Comcast is definitely discriminating against internet traffic

[Helevitia]

I totally disapprove of this. Say goodbye to the internet as you know it as other ISPs jump on the bandwagon.

"Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent," he said.
Douglas would not specify what the company means by "access" — Comcast subscribers can download BitTorrent files without hindrance. Only uploads of complete files are blocked or delayed by the company, as indicated by AP tests.
But with "peer-to-peer" technology, users exchange files with each other, and one person's upload is another's download. That means Comcast's blocking of certain uploads has repercussions in the global network of file sharers.
Comcast's technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user.
Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."

http://tinyurl.com/3bw96k

[Elie]

My ISP does not rate limit Torrents, it could be a matter of time though.... who knows.

[Dr Mordrid]

Comcast jumped the shark long ago IMO; prices and this. Main reasons why we changed IS and TV providers.

[cjolley]

Maybe that explains this: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=2605

75-year-old woman smashes up local Comcast office with hammer


Meet Mona Shaw, 75, of Bristow, Virginia. And if you are wondering, no relation.
A retired Air Force nurse and secretary of a square-dancing club, Shaw went Com-smash-tic in her local Comcast office one day last month.
...

[Jammrock]

I have a small local provider, and can't really complain. I think my firewalls cause the most problems.

[Gurm]

Are you serious? Bit Torrent traffic is encrypted now. So what you're telling me is that, selectively, in REAL TIME, Comcast defeats substantial encryption on-the-fly and impersonates their clients' machines, down to machine ID and signature?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And how would they KNOW when it's a complete file being shared, and not just chunks? I mean... I've never had a problem reaching 1:1 or even 10:1 ratio. I think these people reporting this are HIGH ON CRACK.

...

Now, that said Comcast is definitely NOT net-neutral. Some sites piddle along and others get 10x the speed I'm paying for. So they're definitely not innocent. But I love it when an ISP is accused of tampering with an encrypted protocol.

[az]

On what port does BT send? I think the stuff with the complete files vs. chunks is just rhethoric on Comcast's side.

Both AP and the EFF are reporting: They're sending fake TCP/IP reset signals to uploaders, which causes them to stop the transfer. Apparently, the system is not yet in effect in the whole USA.

Here's a Wiki by the Azureus people about blocking providers and what to do about it if you're affected.

[Technoid]

Are you serious? Bit Torrent traffic is encrypted now. So what you're telling me is that, selectively, in REAL TIME, Comcast defeats substantial encryption on-the-fly and impersonates their clients' machines, down to machine ID and signature?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And how would they KNOW when it's a complete file being shared, and not just chunks? I mean... I've never had a problem reaching 1:1 or even 10:1 ratio. I think these people reporting this are HIGH ON CRACK.

...

Now, that said Comcast is definitely NOT net-neutral. Some sites piddle along and others get 10x the speed I'm paying for. So they're definitely not innocent. But I love it when an ISP is accused of tampering with an encrypted protocol.

The BT protocol is not completely encrypted, it's optional!

So most of the traffic is still unenrypted

And most DPS equipment can easily be set throttle encrypted traffic

[Helevitia]

Gurm, only BT data is encrypted, not the rest of the packet.

edit: I wanted to clarify on this. When the connection first gets established, only the data portion is encrypted. So Comcast can just deny seeders from seeding even before the traffic starts. This is what they are doing. They are using a product from a compnay called Sandvine. Read here:

http://www.sandvine.com/solutions/p2p_policy_mngmt.asp

[Helevitia]

Here is some more info:

The throttling works like this: A few seconds after you connect to someone in the swarm the Sandvine application sends a peer reset message (RST flag) and the upload immediately stops. Most vulnerable are users in a relatively small swarm where you only have a couple of peers you can upload the file to. Only seeding seems to be prevented, most users are able to upload to others while the download is still going, but once the download is finished, the upload speed drops to 0. Some users also report a significant drop in their download speeds, but this seems to be less widespread. Worse on private trackers, likely that this is because of the smaller swarm size

and this...

Although BitTorrent protocol encryption seems to work against most forms of traffic shaping, it doesn’t help in this specific case. Setting up a secure connection through VPN or over SSH seems to be the only solution.

Taken from here: http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-thro...ing-impossible

[Wombat]

Are you serious? Bit Torrent traffic is encrypted now. So what you're telling me is that, selectively, in REAL TIME, Comcast defeats substantial encryption on-the-fly and impersonates their clients' machines, down to machine ID and signature?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And how would they KNOW when it's a complete file being shared, and not just chunks? I mean... I've never had a problem reaching 1:1 or even 10:1 ratio. I think these people reporting this are HIGH ON CRACK.

Well, you're mistaken on this one. Check out the comments on the recent slashdot discussion about this.

First, not all BT traffic is encrypted. Second, encrypted or not, it's very easy to see the traffic pattern. But, probably most important, you don't NEED to decrypt the BT traffic, you just need to spoof the (unencrypted) TCP reset.

And it's taking other things down, too. Check out the Lotus Notes blog where they ran wireshark at both ends, and were able to log the reset packets.

[FatBastard]

Are you serious? Bit Torrent traffic is encrypted now. So what you're telling me is that, selectively, in REAL TIME, Comcast defeats substantial encryption on-the-fly and impersonates their clients' machines, down to machine ID and signature?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And how would they KNOW when it's a complete file being shared, and not just chunks? I mean... I've never had a problem reaching 1:1 or even 10:1 ratio. I think these people reporting this are HIGH ON CRACK.

...

Now, that said Comcast is definitely NOT net-neutral. Some sites piddle along and others get 10x the speed I'm paying for. So they're definitely not innocent. But I love it when an ISP is accused of tampering with an encrypted protocol.

I am not saying ComCast would / does actually do it, but it is possible to defeat encrypted protocols, if you are the "man in the middle". When you are installed at the ISP's network, then, yeah you are just that
As a typical Murcer would know when 2 machines want to establish an encrypted session, they exchange keys. in that phase (key Exchange) the man in the middle machine can intercept the keys, and .. well bye bye encryption.
A possible way to overcome this is, doing the key exchange in a more secure method, or ....
use something like tor .

[Gurm]

On what port does BT send? I think the stuff with the complete files vs. chunks is just rhethoric on Comcast's side.

Both AP and the EFF are reporting: They're sending fake TCP/IP reset signals to uploaders, which causes them to stop the transfer. Apparently, the system is not yet in effect in the whole USA.

Here's a Wiki by the Azureus people about blocking providers and what to do about it if you're affected.

But how do they know? I'm running on a non-standard port, encrypted. How can they get into my encrypted data stream to send the "reset signal", which is bogus anyway? WTF is a "reset signal" in Bit Torrent? They'd have a heck of a time impersonating the machine on the other end to do handshaking and "thank you I've got it" and then they'd have to repeat the MD5 hash. I mean, it's non-trivial. It's not just "sending a signal that hangs up".

[Gurm]

The BT protocol is not completely encrypted, it's optional!

So most of the traffic is still unenrypted

And most DPS equipment can easily be set throttle encrypted traffic

Throttling I believe. Sure, no problem. It's this "we're haxx0ring the STREAMZ!" thing I don't buy.

[Gurm]

Look, I'm not denying that people are seeing what they're seeing. I just don't think it's Comcast policy, and I don't think that it's what they think it is.