Georgia Tech's ShaperProbe Detects ISP Traffic Manipulation

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "Two researchers at Georgia Tech can tell you exactly how American ISPs shape Internet traffic, and which ones do so. Bottom line: of the five largest Internet providers in the country, the three cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner, Cox) employ shaping while the telephone companies (AT&T, Verizon) do not — though that fact is less significant for the user experience than it might first sound."

Re:not all shaping / policing is bad.

[Idbar]

Hum... that's the issue. You're providing for a bunch of students that don't have a contractual agreement with you. Now imagine that the company you contracted the 1Gb link to, started shaping your traffic. That eventually comes to you, not receiving the 1Gb you paid for.

I understand you sometimes need to shape the traffic to prioritize services you want to perform better. But these companies are getting their money offering services they don't completely provide: First they charge you for access they can shape. And second, they put a cap just in case you get away with it.

Again, I understand your work case, because if you don't pay for it, normally you tend to abuse it. But if you pay for it, why would they need to mess with your traffic?

Re:Cue the cable company bashing in 3...2...1....

[WindBourne]

Well, of course, there will be cable bashing. I use comcast at home, and I KNOW that they hit netflix HARD. I run a router at home and have studied the data coming through. When it comes from a work site, I can download 4 GB no problem. However, when I grab netflix movies that are about 2 gb streams, then I get issues. Interestingly, Crackle and Hulu do not have the same issues, though crackle uses more bandwidth.

Personally, I agree that they own the network and should be allowed to do what they want. HOWEVER, I also think that we should pass laws FORBIDDING a monopoly into the home. At the least, we should change the monopoly to be from the home to the greenbox and any company can then sign up for a deal with providing service to the greenboxes, AT THE SAME RATES. IOW, if comcast wants to own the greenbox-home monopoly, not a problem. However, they charge other providers the same price that they charge the rest of comcast.

Basically, it is time to limit the monopoly's size.