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Mystery P2P Blockade Lifted?
AT&T denies fault, problem disappears
(old news - 12:21PM Friday Oct 29 2004)
tags: Fileswapping · networking
Though many Mediacom and Insight customers (both running over the AT&T network) have been mysteriously blocked from using p2p applications, AT&T insists the problem isn't theirs, and note they never received a complaint from Mediacom. Meanwhile some customers report that weeks of problems with p2p applications have miraculously been resolved, with no word from Mediacom on what caused them.

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Forums » Mystery P2P Blockade Lifted?
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Post a:

ctceo
Premium
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN
clubs:

Sniff, Sniff

Can you smell a conspiracy theory here?

Ogeez

@comcast.n

Re: Sniff, Sniff

Sounds like Comcast LOL, never their fault, but it always fixes itself, with no changes on my end and no tech visits. Hmmmmmm.

Brown2

@lpl.com

Still sounds like....

they had a bad router or something and finally were able to track it down and fix it. Or they installed a filter some were to monitor P2P traffic and that was accidentally miss configured. Which caused the blocking.

Again some would love to spread FUD on any item they can to say "Oh mister ISP is being a bad guy and blocking my P2P access". Just so they can get the masses up in a panic over it.

stet
Volitar Prime

join:2002-03-08
Warren, MI

Re: Still sounds like....

...or maybe they were trying it out to see what the reaction would be...

koitsu
Premium
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA

Pretty unlikely; maintaining a list of all the centralised server IPs would be a real PITA (they'll change once the server administrators find out they're being blocked -- another reason p2p is shady), not to mention would bog the router down quite a bit. Routers are supposed to just blindly push packets; the more time they spend analysing IP headers, the less time they have to push packets.

Not to mention, if they were to filter p2p "effectively", they would need something like a layer 7 filtering device -- and you sure as hell won't find one of these on any ISP, since the degree of service degredation would be through the ROOF. Analysing IP headers takes enough time as-is -- analysing entire data packets for specifically-formatted strings, usually matching a regex, would take an immense amount of time. No product I know of right now from Juniper or Cisco can do this.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
keyboard5684

join:2001-08-01
Youngsville, PA
·WestPAnet Inc. CA..
·Verizon Online DSL
·Vonage

Re: Still sounds like....

They would not need a layer 7 device.

p2p operates in generally the same ports. It is not difficult to block or slow those particular ports.

There are plenty of devices out there, in case you did not want to use a router, that can be put "into a line" to control traffic. You would be surprised how many ISPs do use these devices. PacketShaper is one that comes to mind or maybe even etinc. Here are a few of the links...
»www.etinc.com
»www.packeteer.com/
»www.logisense.com/traffic_home.html

Juniper and Cisco are not the only products available. PacketShaper is a carier class design and can take gigabit links I believe. I have seen these at ISPs.

koitsu
Premium
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA

Re: Still sounds like....

None of the p2p applications use IETF-registered protocol numbers; they're all completely variable, which is why it's generally impossible to filter (similar to IRC servers in respect of implementation).

I've never seen any of those products until now -- thanks for pointing out that stuff like this does exist. I'm always proud to be wrong, especially when learning new things.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.

SRFireside

join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX
·RoadRunner Cable

... or maybe the coalition of reverse vampires in conjunction with the Rand Corporation are purposefully keeping P2P programs from working so kids stop the Internet and go outside more. The more the kids stay outside the more the group can silently do what they planned all along... DOING AWAY WITH SUPPERTIME!!!!

Mentiroso

join:2003-10-15
Albany, GA

Mediacom

Eh, I use Mediacom (They're Ok) and havent had any problems. Not that I use p2p but had I used them, I wouldnt have had any problems...........:D

ThaDark1
BOO
Premium
join:2003-09-08
Newton, IA
·Dathorn Internet S..
·Iowa Telecom
·Vonage
·Mediacom

P2P Blocking

Use Mediacom here as well and no issues. Seems it was just affecting southern Illinois and some Indiana users. Again no idea what the cause was but this is getting made into some conspiracy theory type stuff. Granted yes a straight answer would be nice but as someone else said most likely it was an equipment issue and noone was aware that was causing this type of problem.
--
\m/(-_-)\m/
DAILY HAROLD - MMHA - RRB
Freedom of speech is wonderful - right up there with the freedom not to listen.

xyrx

join:2001-08-07
Sacramento, CA

Sacramento was toyed with as well...

