Jan 09
The FCC is preparing to investigate accusations that cable provider Comcast is disrupting peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on its network.
A study conducted last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and independently verified by the Associated Press revealed that Comcast interferes with BitTorrent and Gnutella sessions by sending TCP "reset" packets to users. Despite the growing body of unambiguous evidence, Comcast still denies allegations that it specifically targets BitTorrent.
Continue reading »
Oct 29
In the wake of the discovery that Comcast is blocking some peer-to-peer traffic (and even blocking some Lotus Notes e-mails), the company is attempting to keep the PR machine well-oiled by giving customer tech support reps some talking points. And if they deviate from the script and admit that Comcast has been using Sandvine to send forged TCP reset packets, they’re likely to lose their jobs.
Ars has heard from multiple Comcast employees since the story broke, and they’re all telling us the same thing. They’re supposed to tell customers asking whether Comcast limits access to BitTorrent that the ISP doesn’t block access to any application, including BitTorrent. Furthermore, tech support workers are supposed to toe the party line at all times, or they’ll be fired. Continue reading »
Oct 19
For a few months Comcast has been the subject of scattered reports that say it throttles BitTorrent traffic.
TorrentFreak said in August that Comcast was surreptitiously interfering with file transfers by posing as one party and then, essentially, hanging up the phone. But when we contacted Comcast at the time, it flatly denied doing it.
Thanks to tests reported Friday by the Associated Press, however, it’s clear that Comcast is actively interfering with peer-to-peer networks even if relatively small files are being transferred. Continue reading »
Oct 05
The UK’s wireless net credentials have been boosted with the launch of a wi-fi sharing community by BT.
BT has backed a global wireless sharing service called Fon, billing it as the “world’s largest wi-fi community”.
The firm’s three million broadband customers will be able to share their wi-fi with others in the Fon community.
BT’s scheme with Spanish firm Fon will boost the 500,000-strong community of users around the world and add to the existing 190,000 Fon hotspots.
The BT Fon service lets people share a “small portion” of their home broadband connection by opening up a separate secure channel on their wireless router.
Fon users can access broadband when in range of another community member’s hotspot. Continue reading »
Oct 02
Sprint Nextel is picking a fight with the country’s largest phone companies over the price it pays for access to their fastest networks.
The industry skirmish has swelled into a political battle that will find an audience in front of members of Congress today. Sprint, of Reston, along with some competitors, says it has hundreds of millions of dollars riding on an upcoming Federal Communications Commission decision, which hinges on the unpredictable swing vote of Republican Commissioner Robert M. McDowell. Continue reading »
Sep 24
Broadband speeds in the UK are much slower than advertised by internet service providers, a study by Computeractive magazine has found.
Some 3,000 readers took part in speed tests and 62% found they routinely got less than half of the top speed advertised by their provider.
It is the latest in a series of questions over the way net firms advertise broadband services.
Regulator Ofcom said it was aware of the issue and was “investigating”. Continue reading »
Sep 22
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is in early talks to join a group looking to lay a high-speed, trans- Pacific undersea cable that could potentially lead to the Internet company becoming an investor in the project, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The potential undersea fiber-optic investment could reflect Google’s recent push to provide Internet-based services to businesses, since companies have lower tolerance for service interruptions and have offices around the world, the Journal reported on its Web site, citing a person familiar with the matter. Continue reading »
Aug 27
SEOUL (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which recently said it would spend up to $5 billion on a mobile high-speed wireless standard by 2010, said it had awarded the New York WiMax market to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research).
Samsung had previously been awarded the Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I. and Boston markets as part of Sprint’s push to use the mobile WiMax wireless standard.
“Those are very good markets that we’ve given to Samsung,” Barry West, president of Sprint’s high speed wireless unit, told Reuters on Monday after Samsung made the official announcement on the sidelines of the Samsung 4G Forum. Continue reading »
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