrade/blahblah" no effing thank you I just want my $60 a month to result in an internet connection that is more reliable than when I was dialing BBSes on a serial modem 20 years ago.

I know you can broadcast wifi from your cell phone, so I was thinking, what if I just spent that $50 on a really rad data plan for my phone and just used that instead. Is that a thing anyone here has done? I don't really understand 4G vs 3G (last year was the first year I got a smart phone) or Smartphone Mobile Hotspot.

I guess I just want someone on this board to tell me the answer instead of going downtown to the mobile store and asking them in person, can you blame me?

phone companies choke data too

A few problems with that approach:

- if you don't live alone, your housemates or family can't get online when you're away from home (unless they're tethered to their own phones)

- in the US, of the big 4 wireless carriers, only Sprint offers unthrottled, unlimited data plans, and they don't allow tethering except with a $110/mo plan that gives you 5GB/mo. (note: you can jailbreak your iPhone and circumvent carrier-imposed tethering bans or limits, though the apps to do so can be kludgy). T-Mobile offers unlimited data plans, but they throttle speeds to agonizingly slow after 2.5GB/mo. AT&T and Verizon don't offer unlimited data plans at all (unless you're grandfathered in from an old plan), and both are expensive, and you get hit with major "overage fees" if you exceed your monthly data allotment.

Using a mobile phone as a hotspot works best if most of your online activities are low-bandwidth, like web boards, email, Twitter/FB, small photos. Music and especially videos gobble bandwidth. I'm not a gamer so don't know how much data online gaming uses.

And yeah, Comcast internet is a joke. Everytime it rains, snows, or gets windy, i lose my internet service. Turning the modem off and back on sometimes fixes it, and calling the tech support line and having them send a "refresh signal" to your modem occasionally works. But if there's a msjor storm, I know Comcast internet is going to be out for the next day. Fiber-optic home internet (Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse) is better though still not as reliable as it should be. So phone tethering IMO is a good backup for flaky home internet service, but I wouldn't rely on a phone hotspot alone for the reasons i mentioned.

Most online gaming doesn't take much, it's more about the latency and consistency which generally sucks over wireless

Yeah my job involves uploading 2GB of video each week, so I guess that alternative is out of the question.

Yeah currently I'm at the point where I can reset my internet and it will work for a bit but they have been unable to send a refresh signal for about a month now. Cable guy is coming tomorrow oh yippie.

But yeah right now my only option is to pay more, which sucks because this strategy probably works on 90% of customer. At this point I think the shitty service is actually a large part of their sales operation, every time you try and get it fixed you have to listen to at least two pitches for upgrades or extra service. This morning when i set up an appt. they actually tried to get me to buy a protection service for when the cable guy comes over. What???? Seriously?

You want me to pay in case your employee fucks up while fixing something that should be working in the first place?

no dsl option?

Comcast is pretty much ruining netflix streaming for me right now.