Comcast to slow down heaviest 'Net users to DSL speeds

[Space Edge]

The FCC yesterday issued its Order officially directing Comcast to stop using its current P2P-focused delaying technology to relieve network congestion. The company has until the end of the year to switch to a new throttling system that doesn't discriminate based on protocol, and Comcast is now offering more details about how it will do this. Heavy Comcast Internet users: prepare to be deprioritized.

Nothing about Comcast's proposed "protocol agnostic approach" is new; the company has talked it up for months and is already running trials of the technology in Virginia, Florida, and Colorado, testing various approaches and pieces of equipment. Many of the questions surrounding the approach remain unanswered, but Comcast has settled on a basic approach that will "deprioritize" the packets of the heaviest users during periods of network congestion.
Comcast Senior Vice President Mitch Bowling explained the idea to Bloomberg News yesterday, but offered no details except to say that the deprioritization would only drop perceived speeds to the level of a "really good DSL experience.” Interesting, but what does that mean, exactly?
We checked in with Comcast for more details and learned that protocol agnostic system currently being trialed works in a "dynamic and realtime" fashion, according to spokesperson Charlie Douglas. A user's history has nothing to do with it; when the network equipment detects a state approaching congestion, it identifies the heaviest current users of the system based on their last few minutes of use and then deprioritizes their packets for periods of between 10 and 20 minutes. Only total bandwidth is used to make the calculation, not the use of particular protocols apps or protocols.
While the consumer experience for these users will feel like a slowdown, Comcast stresses that it isn't changing the boot file in the modem. The user's connection to the central office will continue at it normal speeds, but packets sent to and from that user will be treated with a lower priority that could result in delays relative to other users on the network. As the company explains it, the speed of the connection will remain the same, but a customer's ability to access bandwidth will change.
Beyond that, questions remain to be sorted out, which is one of the main purposes of the trials. Douglas says that Comcast hasn't decided whether the "heavy users" will be chosen based on upload speeds, download speeds, or a combination of both. The same uncertainty surrounds the issue of whether the deprioritization will affect only packets going in a certain direction or all packets headed to/from a particular IP address.
20 percent of Comcast's network should be upgraded to the much faster DOCSIS 3.0 technology by the end of this year, and as the rollout continues, it may affect the way that Comcast runs its congestion system. DOCSIS 3.0 is far faster than existing technology, of course, which could relieve some of the last-mile congestion pressure that currently affects cable systems. Beyond the simple speed boost, though, DOCSIS 3.0 uses two cards in the central office, one for uploads and one for downloads. Older DOCSIS deployments used a single card for both, and Douglas says that the newer system provides more options for management.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080821-comcast-to-slow-down-heaviest-net-users-to-dsl-speeds.html

I hate this company, I'd kill a man for a Fiber line

[TheMojoPin]

Ugh.

I fucking HATE having Comcast, but I'm fucked in terms of other package options where I am. I know I'm totally one of the people that will get choked off by this, which is retarded because I shell out the extra bucks for a faster connection. Give me that money back if you're not gonna let me use what I pay for, you cunts.

[Space Edge]

Ugh.

I fucking HATE having Comcast, but I'm fucked in terms of other package options where I am. I know I'm totally one of the people that will get choked off by this, which is retarded because I shell out the extra bucks for a faster connection. Give me that money back if you're not gonna let me use what I pay for, you cunts.

They are definitely throttling my line. :thumbdown:

[spadanko]

if this ends up being bad, I will be going to Fios

[Space Edge]

if this ends up being bad, I will be going to Fios

You should go FIOS anyway, I wish they offered a fiber option in my area. When you compare the Comcast Bundle Packages and The FIOS Bundle Packages they are almost the same price.


There are tons of news articles out there about what Comcast is doing, I have seen articles about them getting sued in a class action lawsuit in NY, articles about them saying they are going to stop the p2p throttling.

[scottinnj]

WTF Comcast users? I have a Verizon DSL line and run Vuze as my P2P software (usually from piratebay) and have never been "slowed down"

How much data are you guys choking the line up with? Don't you have twice the bandwidth available to you?

