No, it's not looking good for Comcast at all. However, what are Comcast customers supposed to do if Comcast is their only choice for broadband. It may not look good for Comcast but if you ask me, nothing short of a mass exodus from their service is going to stop this from occurring. But that would require work and luck on the consumers part. Both of which are rare for Americans, especially that bit about Work.
Cameron Chapman
· 2 years ago
This is why we need to increase the competition out there in the broadband market. Until there's a decent amount of competition in most markets (or at least more than one choice), big companies like Comcast are going to be able to pretty much do whatever they want.
Since it's practically impossible to do much on dial-up these days, broadband is becoming a necessity for anyone who needs to use the internet (which is a pretty significant part of the population).
tightwadcustomer101
· 2 years ago
I can personally a test to the limits of comcast and BT.I have tried to register to a couple of sites and they specifically state that comcast blocks there emails so I might not receive it.With that being said I can still use the site just not use my comcast email addy to register with said sites.
Ed
· 2 years ago
Jeffro, dont worry about needing America to bring comcast to its knees. Look at the stock price and you can see they are ruining themselves without any outside help.
It is one of the most useless services I have ever come across and they will get eaten alive by the next big thing unless they play fair and just do the right thing by its customers
Tim SMith
· 2 years ago
One of the best things about moving out of the Bay Area was leaving Comcast behind. Dropped $10 from my cable bill and added 5 premium stations that Comcast reserved for their digital cable customers. Comcast lying doesn't surprise me. I called up and asked if they had HDTV signals over their standard cable. They told me yes and that I didn't need a box. I bought a $200 tuner card only to find out you have to have a box and paid extra for it. Thanks guys. I'll eat the $200 just so I don't have to pay you for being liars.
Spike
· 2 years ago
Comcast DEFINITELY blocks access to applications.
I was cleaning up a spambot-infected PC here a few months back, and at certain times I had it connected to the internet to test it.
Since then, Comcast has blocked ALL outbound email from me. Ports 25 and 587 are definitly blocked, and apparently other ports are blocked as well.
Comcast support confirmed that they do this, but could not tell me when it would be unblocked, if ever.
I was told they could not unblock it, but paradoxically, that might be restored at such time as they see fit.
Regarding throttling, what I've seen for more than a year is that if you have more than 2 TCP connections active, your packet latency starts to jump dramatically. With bittorrent running, and say 10 TCP connections open, the latency will be 3000ms (3 seconds) which is outrageously slow. It has the effect of dropping my true bandwidth from 6 megabits down to less than 500 kilobits per second.
For all of you who have Comcast's digital phone service, just try calling Qwest's toll free DSL sales office number. (I don't have the number handy, but I've tried it many times.) Doesn't work, does it? Ha! It just gives a reorder tone (which is NOT the same as a busy signal.)
I'm convinced that in certain cases like this, they even limit who you can call with their phone service.
Are these practices this even legal? Likely they are. Something has to change.
cold772
· 2 years ago
Alaska Commuications Systems blocking all p2p traffic
Free Pirate Alliance
· 2 years ago
A mass boycot of comcast is what is needed once the money stops flowing they will become desprate and give you what you want. i have heard of ways to counter there throttling as well i belive that is called vptunnel or something. torrent freak has the link somewhere or you could retaliate and hack there system slow them down see how they like their own tactics.
Martin
· 2 years ago
Excuse me for being dense, but where in those memos did it state that they are, in fact, not "net neutral"?
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
· 2 years ago
I don't think that I claimed that the memo's stated they weren't net neutral. In fact, what I described the memo's as stating were lies about what bandwidth throttling and packet shaping they *do* engage in at Comcast.
Re-read the article, and I think you'll find the assertions I've made to be congruent with the content of the memo, and what we know about Comcast from AP's research.
Phat
· 2 years ago
This is part of an e-mail concerning Sandvine deployment in Comcast Headends in northern California. I know these are in use as I type
Enjoy Subject: Sandvine Importance: High
Sacramento will be receiving 10 Sandvine units that will be located in Chico, Davis, Yuba City and the main Sacramento HE; see attached “grid†for units per HE. In order to get this project started I need you to complete the information on the grid for each location and provide back to me by tomorrow. 12/01. Please review the accuracy of the 7609/CMTS type and if incorrect, please change. XXXXX – we will need to identify the 7 highest capacity BSRs for this project as well.
