*rubs head* BT and Comcast

[thistlechaser]

And I totally forgot that Comcast blocked BitTorrent. (I haven't tried to use it in years.) Anyone know if there's a way to get around it? Or a way to download anime other than BT?

What a frustrating day today has been. :P

Edit: How odd. All I did was close and open the program again and now it's working. Maybe Comcast lifted the ban? Who knows...

Comments

[aelice.livejournal.com]

Is Comcast blocking them all, like BitComet, etc? :

[aelice.livejournal.com]

Oh, NinjaVideo.net is pretty good too. Just gotta keep their plug-in loaded.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Based on what I'm reading, they're blocking ports and the whole peer-to-peer thing. It's not client-based, it's the downloading/seeding process. (Hope this makes sense, I'm not that technical.)

I'm still combing through Google hoping there's some kind of a fix...

[aelice.livejournal.com]

It does make sense now, I hope Cox doesn't follow suit. I dont know how Comcast can legally do it.. some bands/artists offer free torrents of their work to the public for the sole purpose of spreading their work/name. I fail at technical stuff.

[xinbwoli.livejournal.com]

How are they blocking torrenting exactly? I know that the most commonly used ports can be blocked, but you should be able to change those. It can be done easily with Azureus at least.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not based on ports. (Also, this block is a few years old, I just never paid attention to it because I don't use BT anymore.) Based on what I'm reading, it sounds like they somehow can read the whole seeding process. Comcasts breaks the seed every couple seconds, so you can't upload/download anything.

I'm still hunting through Google, trying to better understand this and hopefully find a fix. :/

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

BT is working for me?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I just updated the post. Oddly it's working now. o.O Are you on Comcast? Do you know when they lifted the block/ban?

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

It must have been your connection or something. I downloaded something earlier today and it was fine, actually quite fast. I am on Comcast. From what I understand, they just make it tough on you they don't ban it. For instance when I download on Bit Torrent it makes my internet slow.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Are you getting green/good status on the stuff you download? And you said it was fast, what sort of numbers are you getting? I'm stuck at yellow status (so it's working, just not very well) and when I download only one thing at a time I'm getting a high of 60 kb/second. Unfortunately that means it'll take days to download a 37 ep series (I can't remember if that's normal or not!).

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

I'm DLing stuff now and it's somewhere between 750 and 900kb/second Downloading.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's much better than I'm seeing. Hmmm. *pokes at things more*

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but like I said it make my internet slow in general when I DL.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I guess the, um, up side of a double digit BT download is that the rest of my net is fine? Heehee.

[tacrozar.livejournal.com]

i'm comcast and BT is working for me. i'm using uTorrent if thats any sort of reference.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's semi-working for me now. I have a "yellow" status on any download I try (so it's working, just slow for some reason...).

[tacrozar.livejournal.com]

well dont' forget if you're using a router/firewall, you also need to open ports up for BT to work properly.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't use a router, but I tried just totally turning my firewall off (you can't configure the port access) and it made no difference. :/

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Despite the fact that it's working for you again:

http://animebreaker.com/content/section/4/30/

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It's working, but not very well, so that's a lot better, thanks!

And woo, I didn't know there was a Gunslinger Girl 2! *downloads that first*

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Comcast didn't ban BT so much as they throttled the traffic on it. The FCC got hot on their ass about it because they want net neutrality and sued Comcast, but the whole issue of legality/illegality of blocking traffic is now up in the air until Obama gets into office.

Or so I heard from Consumerist.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

The FCC doesn't really want or not want 'Net Neutrality'. That's up to the provider - if they keep Common Carrier status (like the post office), then Net Neutrality must be maintained. If, like Comcast, they want to throw neutrality out the window in order to make more money by making some companies pay more to have their pages served up (or hate on the pirates by limiting some kinds of traffic and not others), then they lose Common Carrier. Without Common Carrier, the lawsuits would start flying about how Comcast is facilitating child pornography, illegal activity, etc...If they actually go that road, Comcast will be sued into oblivion. The people in Comcast management have to be idiots to not see that.

I'm on Comcast presently, but fortunately my community's utility company is starting a last-mile fiber solution for phone, cable, internet, etc, with the intent to compete with Comcast (who has sued them repeatedly, failing each time). Promised and guaranteed net neutrality, speeds faster than Comcast Business lines, cheaper than Comcast home lines, etc. I really hope it works and becomes the model for all local high-speed internet providers.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did a lot of reading yesterday, and it seemed like a confused issue. Technically Comcast didn't ban BT, but they made it next to useless. Based on posts made about that time, in May of 2008 they supposedly lifted the "ban", but the behavior I'm currently seeing matches the "ban" that was in place... Oddness.