[TooLowBrow]

WTF Comcast users? I have a Verizon DSL line and run Vuze as my P2P software (usually from piratebay) and have never been "slowed down"

How much data are you guys choking the line up with? Don't you have twice the bandwidth available to you?

my vuze is definitely being throttled

[TheMojoPin]

My torrent downloads/uploads were definitely being throttled for the better part of a year, but then suddenly opened back up in the last couple of months.

[oldladyfacepuncher]

Wait till they start capping subscribers.
Here. (http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Considering-250GB-Cap-Overage-Fees-94185)

[Space Edge]

My torrent downloads/uploads were definitely being throttled for the better part of a year, but then suddenly opened back up in the last couple of months.

Interesting I went away for a month then when I came back home I noticed that my speeds were much slower then when I left.


Wait till they start capping subscribers.
Here. (http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Considering-250GB-Cap-Overage-Fees-94185)

That article is from May 8th, I have seen so many articles in the past 2 weeks or so saying that they are going to be capping the amount and other articles saying that they are going to stop the p2p throttling. Hopefully they just open it up or another company steps in down here in my area.

Here is a link to all the google search results for FCC Comcast looks like they are in some deep shit.
http://news.google.com/news?q=Fcc%20comcast&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn

[biggestmexi]

my p2p had been up to 1000+kb/s

[JustJon]

Dear Fios,

I love you and your speeds.

Love,
Jon

[Space Edge]

Dear JustJon,

I am extremely jealous of you and your FIOS account


Sincerely,

SpaceEdge

[Space Edge]

Oh why must my ISP continue to anally violate me?

[El Mudo]

Theyre capping internet usage starting in October...its official... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080829/wr_nm/comcast_internet_dc)


I hate ComCast. First they won't show the Nats (and blame MLB for it), they show nothing but stupid Flyers games on Versus (which they happen to own), and now this...


They stink more than John Agar

[El Mudo]

Bah!! Stupid merge!!

I spent a lot of time coming up with that witty title!!


:annoyed::annoyed:

[Space Edge]

Dammit back to embarq I go

[TheMojoPin]

250 gigs? I don't think I'm at that...better wean myself off some porn and bootlegs just in case.

[Space Edge]

One of the problems with Comcast’s new 250 GB bandwidth cap is that, as Om points out on GigaOM, it’s metered without a meter. Comcast doesn’t provide you with a central tally of all your data use. The company instead suggests its customers install bandwidth metering software on their machines and then add up the numbers. Its FAQ reads: “Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in order to identify the data usage for their entire account.” Got multiple home machines consuming data every day? Better bust out that spreadsheet — and get ready for some wild guesstimates. After all, you can’t just install a bandwidth metering application on your Slingbox. The Slingbox is only one example of why the absence of a central bandwidth meter for your account is not inconvenient, but a central flaw in Comcast’s cap. More and more devices are bringing video to the living room, in turn consuming huge amounts of bandwidth. Most of them are not computers, but home entertainment devices with simplified interfaces that don’t burden their users with complicated stats and settings. That makes for a good user experience — unless you’re a Comcast customer that’s already using a lot of data and the box in your living room is busting your bandwidth-capped behind.
Here are five innocent-looking devices that could get you in trouble with Comcast:
The Slingbox: This shouldn’t clock too much bandwidth — unless you’re, say, a sports junkie stuck in a cubicle, trying watch as many NFL games as possible while your boss is out of the office. The bandwidth consumption of your Slingbox largely depends on your ISP’s upstream capability. Many users access their video with 400-500 kbps, which comes to about a Gigabyte for 5 or 6 hours, but the recently unvieled Slingbox HD has no problems eating up 2 Mbps, or about 900 Megabyte per hour. Americans watch about 8 hours of TV a day, so you could theoretically rack up to 212 gigs per month if you put the HD Slingbox to full use.
The XBox 360: Microsoft’s gaming console features HD downloads straight to the living room. Movies are around 5 GB a pop; TV shows, 2 GB. That means that getting addicted to Battlestar Galactica and downloading all four available seasons for a multiweekend marathon eats up about half of your monthly Comcast bandwidth.
Your good old TiVo: Broadband-connected TiVo machines download their EPG data through your Comcast line, but can also be used for Amazon Unbox downloads. The typical Unbox movie is about 2-3 gigs. Then there free are podcasts, which could add up to a few gigs per week. Oh, and did I mention you can access Last.fm or Real Rhapsody through your TiVo as well? Five hours of music per day eat up about 9 gigs per month.
The Netflix Roku: This little box streams Netflix movies straight to your TV, at up to 2.2 Mbps. A Roku box gives you “unlimited access” to a fairly limited catalog of 12,000 titles, so you probably won’t spend all your quality tube time with this device. Still, just watching a single movie per day with your Roku uses up more than 40 GB per month.
Vudu’s set-top box: This one may not be around for much longer, but it’s still worth mentioning because it uses P2P distribution to deliver content, which means more bits on your bill. The company’s web site isn’t too forthcoming about the bandwidth use of its product, and in fact hardly mentions the uploading activity at all, but users of the official Vudu forum report that the box utilizes between 200 and 300 Kbps upload capacity for serving content to others. This most likely won’t happen all day long, but one streamed movie and 5 hours of P2P content serving per day still could cause up to 60 GB of traffic per month.
To be sure, most of these devices aren’t using up those 250 GB on their own. But they’re consuming enough bandwidth to get you in trouble, and even get your contract with Comcast terminated, especially if you’re already backing up lots of data to Mozy while surfing YouTube and listening to Internet radio all day.

