Bittorrent + Newsgroup Problems

[Golibano]

Using Rogers Extreme, Is anyone else having problems with Bittorrent and/or Newsgroup downloading today (Friday)??

NewsBin Pro gives me a server error despite there being no problem on the server's (Usenetserver) site...
Azureus is giving me terrible download speeds...

Suggestions??

J

[FuzzTone]

I have Rogers Extreme and for some reason I can't forward any ports all of a sudden.... not sure why.

[Golibano]

Strange... I have never had this problem...

I got the newsgroups sorted out but Azureus downloads the file to about 95% and then stops...

[yronnen]

I have this problem too, is it possible that Rogers are throtelling bitorrent traffic now? That's a reason to say goodbye to them.

[metalhawk]

I am using uTorrent at this very moment without any problems. I also have the Extreme package...

[RNAChemist]

Bittorrent has been completely shut down. I tried to use it yesterday and got a message reading it was no longer in service.

Here is the latest news:

Lawyers from our primary ISP decided to pull our plug without any advance notice, as of 14:45 PST. No doubt related to our lawsuit brought by the MPAA, but we don't have more information at this time until people responsible comes to work tomorrow. We will be back in operation once we sort out this mess with our current ISP, or we get new hardware ready at our new ISP. We'll update here as the news change.

Sit back and enjoy the rest of the internet in the mean time, while it last. For your torrent searching needs, try Google for now by searching for "SEARCH TERMS ext:torrent". If you wish to help us out financially, you can donate via Paypal from the button below. Due to prior dis-taste from certain individuals taking donations for their legal defense and run however, this is not a legal defense fund. Your donations will be used for the operational costs of our servers and development of our websites. You have our sincere thanks.

[brettski]

Quote "Bittorrent has been completely shut down. I tried to use it yesterday and got a message reading it was no longer in service."

I believe the site you are quoting the latest news about is from a bittorrent search engine site (isohunt, which I believe was run by a Canadian using a US located ISP). "Bittorrent" itself has has not been shut down, just that particular search engine site. Hope this clarifies things for you. There are many, many "bittorrent" sites operating as I type this.

[yronnen]

Originally Posted by metalhawk

I am using uTorrent at this very moment without any problems. I also have the Extreme package...

Yes me too. I've checked with a friend who has the same package in Markham and he doesn't have any problem. I think it's a regional thing. The bitrate goes up and down.

[sk1d]

turn on the encryption, both azerues and utorrent have it. with this on, rogers, or any isp, can't tell what you're downloading and it won't be throttled. also change it to anyoth port but the default one.

[kyle747]

no - the latest throttling technology can deal with encrypted torrent traffic

[technut]

Which technology is that? (brand/model?)
I'm curious to read what data they are keying on to determine what to throttle. Or are they really just throttling everything and not doing any "shaping" (selective throttling)?

[metalhawk]

To bring this topic back, am I the only one who has been having troubles with downloading torrents the past few days? Interestingly enough, I've been having troubles coinciding with Rogers' internet usage tool being fixed. It seems that my upload speed is throttled, and connecting to trackers times out more often than not...

[uberchuckie]

I have the same problem also with Rogers Extreme. It just happened as of a few days ago.

[metalhawk]

Originally Posted by uberchuckie

I have the same problem also with Rogers Extreme. It just happened as of a few days ago.

What really pisses me off is that my usage of torrents is legal (no copyrighted material). Why the hell should I spend over $50 on an internet connection I can't even use properly?

[99gecko]

I have Express, and I have actually noticed increase in speed for torrents, however I don't torrent much and mostly for work, so perhaps I am not a typical user. My usage history didn't go active until today, however it posted my usage details back to Jan 7th.

Which technology is that? (brand/model?)
I'm curious to read what data they are keying on to determine what to throttle. Or are they really just throttling everything and not doing any "shaping" (selective throttling)?

As far as traffic shaping, from an unmentioned source:

ISP's don't want to throttle all of your traffic, they just want to throttle a particular application. If they do throttle all of the IP traffic, then they are certainly not providing you with the service you paid for.

Also, traffic shapers can be pricey and are usually placed where traffic has been aggregated, not on individual DSL or cable connections. This means that any generic rules they apply to try and throttle bittorrent or you specifically will affect more than one user. If you make it harder to find the torrent traffic, the ISP has to do a lot more work to throttle individual applications without affecting more of their user base.

The ISP's are clearly trying a technical solution, which many people won't notice or complain about, instead of resorting to the distasteful step of putting a clause in the terms of service that don't allow p2p downloading. Hopefully that would cause a quick loss of customers and the hue and cry of public <snip> anger.

My understanding is that ISP's shape based on traffic patterns regardless of the packet type. some encryption actually spoofs HTTP headers to so as to resemble normal browsing.