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Dear Comcast, The Million Dollar Question:

fsckin.com — Is You Is Or Is You Ain't Blocking My Torrents?

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 25, 2007

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  • estaticd, on 10/27/2007, -7/+204Comcast is a peice of *****, this torrent filtering bullsh!t just proves it again.
  • SmackMyMac, on 10/27/2007, -3/+100In the words of Eric Cartman:

    Suck my balls Comcast...Suck...My...Balls...
  • Okari, on 10/26/2007, -2/+92So you're the other person downloading the Bible? Seed it damn it!
  • estaticd, on 10/25/2007, -2/+57An ISP can terminate your service at any time for any reason, or no reason at all.

    Illegal content is not the issue. The issue I have is that completely Legal content (including the Bible) is being blocked just the same as illegal content.

    If Comcast can't determine the good from the bad traffic, they shouldn't block everybody.
  • ClassicQ, on 10/27/2007, -5/+56Typically pathetic customer service / tech support. Avoid the issue with redirects, running the conversation around in circles.

    If Comcast is proud of their acclaimed noble stance regarding p2p; [Shaun > ... We both know that the majority of P2P users do not use it for legit purposes and that is what Comcast is probably helping to counteract.], stop beating around the bush and publicly declare it, which will also announce their stand on Net Neutrality. I'd assume initially the impact will be slight, only suffering the consequences a few defections to other providers. But bad word of mouth will have a longterm impact on Comcast's reputation; which once tarnished is near impossible to recover from. Continuing to drag their feet on the subject will have the same effect, the issue has already begun to crossed over from “geek” news to the mainstream media with the AP report.

    The issue really is their lack of infrastructure and over extension, marketing and selling what they can't provide in all areas. Comcast is certainly “earning” their share of bad press of late, with the recent flood of customer service horror stories , as well as with this issue.

    My sympathy goes out to all Comcast Subscribers.
  • DangerCollie, on 10/27/2007, -1/+39This is bad timing for Comcast. Their subscriber numbers are down, now they get caught dicking their power users on bandwidth. Tier your service but don't start throttling applications with no notice, deny it when you get caught, then throw out a lame ass excuse when your detractors have the proof.
    This is not the way to boost your subscriber numbers. It is, however, a near guarantee that internet power users will go elsewhere. Today it's Bittorrent, tomorrow it's WoW servers or YouTube or whatever else takes the top bandwidth spot. When you undermine subscriber trust by being stupid it's hard territory to earn back.
  • projectmayhem83, on 10/26/2007, -0/+37Is you is or is you ain't my constituency?
  • JamaicaJames, on 10/25/2007, -0/+32Come on Comcast! We ain't one at a timin here, we're MASS communicatin'!
  • jamminman, on 10/27/2007, -2/+32I almost jumped out of my chair when I read that the guy said, "Comcast is able to do whatever they wish on their network." I would have liked to point out that Comcast is 1. a publicly traded company, and 2. advertises unlimited bandwidth and access to the internet... sooo... no, they cannot do whatever they wish on their network. ugh I can't stand Comcast. *calls Verizon (not much better but what can I do)*
  • Lynxplus, on 10/25/2007, -1/+26If only FIOS was available where I live I would switch without even thinking.
  • PathDaemon, on 10/25/2007, -0/+18Yeah, no it's not.
  • jcaino, on 10/25/2007, -1/+18they could do a LOT to stop the endless spread of virus, spam, server attacks from all the infected boxes on their network, but do they? nope. they're in bed with the MPAA/RIAA guys. The movies is obvious...but bear in mind they have their Rhapsody music service as well.
  • knightboat, on 11/03/2007, -0/+16If a company has a problem with the way a customer is using their service, the options are to change the terms of service, warn the customer of their wrongdoing, and if nothing else works, disconnect them. Inconveniencing all of your customers due to the actions of a few and leaving everyone in the dark on the shady practices is not the proper solution.
  • nonnald, on 10/25/2007, -0/+16tarnished reputation or not, it's many consumers only option for broadband internet
  • rejoined, on 10/26/2007, -2/+17"Dear Comcast,
    I like your commercials. They’re funny."

    Good article, but wow he finds those stupid, dumbass, annoying, craptastic, one-every-minute-in-some-other-channel comcast commercials funny, he gotta be on dope, when he's watching tv.
  • Kardall, on 10/25/2007, -1/+15Shhh, don't tell people this. The religious groups will have a hayday and get their way to make all copies of the bible available on P2P... oh wait...

    *Goes to download the KJV*
  • unabonger, on 10/25/2007, -3/+17all ur bandwidth r belong to us
  • mrsteveman1, on 10/26/2007, -0/+12For the idiots in the room, what jcaino probably means is that Comcast could have used their obviously excessive time and money to detect machines that are part of a botnet, and notified the owner of the problem, but they are instead wasting massive effort and money trying to block an entire protocol at the request of the MPAA and RIAA, this has nothing to do with bandwidth, which they have plenty of even through they refuse to update their own network to save profits.

