Comcast

[Cal]

CrunchGear t selectively block traffic, Comcast will merely slow it down from now on

This happened to me last night after I downloaded COD4 from Steam. It didn't do a thing to my upload speed, but dropped my 6-8 megabit download to less than 1 megabit (my ping shot up to 250). That is not a 'really good DSL' connection.

Sadly, I don't really have a choice since FIOS isn't in my area yet.

Save me, net neutrality!

[Trooper110]

I don't have an issue with them slowing my traffic as long as it isn't hitting stupidly slow speeds. None of the ISPs out there have great infrastructure when it comes to supporting lots of customers with high download speeds. Comcast has also said they will only do this during times of high traffic and to the top 1 or 2% of users with high bandwidth. You have to keep in mind that when you're downloading from someone, they could be throttling your download due to what kind of pipe they have, you might be hitting a bad connection somewhere down the line between the ISP and the host, or a myriad of other issues. There's plenty of room to blame Comcast for the stuff that they pull, but you can't always blame everything on them.

[Cal]

Yeah I agree Comcast isn't the devil, heh...its almost too easy to flame on them.

Steam does download a bit TOO fast...like 1000-1800 kbps at times so that is probably why I got hit. A trace-route said that it was the hops to Comcasts servers near me that were causing latency. I wouldn't mind the slowdown, if did actually stay at the speed of a 'fast dsl connection' which I would assume to be about 3 megabits downstream.

I know they are trying to crack down people downloading torrents all day long, but this also negatively affects digital distribution, the use of which will only expand in the future.

[Trooper110]

Oh, I agree, they need to upgrade/update their hardware and systems. I can't remember if it was an article someone posted here, or that I read somewhere, but we're like 100 years behind Japan in download rates, if the trend stays the same from 2007-2008. As far as the DSL goes...my parents have DSL with a 1.5mb/s download and they're lucky to reach their max, they're not a huge distance from the repeater/router/substation(can't remember what it's called in DSL) either.

I don't disagree that Comcast is evil, and should have some better infrastructure in place, but you can't fault them for trying to look out for all of their customers.

Well....other than blatantly lying on many occasions about blocking traffic, which they probably still do

[Tuck]

I just don't understand these cable companies. I've had Dish, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable and the sat providers are light years ahead of TWC. And from what I hear about Comcast, it's no better.

Cable companies act like Ma Bell did in the 80s before it was split up. They act as though they're doing you a favor by selling you their service. They don't invest in infrastructure like they should. And the technology they employ is several years behind.

Take the DVR as an example. Dish and DirecTV introduce a new, better model every couple of years. TWC introduced a crappy HD DVR about 18 months ago, but it still uses the old software. They've been promising an update for just as long, but it hasn't come yet.

[Tuck]

As for net neutrality, if Comcast is restricting bandwidth based on content rather than usage, they are violating the spirit of net neutrality.

[mapes]

. A trace-route said that it was the hops to Comcasts servers near me that were causing latency. I wouldn't mind the slowdown, if did actually stay at the speed of a 'fast dsl connection' which I would assume to be about 3 megabits downstream.

Traceroute will not give you an accurate picture of where a bottle neck is in regards to file transfers. It will tell you where a stoppage is. Because most file transfer uses TCP which has way more overhead, could range anywhere from 9% to 17% of bandwidth is used in ACKing packets

As for net neutrality, if Comcast is restricting bandwidth based on content rather than usage, they are violating the spirit of net neutrality.
Today 06:15 AM

Actually not net neutrality is the act of charging twice for a packet.