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Posts Tagged “

Comcast

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bittorrent

How to Check if Your ISP is Throttling Your BitTorrent Traffic

Our ISP is currently Comcast, which is probably definitely throttling torrent traffic in this area, but how can we know for sure? Here's how. There's now a website that runs a little test, determining whether your ISP is throttling all traffic, all traffic on well-known BT ports, only BT traffic on well-known BT ports, or nothing at all. The full test takes seven minutes, but it's seven minutes well spent to find out whether you need another ISP. Or if you need to cut down on your PureTNA downloads. [Max Planck Institute via TorrentFreak via LifeHacker]

3:00 PM on Wed May 7 2008
By Jason Chen
20,601 views, 20 comments

Latest by egyptiansushi: @tinascry: I've never noticed Comcast download speed issues, either... more »

sprint

WiMax Just Might Make It: Sprint's WiMax and Clearwire Officially Merge

The massive WiMax joint venture expected to be announced today is official, though the rumored details were a bit off. Sprint's WiMax division is merging with Clearwire to form a single WiMax company called...Clearwire. (But Sprint will own most of it.) Happily, the clusterfuckiness factor is lower than we figured. Google, Intel, Time Warner and Comcast are all contributing in ways that actually seem helpful and logical. Here's what they're gonna do, besides chip in $3.2 billion, all told. More »

1:41 PM on Wed May 7 2008
By matt buchanan
4,048 views, 18 comments

Latest by Zlevee: Voltron an the awesomeness of Voltron was the only reason i read this post. more »

rumor

Comcast Considering 250GB Monthly Data Caps, Disconnecting Repeat Pirates

Other than Time Warner's single-city foray into monthly data caps, consumption-based billing has mostly been little ISPs with little monopolies, and given the market, we thought it'd stay that way. Broadband Reports is, uh, reporting that now Comcast is mulling monthly caps (which Comcast's PR guy confirms, though not the details)—something like 250GB, and then $1.50 for every GB over that. According to their source, the idea has "a lot of momentum" and it'll start rolling out in the next two months. The other part is that they're going to start ramping up DMCA notices to pirate assholes, with a total disconnect if you've gotten four letters in a 12-month period. More »

1:18 AM on Wed May 7 2008
By matt buchanan
25,998 views, 98 comments

Latest by fiosman: As a Verizon employee, there is interest in deploying service outside of our footprint. For instance Seattle could get FiOS in the future, however, we have to prove out our current northwest market first. So the best way to spur more »

wimax

WiMax Joint Venture: Sprint, Clearwire, Comcast and Time Warner With $$$ from Google and Intel, Maybe Announced Tomorrow

Sprint and Clearwire are apparently set to do the almost unthinkable: Get WiMax off the ground. Fortune is reporting that Sprint and Clearwire are expected to announce as early as tomorrow the formation of a massive WiMax joint venture with Time Warner and Comcast. Intel and Google are rumored to be throwing money at the new WiMax party (more?). If you'll notice, this basically rolls up most of the past WiMax rumors into one convenient ball of fun—indicating they were spot on, or that this is just repackaged BS, so don't throw away the salt lick just yet. Godspeed, WiMax. UPDATE: Matt Richtel at the NYTimes corroborates it. More »

7:43 PM on Tue May 6 2008
By matt buchanan
2,059 views, 9 comments

home entertainment

Warner Bros. to Release Movies for Apple TV and On Demand Same Day as DVD

The format war over, and Blu-ray safely enthroned as the victor, Warner can now turn its sights beyond—to downloads and the infinite format war. Time Warner's chief executive announced today that Warner Bros. will release movies for on-demand systems like Comcast's and Apple TV on the same day they are released on DVD from now on. More »

5:26 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By matt buchanan
2,836 views, 24 comments

comcast

Did Comcast Lie to Me About Slowing Down P2P Traffic?