    Which one do you suppose will have a bigger effect on malware, blocking bittorrent, or detecting botnets?
  • scottwed, on 10/27/2007, -0/+12I believe Comcast is reseting my connection to Google. I've been having this odd intermittent problem reaching my homepage (google.com) in the evenings for couple of months now. The problem can last well over an hour (I know this because my wife keeps me updated every 5 minutes, until the problem goes away, or she gives up in frustration)

    Yesterday, I probed deeper...
    DNS resolution of google.com resolved three IP addresses. The first one (64.233.167.99) kept failing in Firefox with a connection reset. The other two worked just fine. The first IP worked just fine when I checked it over VPN back to my work machine.

    I decided to grab a packet trace. I'm handshaking just fine with the problem IP, then I request my page (www.google.com/ig). I then receive two reset packets from Google (WTF!), followed by the ACK from Google's server, followed by two more reset packets. I can't come up with any other explanation for multiple reset packets across the same source and destination port, other than my conversation is being hijacked.

    I've noticed that YouTube shows up as a gadget in google.com/ig (but it's not on my logged-in google.com/ig page). Anyone else know if Comcast is blocking Google and or YouTube during peak load?
  • NjoysMacs, on 10/25/2007, -0/+10that sounds like many run ins i've had with most popular company's tech support/customer service. I work in retail and customer service and I know that when someone doesn't know why something is done, they hide behind the policy. It's an easy solution for what you don't understand.
  • stmiller, on 10/25/2007, -1/+11But how can they determine it is a tracker with 'illegal content'? To Comcast's filters, any bittorrent traffic patterns look the same (are the same).
  • ja1217, on 10/27/2007, -0/+10Blocking RST's won't necessarily help. From what I understand, not only do you receive RST packets supposedly from the person you are connected to, but RST packets are also sent to the person you are trying to connect to. So unless both of you are dropping RST packets, it won't make a difference.

    It also seems that they have completely (or nearly completely) blocked torrents where I'm at (Lancaster, Pennsylvania - yes, home of the Amish). I've been running a tcpdump for a while now and have been receiving a ridiculous amount of TCP packets with the RST flag. Before I've had it to this when I've only been seeding, which was annoying, but not as bad as not being able to download anything.

    Ironic that this was also the day that I gave a presentation on BitTorrrent for my networks class explaining how great it is (as well as its few downsides).
  • cr0m300, on 10/25/2007, -2/+12They've been such a good service, and the writer seems to agree with me. They're really fast and have a pretty reliable service....

    But this kind of crap is inexcusable. It's such a dick move to try something like this. It's always a shame when a good company delivering a good service or product has to up and do something like this.
  • Racerx52, on 10/25/2007, -1/+11I have yet to have trouble with comcast and my torrenting.
    Although it never uses all my bandwidth, it is a decent speed
  • mrsteveman1, on 10/25/2007, -1/+10you know damn well thats not why they are doing it, you're the only one even considering that crap.

    Lets block IP itself too, cause thats how the MAJORITY of worm traffic gets sent
  • gossipninja, on 10/25/2007, -0/+9i had comcast and they are bastards, i got shaved off a few years ago due to their "abuse" policy, where unlimited downloads arent unlimited. Keep in mind at That time, over 30 gigs was too much, so full speed (3mbps) for 24 hours straight was too much (yeah 24/7 always on, unlimited downloads my ass). I have no problem with comcast running their network however they see fit, but if the are gonna have a bandwidth cap, state it. If they wanna block torrents due to piracy, state it. If they wanna be asshats and not allow certain protocols or services they should tell the customers. Obviously they dont because people will go "hmm comcast doesnt allow certain things" even if it is somethig like torrent or usenet that many dont care about (joe consumer) they might switch to a different service( if available) because they want to use the internet HOWEVER they see fit.
  • notthemama, on 10/25/2007, -0/+9B1663r: how would you know? Did you go do a survey? Or did you simply pull the "most" out of your ass?
    BLish: so if they start blocking torrent sites, where do they stop? What about sites that happen to share ISP's with torrent sites? What about those that use ips directly? What abou t other ways to get to them? Idiot.
  • 10scott10, on 10/27/2007, -0/+9directly from their website
    "Do you block access to peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent?
    No. We do not block access to any Web site or applications, including BitTorrent. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites, VOIP applications like Vonage, and thousands of other applications online. "

    blatant lies.
    directly from their FAQs.
    maybe they shoudl deicde to update it with their "delaying" shtick
  • mesadude, on 10/25/2007, -0/+9Sorry Roger, you tiger now.
  • fantasticFlan, on 10/26/2007, -0/+8Actually... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_You_Is_Or_Is_You_A ...
  • defconoi, on 10/25/2007, -1/+9wayne have you tried blocking rst's?
    if that seems to work I would send that fw log to comcast as proof and ask for a re-imbursement, I work for cableone and if I seen something like that on our network I would definately see about issuing a credit and lifting that ban, thats fuqn retarded
  • knightboat, on 10/25/2007, -0/+8Once again, B1663r, "few" is being used in relation to overall Internet users, not the pirate users in relation to legal users. I'm bothered that I even have to extrapolate on that.