Note, one (1) Sandvine unit supports 2 UBRs or 1 BSR and all will be shipped to 6901 Roseville which will then coordinate getting out to you.
After we provide this information to Division, they will contact us to set up site surveys in order to calculate the required equipment (jumpers, GBICs, etc.) and power for each location; this will all be paid for by Division. The goal is to have Sandvine operational by Feb. 2006.
I will call each of you tomorrow to followup as well.
Thanks,
XXXXX
Project Description:
Deployment of a tool to view the operation of the IP Network:
– Traffic Analysis – Network Demographics
• Bandwidth composition – how do different applications contribute, how much do different users consume and when, how much is exchanged with what other organizations
– Usage and Abuse
• Identify and characterize individual subscribers. Top talkers, application, bandwidth, minutes, flows. Distinguish between high usage and worm infection.
– Security
• Monitoring / reporting / mitigation
– Peer-to-peer traffic mitigation – Ability to control the upstream bandwidth that is consumed by non-Comcast customers
The Dude Dean
· 2 years ago
Hmmm I wonder if they want to keep the clients they are marketing their speed to? I might want to go back to being a "slowsky" and use DSL. Too bad I hate AT&T as well.
All Comments
Since it's practically impossible to do much on dial-up these days, broadband is becoming a necessity for anyone who needs to use the internet (which is a pretty significant part of the population).
It is one of the most useless services I have ever come across and they will get eaten alive by the next big thing unless they play fair and just do the right thing by its customers
I was cleaning up a spambot-infected PC here a few months back, and at certain times I had it connected to the internet to test it.
Since then, Comcast has blocked ALL outbound email from me. Ports 25 and 587 are definitly blocked, and apparently other ports are blocked as well.
Comcast support confirmed that they do this, but could not tell me when it would be unblocked, if ever.
I was told they could not unblock it, but paradoxically, that might be restored at such time as they see fit.
Regarding throttling, what I've seen for more than a year is that if you have more than 2 TCP connections active, your packet latency starts to jump dramatically. With bittorrent running, and say 10 TCP connections open, the latency will be 3000ms (3 seconds) which is outrageously slow. It has the effect of dropping my true bandwidth from 6 megabits down to less than 500 kilobits per second.
For all of you who have Comcast's digital phone service, just try calling Qwest's toll free DSL sales office number. (I don't have the number handy, but I've tried it many times.) Doesn't work, does it? Ha! It just gives a reorder tone (which is NOT the same as a busy signal.)
I'm convinced that in certain cases like this, they even limit who you can call with their phone service.
Are these practices this even legal? Likely they are. Something has to change.
i have heard of ways to counter there throttling as well i belive that is called vptunnel or something. torrent freak has the link somewhere
or you could retaliate and hack there system slow them down see how they like their own tactics.
Re-read the article, and I think you'll find the assertions I've made to be congruent with the content of the memo, and what we know about Comcast from AP's research.
Enjoy
Subject: Sandvine
Importance: High
Sacramento will be receiving 10 Sandvine units that will be located in Chico, Davis, Yuba City and the main Sacramento HE; see attached “grid†for units per HE. In order to get this project started I need you to complete the information on the grid for each location and provide back to me by tomorrow. 12/01. Please review the accuracy of the 7609/CMTS type and if incorrect, please change. XXXXX – we will need to identify the 7 highest capacity BSRs for this project as well.
Note, one (1) Sandvine unit supports 2 UBRs or 1 BSR and all will be shipped to 6901 Roseville which will then coordinate getting out to you.
After we provide this information to Division, they will contact us to set up site surveys in order to calculate the required equipment (jumpers, GBICs, etc.) and power for each location; this will all be paid for by Division. The goal is to have Sandvine operational by Feb. 2006.
I will call each of you tomorrow to followup as well.
Thanks,
XXXXX
Project Description:
Deployment of a tool to view the operation of the IP Network:
– Traffic Analysis – Network Demographics
• Bandwidth composition – how do different applications contribute, how much do different users consume and when, how much is exchanged with what other organizations
– Usage and Abuse
• Identify and characterize individual subscribers. Top talkers, application, bandwidth, minutes, flows. Distinguish between high usage and worm infection.
– Security
• Monitoring / reporting / mitigation
– Peer-to-peer traffic mitigation – Ability to control the upstream bandwidth that is consumed by non-Comcast customers