digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at torrentfreak.com

Test: Does Your ISP Slow Down BitTorrent Traffic?

torrentfreak.com — Hundreds of larger and smaller ISPs all over the world try to limit BitTorrent traffic on their networks. Unfortunately, most companies are not very open about their network management solutions, with Comcast as the prime example. Thanks to the Glasnost project, you can now test wheter your ISP is one of the bad guys.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 7, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

187 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • deviouster, on 05/07/2008, -5/+196submitter has odd name
  • magneteye, on 05/07/2008, -1/+133This whole fiasco kind of reminds me of how we pay for cable TV, then they play commercials anyway and air nothing but infomercials on most channels all night. WTF are we paying for?

    This ***** has got to stop!
  • merripen, on 05/07/2008, -2/+112MY ISP is slowing down traffic to this page, apparently.
  • twiztidsinz, on 05/07/2008, -2/+85went down faster than a GTA Hooker
  • mmeiser, on 05/07/2008, -1/+57Finally, a web based test for testing blocking. I hope they will get better, test more ports and protocols and reach the popularity of bandwidth testers. Ultimately it would be great if they were integrated into many of the top web based bandwidth testers.
  • viniciusfontes, on 05/07/2008, -0/+45Your ISP should be able to deliver what they sell you. If you contracted 10mbps, you should get 10mbps all the time.
  • commenter01, on 05/07/2008, -0/+40In your case it might have been beneficial for you, but you have to remember these other people are also paying 40 bucks a month. They are within every right to use their bandwidth to the fullest. This is really a matter of ISPs lying about their capacity, making consumers think that they can have 16 megabit downloads, when in reality it is more like you said, an anemic 10 kB/sec.
  • pukiman, on 05/07/2008, -0/+31"We are sorry. Our measurement servers are currently busy. Please try again later.
    If you are interested in hosting a test server, please contact us at broadband@mpi-sws.mpg.de or go to: http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/contr ... "
    Now, who's going to donate a server so I could run this damn thing?
  • Tippx, on 05/07/2008, -2/+33yes its comcastic!
  • jbob2000, on 05/07/2008, -1/+31It gets worse, check out the pics in his profile o_0
  • inactive, on 05/07/2008, -6/+34Seems like they are also throttling torrentfreak.com cuz their bandwidth is *****.
  • mizike, on 05/07/2008, -1/+26Actually my ISP doesn't throttle traffic....the ***** company that owns all the ***** phone lines in the ***** country decided to throttle for them, as they didn't think it was fair that their DSL wholesellers could offer a better service than they were willing provide themselves....***** canada with it's TWO choices for internet service (one company owns the cable, one owns all the phone lines)....I wish the government would do something to open up the market; it's a libertarian's dream right now (the two top players in the market are able to crush all potential competition while it's in its' infancy as the government refuses to actually regulate the market.....it's the same reason we have the worst cell service in the developed world, market leaders crush all competition within a few months of it existing, then provide the most expensive and ***** service possible as, hey, there's no one competing with them anymore cause that's how the free market works baby!)

    wow, that was a bit of a rant...apologies all...
  • Fr00sh, on 05/07/2008, -1/+24and its down
  • commenter01, on 05/07/2008, -0/+21"you can't realistically expect to pay 40 bucks for it without some sort of drawback"
    Thing is, this is exactly how ISP's market it. They say "X megabit connection for $Y a month". They literally promise gobs of bandwidth they do not have. And since it is a slightly competitive industry, other firms must follow suit.
  • inactive, on 05/07/2008, -0/+20Mmm, bandwich. :D
  • diggitydoc, on 05/07/2008, -0/+20if your ISP offers "unlimited" internet, then the burden is on them to keep their network up with the bandwidth demands.
  • munkyxtc, on 05/07/2008, -1/+20Maybe your ISP should take the huge sacks of money they are pulling in every month and invest in upgrading their networks so everyone can download porn, torrents or surf facebook 24x7 rather than trying to find ways to restrict internet usage of paying customers....just a thought.
  • scotishstriker, on 05/07/2008, -0/+17The television will not be revolutionized
  • ByteGuerilla, on 05/07/2008, -0/+17Exactly why I refuse to pay for Sky/cable TV over here in the UK. I pay a TV License fee to fund the BBC. As a result I get well-funded television with no adverts. ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 play adverts, but I don't have to pay ***** (theoretically, though realistically I would still need a TV License as I can't say "I just don't watch the BBC") for those channels.