When I was talking to Comcast for my round up of ISP network management practices (pre-BT deal), we talked a lot about how they manage p2p traffic, and they were very clear that the temporary slowdowns were "surgical," (their word) and only employed during heavy congestion. So I'd been using that caveat anytime I brought it up, out of fairness. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told a Senate committee this week that what Comcast told me wasn't true: "It does not appear that this technique was used only to occasionally delay traffic at particular nodes suffering from network congestion at that time." More »

8:36 PM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By matt buchanan
4,117 views, 17 comments

comcast

Comcast Entering the Wireless Biz to Take on Verizon and AT&T

GigaOm is reporting that Comcast has created its own wireless division and is bringing the pieces together to jump into the wireless biz to offer quadruple play bundle competition (TV, landline, internet, wireless) against Verizon and AT&T. Speculation is that they could buddy up with a WiMax deal, or flat-out buy Sprint (more likely) or T-Mobile (less likely). Usually more competition is more better, but not sure what'll come out of this Pandora's box. I'm sure the FCC will love it though. Update: A tipster tells us that the wireless move will be under their Fancast brand, which is currently the name of their online video site. Smart, avoids the negative Comcast connotations. [GigaOM]

4:59 PM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By matt buchanan
3,993 views, 31 comments

Latest by SneakerFiend: Its way more likely that they will bundle up with sprint. Comcast is about speed (according to them) and well EV-DO on sprint's network being run off of the mogul is super fast. And didnt comcast in the past want to buddy more »

cable

AT&T's U-Verse Screwing With Network Says Comcast

Leaky signals from badly-installed AT&T U-Verse systems are squeezing up into the cable network and degrading broadband performance for others on some nodes, according to Comcast. About 40 cases of the problem have been reported since AT&T began supplying U-Verse in the Chicago area, with about 17,000 Comcast customers being affected. And though at first it sounds a bit like a schoolyard tussle, AT&T's lack of response has led Comcast to seek a restraining order from a court in Illinois. More »

9:24 AM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Kit Eaton
5,104 views, 16 comments

Latest by Boots_Mcoy: the point is.... the pic says it all !!! more »

internet

10 Percent of Broadband Subscribers Suck Up 80 Percent of Bandwidth But P2P No Longer to Blame

The most consistent rationale for ISPs to throttle p2p applications or charge by the byte is that a small minority of users drain a vastly disproportionate amount of bandwidth, like the planet-raping aliens in Independence Day. Om Malik pulls a few of these numbers out of Arbor Networks' CTO, who develops all the traffic management tools your ISP probably uses, so while there's a conflict of interest (portents of internet doom sell more stuff) they have the data. Ten percent of subscribers consume 80 percent of bandwidth, a super-leeching 0.5 percent swallow 40 percent of bandwidth, and the rest like your mom, 80 percent, sip less than 10 percent. But p2p isn't the culprit. More »

5:00 PM on Tue Apr 22 2008
By matt buchanan
52,252 views, 58 comments

Latest by mendo: I've used [www.myfonts.com] but I didn't find a perfect match. Anyway the font Gizmodo uses is something very similar to "Captain comic" [www.myfonts.com] more »

speculation

FCC to Force ISPs to Reveal P2P Blockage and Real World Bandwidth Speeds

Last night, the FCC held its Comcast-less do-over hearing on net neutrality. While the FCC doesn't appear to be super gung-ho on government-enforced net neutrality, the smoke signals indicate that they're leaning toward forcing ISPs to be completely transparent about their network practices, telling you whether they block BitTorrent and how fast your connection is in real-world conditions, not fantasy-land speeds that only spike when the planets align. More »

10:05 AM on Fri Apr 18 2008
By matt buchanan
6,266 views, 27 comments

cable

CableLabs Responds to CableCard Screwjob Allegation

The good folks at CableLabs replied to today's piece about CableCard customers getting screwed out of HD channels. To their credit, they did not ask for a correction, because we didn't print anything inaccurate (though they do claim the HD Guru may have). They just wanted us to consider some "clarifications," arguments that go far to highlight the tension (hatred bordering on violence?) that exists between Big Cable and the consumer-electronics companies. The short version: Cable content is always changing, two-way CableCard exists in theory if not at Best Buy, the dongle could work on anything with a USB port and upgradeable firmware, and, oh yeah, you'll probably be buying all-new gear before this thing blows over. Jump for a more spelled out—but still excerpted—version of CableLabs' rebuttal argument: More »

8:45 PM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Wilson Rothman
3,617 views, 21 comments

Latest by MegaZone: @lordargent: No, actually, Wikipedia is wrong - or at least unclear. I will say it again - ALL CableCARDs, those physical PCMCIA-looking things, are two-way. The only difference in the cards are Single-Stream vs. Multi-Stream aka S-Card vs. M-Card. They're more »

net neutrality

Comcast Ducks Out of Tomorrow's FCC Hearing at Stanford

Comcast has opted out of the FCC hearings to be held tomorrow at Stanford University. Did they not find enough net neutrality hecklers in the Silicon Valley? [Portfolio via Valleywag]

9:10 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Adrian Covert
2,609 views, 8 comments

comcast

Comcast Wants a P2P Bill of Rights: Should You Be Excited or Afraid?