http://newteevee.com/2008/08/29/five-devices-that-spell-trouble-for-your-comcast-bandwidth-cap/

[Space Edge]

250 gigs? I don't think I'm at that...better wean myself off some porn and bootlegs just in case.

I keep on reading conflicting articles about all of this shit going on with Comcast. Articles saying they aren't throttling, articles saying they are going to cap bandwidth amount and articles about them being involved in a class action lawsuit.

I'm sure things will change by October 1st or whenever this is going to take effect.

[JerseySean]

My torrent downloads/uploads were definitely being throttled for the better part of a year, but then suddenly opened back up in the last couple of months.

Making the switch to FIOS now.

[Space Edge]

Making the switch to FIOS now.

I envy you

[JustJon]

Making the switch to FIOS now.

Welcome, brother

[Hottub]

Mine's coming at the end of Sept. No compalints with cablevision, but Fios gave me a sweet deal.

[cougarjake13]

i have brighthouse but been thinking about switching to fios

[Space Edge]

i have brighthouse but been thinking about switching to fios

Good luck getting a fiber line in Florida , I don't think there are any fiber providers down here.

[Space Edge]

I guess it is officially happening I got a email today from Comcast explaining their new polices
back to DSL I go.

[celery]

I love my FIOS - I really hope they don't follow Comcast's lead and start throttling bandwidth.

[Space Edge]

I love my FIOS - I really hope they don't follow Comcast's lead and start throttling bandwidth.

I wouldn't be surprised they already fucked you guys and took away newsgroup access.

[badmonkey]

I wouldn't be surprised they already fucked you guys and took away newsgroup access.

Are there any companies providing free news servers anymore? I think everybody is outsourcing giganews or is making customers go find their own independent pay services to use. Shit is expensive to maintain and a major bandwidth hog too.

[celery]

Are there any companies providing free news servers anymore? I think everybody is outsourcing giganews or is making customers go find their own independent pay services to use. Shit is expensive to maintain and a major bandwidth hog too.

Exactly - not to mention a legal liability, since it's a gateway for pirated material. And anyone who was serious about Usenet was already paying for better access anyways. Maybe .01% of Verizon's customers were angry about this.

I really think bandwidth throttling is a different story. And if Comcast gets away with this relatively cleanly, without too many cancellations and outraged users, other ISPs will follow (Verizon included).

I really hope users hit them in their pocket books and cancel their service - it's all about the almighty dollar.

- Regulary Guy Celery

[Space Edge]

One of the things that comcast still provides is usenet access but they only give you 2Gig DL per month which is nothing.

[celery]

One of the things that comcast still provides is usenet access but they only give you 2Gig DL per month which is nothing.

Not anymore:
Lights out for Usenet access through Comcast (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080922-lights-out-for-usenet-access-through-comcast.html)

[JPMNICK]

this is all bullshit, i am really pissed about this. I got netflix and I can stream movies from there, but now you have to be worried about the cap. I can not wait for FIOS to come to my apt.

[Space Edge]

This sucks my only other option is DSL, probably will go there instead just because.