Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic

[Hairbautt]

http://www.neowin.net/images/news/logos/bittorrent.gif"Afraid of excessive bandwidth usage, ISPs have been throttling BitTorrent traffic for almost two years now. While most ISPs simply limit the available bandwidth for BitTorrent, Comcast has now taken it one step further, and is actively preventing its customers from seeding, if the latest user reports are to be believed. Comcast is not alone in this: Canadian ISPs Cogeco and Rogers use similar methods on a smaller scale. These more aggressive throttling methods can’t be circumvented by simply enabling encryption in a BitTorrent client, as Comcast is reportedly using an application from Sandvine to throttle BitTorrent traffic; the application apparently breaks every (seed) connection with new peers after a few seconds if it’s not a Comcast user, making it virtually impossible to seed a file, especially in small swarms without any Comcast users. Although some users report that they can still connect to a few peers, most of the Comcast customers chiming in have seen a significant drop in upload speed.

Sandvine's throttling works like this: a few seconds after one connects to a peer in the BitTorrent swarm, Sandvine sends a peer reset message (RST flag) and the upload immediately stops. Most vulnerable are users in a relatively small swarm where one only has a few peers to which to upload. However, only seeding seems to be prevented, as most users are able to upload to others while the download is still going; once the download is finished, though, the upload speed drops to 0."

:source: Source: Neowin.Net (http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42028)
:view: TorrentFreak: Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic, Seeding Impossible (http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-throttles-bittorrent-traffic-seeding-impossible/)

[Skiz]

However, only seeding seems to be prevented, as most users are able to upload to others while the download is still going; once the download is finished, though, the upload speed drops to 0.

That's like a second kick in the nuts. :pinch:

Screws your ratio all to hell.

[MagusDraco]

And thus, you have to use Bittorrent through SSH to get around this.

...damn. I may have to figure that out.

[Sin4pz]

That would seriosuly piss me off if my isp did something like that.
Would have to go back to public trackers unless u drop your download speeds below max uploads inorder to seed to at least 1.

[weenden]

i can relate ive noticed that as i can throtle my winmx up to the max cant do the same for bittorrent sometimes its high other (most)times its the shits is there a program to circumvent someone has to come up with one

[Hairbautt]

Thank god I've gots RR. I never hear a peep from/about them. :smilie4:

[Skiz]

Thank god I've gots RR. I never hear a peep from/about them. :smilie4:

Ditto. RR dunt give a fook. :yahoo:

[Ac3Dunk]

im with comcast and i still max out my UP: 707Kb/s DL: 8972kb/s rates nothing suspected .

[ApeXz]

Yep, noticed this quite a bit ago. Cant seed if my life depended on it.

Would LOVE to know if there is a way to bypass this, hopefully without switching ISPs.

[MagusDraco]

I've got comcast but so far I haven't had any issues with bittorrent.

...now whether or not that's because they just bought the time warner/road runner setup that was in this area a couple months ago, I'm not sure.


Edit: Oh and http://www.whalesalad.com/2006/08/27/tunneling-bittorrent-over-ssh/ is supposed to work...though I haven't tried it.

[4play]

Thank god I've gots RR. I never hear a peep from/about them. :smilie4:

Ditto. RR dunt give a fook. :yahoo:

They will start giving a fook soon i bet since comcast will have probably saved themselves a nice few quid. They can either drop their prices to put pressure on roadrunner or turn a higher profit. once one starts doing it and gets away with it the rest will probably follow.

[Monkeee]

o thank god i did not switch to Comcast after that AT&T bullcrap. :frusty:

[blEnder]

I started having this issue a few weeks ago. It's been reported on sites like Oink because of their small swarm sizes. Places like Demonoid, while still effected, tends to be easier since there are more comcast users there.

It does suck, big time. I wish I could switch to another provider, but the only real option would be to switch to DSL, which I rather not have, as I don't have a land line (VOIP instead) and don't want to get one.

I have faith that some great person in torrent land will figure out a way around this, but as for right now there is no solution except to keep seeding forever or cave and get a seedbox.

