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 »

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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 »

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