    BLish, you seem to have no knowledge at all of the ISP's position as a service provider or their common carrier status. I would figure you could put the pieces together from the acronym itself: Internet Service Provider. They are not Internet Service Moderators.
  • czeman, on 10/25/2007, -0/+8If it's dirty, Concast is probably doing it.
  • ydt89, on 10/25/2007, -3/+11My torrents are just fine... I use comcast and am uploading 90kb/s right now..
  • notthemama, on 10/25/2007, -0/+8the Knoppmyth install cd for Mythtv is illegal? Sorry, it's quite legal.
    The patent fee ***** has been proven false. They lost that patent ***** claim. At least, I assume you're talking about SCO. You really need to keep up with the news.
  • izzie2, on 10/25/2007, -0/+83 years ago was when I was "guaranteed" unlimited access.Haven't heard of it lately though.
  • screwloose45, on 10/25/2007, -1/+9Wayne> Did Harry get me to level 2 support?

    Shaun > You are speaking to the department supervisor.
  • skunkman62, on 10/25/2007, -1/+8you make no sense whatsoever.
  • MarkOfTheDead, on 10/25/2007, -0/+7Sorry it took me 5 minutes I was blastin a duke.
    Yeah, I'm grabbin gutsy gibbon off a torrent, cuttin Ubuntu a break.
  • signal15, on 10/27/2007, -0/+7I can't wait to move so I don't have to use Comcast anymore. It's Comcrapstick!
  • gamer31, on 10/25/2007, -2/+9I just realized I missed the new episode of South Park, Thanks.
  • knightboat, on 10/25/2007, -0/+7By "few," I mean in relation to users on the Internet, not in relation to legal torrent users.

    Regardless of the legality or legitimacy of the files transferred by torrent users on their service, how could anyone with a basic grasp of logic or reason accept and condone Comcast's actions to inconvenience everyone using their service due to the actions of a few?
  • rpg405, on 10/25/2007, -0/+6I use Comcast. I routinely use BitTorrent for downloading Linux ISO's along with some multimedia. I've found that by switching the port BitTorrent uses to one very high, (mine is 54321, for example) and forcibly enabling encryption, I can achieve pre-blockage level of service. See if this works in your area also. I wouldn't call this being blocked ;) http://garrettp.homeip.net/~garrett/holycowconnect ...
  • mrsteveman1, on 10/25/2007, -0/+6You really are a moron. Blocking an entire protocol because of what it can be used for is highly improper because it DOES NOT fall under the category of traffic shaping.
  • kurttrail, on 10/25/2007, -0/+6Actually Comcast might have invalidated their ISP protection against lawsuits over contributory copyright infringement by blocking some but not all pirated traffic.

    They better hope that the RIAA doesn't figure that out!
  • spalVl, on 10/25/2007, -1/+7Dugg cause this guy tied up Comcast tech support for 1.5 hours causing longer hold times for other customers. That is Com-*****-tastic .
    Just stop cut the traffic shaping ***** and announce it Comcast to make this go away.
  • DigDugDigger, on 10/25/2007, -0/+6I've started blocking RST's and I am able to seed... my connection becomes so slow its unusable but it allows me to seed at full speed. Just takes a little longer... but here's the command I ran in OSX's Terminal to block RST's on port 50000 (change 50000 to your torrent port):

    sudo ipfw add deny tcp from any to any 50000 in tcpflags rst
  • inactive, on 10/25/2007, -1/+7People often seed LEGAL video (podcasts, home movies, etc, etc,) and other large (legal) files through bittorrent. There's more legal uses for it, you're just being a troll and/or a jackass.
  • Mononuclear, on 10/25/2007, -2/+8Encryption does nothing and DHT has nothing to do with it either.

    I use comcast and have no problem with torrents.We will see how long it lasts. This isn't a global comcast thing. Just like the bandwidth caps, it only applies in certain areas. Not everyone who uses comcast will experience these things. Just because yours works doesn't mean they aren't doing it. Or that somehow you have a magic fix for it (which has been proven over and over again to not be a fix).
  • seventoes, on 10/25/2007, -2/+8...we're upset because even those of us who use bittorrent for legit purposes are being effected.
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