And yes I think other ISPs might soon follow. Comcast is the #2 broadband provider in the US and right now they can get away with it.

You know, I'd be more content with Comcast's decision to throttle torrent usage if they decided to throttle it throughout, rather then basically make you seed to other comcrapstic users.

Comcast is one of the reasons I decided to give newsgroups a try again - so far so good.

[Nardz]

i have comcast and have had no problems yet.

[blEnder]

i have comcast and have had no problems yet.

Sorry to say, but it's coming. People reported it a few months back (maybe even 6-8 months back), but I never encountered the issue until a few weeks ago.

Slow progression. Maybe even from the East to the West. Also I wouldn't be surprised if they started implementing the throttling in markets with little competition. Like places where FiOS isn't available.

[treex2]

Thank god I've gots RR. I never hear a peep from/about them. :smilie4:

Ditto. RR dunt give a fook. :yahoo:

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've been encountering this same problem since June with RR. I've tried uTorrent 1.6.1, uTorrent 1.7.2, Azureus 2.5.0.4, and even Transmission .80 on an OS X machine. Same problems (and yes my ports are properly forwarded). Although it's just the private sites with few leechers. A public site like piratebay, I have no problems with. I had assumed it was because of DHT and I guess it was.

I'm in the DFW area of TX. My area use to be Comcast before Comcast did that territory trade with Time Warner last year. Anyone else around me with the same problems?

This hasn't really hurt me much since it just push me towards using RR's great newservers ;), but not being able to use some sites like oink for fear of ratio can be annoying. Plus I hear RR has been throttling heavy newsgroup users. :(

[Hairbautt]

using RR's great newservers ;), but not being able to use some sites like oink for fear of ratio can be annoying.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/Hairbautt/Smilies/Thinking.gif I tried once, but really I got nowhere. So I gave up. That was like over a year ago.

[ByteBitten]

Ditto. RR dunt give a fook. :yahoo:

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've been encountering this same problem since June with RR. I've tried uTorrent 1.6.1, uTorrent 1.7.2, Azureus 2.5.0.4, and even Transmission .80 on an OS X machine. Same problems (and yes my ports are properly forwarded). Although it's just the private sites with few leechers. A public site like piratebay, I have no problems with. I had assumed it was because of DHT and I guess it was.

I'm in the DFW area of TX. My area use to be Comcast before Comcast did that territory trade with Time Warner last year. Anyone else around me with the same problems?

This hasn't really hurt me much since it just push me towards using RR's great newservers ;), but not being able to use some sites like oink for fear of ratio can be annoying. Plus I hear RR has been throttling heavy newsgroup users. :(

I'm able to seed some torrents but some other ones with a lot of leechers don't seem to be uploading on my part. I'm not really sure whether its the site or if RR is throttling.

[weenden]

i have comcast using utorrent and as of mid day sunday its the shits got on sct and now im unconectable as well to others my ports are open but to no avail

[Nardz]

i have comcast and have had no problems yet.

Sorry to say, but it's coming. People reported it a few months back (maybe even 6-8 months back), but I never encountered the issue until a few weeks ago.

Slow progression. Maybe even from the East to the West. Also I wouldn't be surprised if they started implementing the throttling in markets with little competition. Like places where FiOS isn't available.

crud. i use usenet too i hope they leave that alone. if not i guess seedbox is the next option

[MagusDraco]

Well...if you go to usenet or newsgroups in general you may want to steer clear of comcast's newserver (or whatever the term is for their newsgroups account thing). There's a 2 Gigabyte Quota (not counting headers) per month.

[reaktor]

One thing that sucks is while it does stifle uploads for potential piracy via pirate sites, it also makes the WoW patcher useless and I know there are a few legit services that use Bittorrent as their delivery means.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but the company that just purchased uTorrent along with the original company that bought "Bittorrent" w/ the original developer of the protocol, arent or werent they related to AOL Time Warner or something?

[weenden]

they must be throtling certain people if possible i used to kick ass on comcast but now im the shits i need a fix some co to be able to block the reset or a prog to do it