Comcast officially loves P2P as much as George Washington loves freedom. It's calling for an industry-wide P2P bill of rights and responsibilities that would cover ISPs and users and "clarify what choices and controls consumers should have...as well as what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage P2P applications." Furthermore, as they stated earlier, Comcast is pushing for protocol agnostic management, more bandwidth and more transparency. Sounds groovy, but here's why we don't think they're doing this just to make your 30 Rock torrent experience a silky smooth ride. More »

6:33 PM on Tue Apr 15 2008
By matt buchanan
5,522 views, 18 comments

Latest by axiomatic: [theducks.org] more »

net neutrality

Will Your ISP F You In the A? Bandwidth Hogs Beware

As the amount of bandwidth we devour has skyrocketed, so has ISPs' need to police our appetites, even as they offer more bandwidth to whet it. We talked to the biggest ISPs around to get their official positions on traffic management and content filtering to see what's in store for your pipes. Here's where you find out which ISPs may screw you, and which ones swear to Giz they won't. Update: We've got new responses from AT&T and Speakeasy. More »

12:45 PM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By matt buchanan
24,585 views, 70 comments

Latest by dry-roasted-peanuts: Stuff like this is why digital distribution becoming the primary media delivery means is still a long time away. more »

comcast

Comcast Rolls Out Japan-Fast Cable Internet, But Can You Afford It?

DOCSIS 3.0 is the next-gen cable internet standard that allows crazy fast bandwidth of up to 160Mbps downstream and 120 up. The lucky first city to get a piece of that action from Comcast—which plans to cover 20 percent of its market with the awesome by the end of this year—is St. Paul, Minnesota. Denizens can sign up for the Godzilla pipes starting this week, though the 50Mbps line will cost a whopping $150 a month. And no, it won't blow you. But, that is some sick bandwidth, equaling Verizon's FiOS offering (which is only $90 a month). So, is it worth it? How much would you pay? [Bits]

10:04 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By matt buchanan
7,322 views, 72 comments

Latest by mikemacman: Reboot your cable modem if you live in the Twin Cities! I live near St. Paul, MN. I tried a uploading some files today with my Comcast cable modem and I was seeing the usual 350kbps. I rebooted my cable modem more »

home entertainment

Comcast Compressing HDTV Signals to Fit Three Shows into Two Shows' Bandwidth

Comcast has begun compressing HDTV shows in order to deliver more HD channels to you while using the same amount of bandwidth. They didn't use to do this before, but now, when compared to Verizon FiOS, the channels are grainy and blocky and full of artifacts—a result of shoving three channels into a space where only two previously occupied. A guy at AVSForum measured how the new bitrate stacks up against Verizon. More »

2:45 PM on Mon Mar 31 2008
By Jason Chen
18,547 views, 81 comments

Latest by axiomatic: Well not "software" per se, but any good coaxial sniffer (hand held device) that can sniff DOCSIS 2.0 should work just fine for the bandwidth testing. A google search on "sniffer docsis 2.0" will get you what you want. Or you could more »

comcast

Comcast n' BitTorrent BFF: What's Good, What Sucks

Okay, so Comcast and BitTorrent are finally making nice after being all Crips and Bloods, even rousing the FCC out of its slumber at one point, which Comcast fought with every trick in the book. It sounds awesome on paper: Your torrents are safe! More bandwidth! Torrents will work even better! Comcast is all for net neutrality! Not quite. You might actually even be worse off. More »

7:45 PM on Thu Mar 27 2008
By matt buchanan
14,249 views, 16 comments

Latest by o0oceanwaters: is this web cite for people that are stuck in some best of their year era...hehehehe...troops move forward more »

whaaaa

Comcast Pulls an About Face, Teams Up with BitTorrent for Net Neutrality

Comcast has taken a lot of crap from everyone from the FCC to consumers, and they've been listening. In fact, they've decided to stop all the fussin' and the fuedin' and actually team up with BitTorrent for the sake of net neutrality. But of course, dear readers, there's a catch. There's always a catch. More »

9:54 AM on Thu Mar 27 2008
By Adam Frucci
19,058 views, 90 comments

Latest by JennifARGH: Now everyone can enjoy the quality of Australia's broadband! more »