It’s not actually 10pm right now, but who gives a shit. The article below raises interesting questions on how our ISP’s treat us, which is pretty shitty if I must say so.
“Do you know how fast your Internet connection is? If you believe the hype on TV, DSL is a zillion times faster than dial-up and FiOS is a zillion times faster than DSL and Cable modems rock because of the triple play, blah, blah, blah.
But what do you really know about your broadband connection to the outside world? Does is take all night to upload a big flash memory card’s worth of photos to Kodak Easy Share? Do you have a static IP address? Can you access the files on your desktop computer from off premises? How quickly can you upload your files to an online back-up service? Can you join a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and be a valuable node? Can you share a legally purchased movie file with yourself through a P2P service in the amount of time you would expect it to take based upon your ISP’s specifications? Welcome to the secret world of bandwidth. It’s a covert place where the dark arts of traffic shaping and bandwidth throttling are usually hidden from view.
But last week, the Associated Press reported that Comcast was “actively interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers.” The report went on to say that, “The AP also found that Comcast’s computers masqueraded as those of its users to interrupt file-sharing connections.” Initially, Comcast denied everything. But just a few days ago, Mitch Bowling, senior vice president of Comcast Online Services, backtracked a little, saying: “During periods of heavy peer-to-peer congestion, which can degrade the experience for all customers, we use several network management technologies that, when necessary, enable us to delay - not block - some peer-to-peer traffic. However, the peer-to-peer transaction will eventually be completed as requested.”
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Keep dangling that twinkee in front of us while we’re on the treadmill Comcast. Assholes.