Sacramento (on Comcast/ATTBI at the time) experienced this exact same problem with Kazaa almost 2 years ago. I'm an experienced network support tech, and found that downloads ONLY with Kazaa were being throttled back, within a certain port range. Many calls by myself and others in Sacramento resulted in Comcast callcenter techs giving us the same answer: "We do not support 3rd party applications". Mysteriouisly, 3 months later, it worked all of a sudden. No answer as to why it was done, but I suspect they were "testing the waters" to see how much public backlash would occur if they restricted P2P on their network.
Rob850

join:2003-04-11
Mary Esther, FL

Re: Sacramento was toyed with as well...

P2P is dying (thanks to the RIAA greed) however there's still other forums of getting tunes.

I'd hope you guys will stop buying CD's

Rob

»www.robfwb.com
Beeper
Part Of The Problem

join:2001-09-27
Dayton, OH
clubs:

Re: Sacramento was toyed with as well...

said by Rob850 See Profile:

P2P is dying (thanks to the RIAA greed) however there's still other forums of getting tunes.
I thought that p2p had legitimate uses in distributing open source operating systems and PC game code?
--
Guaranteed Fear and Loathing. Abandon all hope. Prepare for the Weirdness. Get familiar with Cannibalism.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
clubs:
·Site5.com
·AT&T Midwest
·Comcast

Re: Sacramento was toyed with as well...

said by Beeper See Profile:

said by Rob850 See Profile:

P2P is dying (thanks to the RIAA greed) however there's still other forums of getting tunes.
I thought that p2p had legitimate uses in distributing open source operating systems and PC game code?
It does have legit uses. However, the legitimate use does NOT exceed illegitimate use.
--
My Domain
Nightfall's Hockey and Life Journal
Cyron

join:2002-09-24
Charlotte, NC

Re: Sacramento was toyed with as well...

said by Nightfall See Profile:

However, the legitimate use does NOT exceed illegitimate use.
Maybe, but legitimate use + Pron is greater than Music & Movie downloads.

pcscdma
Chocobo Chocobo Random Battle
Premium
join:2004-01-14
Winterset, IA
clubs:

said by Rob850 See Profile:

P2P is dying (thanks to the RIAA greed) however there's still other forums of getting tunes.
P2P wasn't dying last time I checked.

And you are correct that there are other ways of getting tunes. The United States Postal Service (or your local equivalent) is a good way of getting your tunes and ware[s][z] from one place to another. Flash mobs with wireless access points is another good way. Just get a few 802.11a or g access points, a VIA mini-itx PC, some hard drives and a car. You can figure the rest out yourself. The best part of this is Comcast or [insert your bandwidth capping bastard ISP here] can't shut you off for this. You can also go with zmodem to bypass acquiring an IP addy for ware[s][z] that you can't get due to the RF propagation characteristics of 2.4 and 5 gigacycles.
--
I triple dog dare you to click this.
SauceMaster

join:2004-08-01
Kokomo, IN
·AT&T Midwest
·Vonage

Baghdad Bob Has Spoken

I swear we didn't do anything
lemonade

join:2003-12-13
Los Angeles, CA

p2p dying???

is p2p really dying? it seems more and more people using BT to download stuff (include porn+games+MP3+divx movie)
as i remember at the time i signed a 1-year contract with my ISP, they said it's unlimited use, does "unlimited" include p2p? haha
Meeble

join:2002-09-19
Champaign, IL

ports

I'm on insight and I still can't connect. Last time this happened I had to call in and get my device registry thing, that Insight keeps, wiped out.

maybe both companies use tyhe same piece of crap software ineffectively.
madatinsight

join:2004-10-24
Indianapolis, IN

Re: ports

Insight user here too... still experiencing the same problems. Nothing has been fixed.

jahooba

@hotchkiss.org

packeteer

does anyone kno how to bypass a packet shaper?
dinzy

join:2004-11-09
Urbana, IL

It is not fixed

There are still problems with Insight up in Champaign-Urbana and I am all but certain that our problems were due to the same issue as the Mediacom . It has gotten better for me and if I didn't;t know better I would have said it was fixed myself. It is not fixed. There is intermittent full connectivity that times out a lot. I am still not able to seed after completing a download with BitTorrent. Also other Mediacom users are still having issues. Check this thread »[IL] Lets Help Mediacom get P2P Fixed

I think someone jumped the gun with this story and it may end up with the issue never being resolved.
Forums » Mystery P2P Blockade Lifted?


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