    Fees OR Adverts. Not both. Never both.
  • leerayIG88, on 05/07/2008, -0/+15*fapfapfapfap
    oh gawd..
  • commenter01, on 05/07/2008, -0/+15thats what happens when you multitask
  • vfreak2, on 05/07/2008, -6/+20At http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/resul ... there's a world map showing where people have tested it. There's someone in the middle of Australia! Ayers Rock anyone? And look where all the red dots are! How surprising...
  • GhostCow, on 05/07/2008, -0/+14They get paid for the cob commercials. COB stands for cable operators break, which is usually where you see local commercials rather than national.
  • MetaDFF, on 05/07/2008, -0/+13Somehow vfreak2's comment got mangled by the commenting system...
    http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/resul ...
  • inactive, on 05/07/2008, -0/+12Cox Communications suspended my internet access today, and accused me of illegal file sharing. I told them my Airport was unprotected and that I would resolve the situation. Cox Communications now has a 3 strikes policy before they cancel your service. If this happens to you, DO NOT admit to anything, or give them any information, just tell them you have an open network. The guy on the phone was ready to record all information I was willing to give, it seems like Cox is willing to throw its customers under the bus.
  • billbugger, on 05/07/2008, -2/+14my isp doesn't even allow it... damn work.
  • bagelmaster, on 05/07/2008, -0/+11I like how that can be taken two ways...
  • Tddupre, on 05/07/2008, -1/+12"Did you hear that sound, oh another server is down"
  • Tenoq, on 05/08/2008, -0/+10Australia doesn't have red dots yet? I guess that's because my ISP slows down ALL traffic, not just BitTorrent. :p
  • tdogg241, on 05/07/2008, -2/+11It's because your opinion is wrong.
  • valharick, on 05/07/2008, -0/+8The more you tighten your grip, Comcast, the more customers will slip through your fingers.
  • WarBloodlust, on 05/07/2008, -2/+10Down?
  • scotishstriker, on 05/07/2008, -0/+8Right, then press start?
  • commenter01, on 05/07/2008, -1/+9shut up. it was clearly a joke, although a bad one at that.
  • sliksta, on 05/07/2008, -0/+8Yeah, tell it to the ISP. They are the one's lying about the bandwidth. If they all quit saying "unlimited" and told the truth, there wouldn't be a problem. They're in a racket anyway, it's not like they need to lie. They're just all crooked.
  • acetv, on 05/08/2008, -0/+7That's what she said.
  • mizike, on 05/07/2008, -0/+7only where the customers have another option...
  • teh_techie, on 05/07/2008, -0/+7Gotta digg, gotta digg, gotta digg....
  • Essjay419, on 05/07/2008, -0/+7I thought Comcast gave me Powerboost?
  • inactive, on 05/07/2008, -0/+6I had a flashback to 1995.
  • Dunge, on 05/07/2008, -1/+7What happen when you bring thousands of person on a server who test bandwich...
  • andydumi, on 05/07/2008, -0/+6Correct. They need to advertise it as "occasional" high speed with XXX as the average, not as High speed all the time as they do now.
  • Farik, on 05/07/2008, -0/+6It's a DOCSIS protocol that allows for boosts in speed if the particular node you are on has available bandwidth. The bursts are "uncapped" (25mbit), or whatever would be available, for a few seconds or the first 25 or so megabytes. My ISP utilizes it and it is quite handy with newsgroups.
  • inactive, on 05/07/2008, -1/+7it's Uluru you nescient dumpkopf
  • ByteGuerilla, on 05/07/2008, -0/+6Gotta make that story big.
  • theonlywizdum, on 05/07/2008, -0/+5I'm in the same boat. Verizon just looked at everything above New York as "uninhabited wasteland" and sold their lines.
  • ukmark75, on 05/07/2008, -0/+5No, I'm with BT - they just slow all traffic.
  • bebopredux, on 05/07/2008, -0/+5No need to test here.

    I asked Time/Warner Cable if they blocked torrents and they told me "we don't support torrents" flat out. They don't just block them. They shut my connection off completely. I have to reboot a few minutes later. But, they win. I don't have another choice. Incredibly, they advertise locally about their service and tout "file sharing" as one of the reasons to use them!
  • jorisb, on 05/07/2008, -0/+5Rogers easily wins this test. All other ISPs have inferior throttling techniques.
    /angry sarcasm
  • celkin, on 05/08/2008, -0/+5[:(]GC
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 188 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.