German cable ISP admits Bittorrent blocking
03/10 2008 | 02:18 PM
Posted by: Janko Roettgers
Comcast has been making headlines for months for their Bittorrent blocking, with the FCC looking into the company's actions and some congressmen even considering new laws against such behavior. German cable ISP Kabel Deutschland might soon face similar attention.
Customers of the company have talked about trouble with Bittorrent downloads for months. They all reported an odd pattern: Bittorrent up- and download speeds are dropping at 6pm sharp every night, only to get back to normal at midnight.
I just wrote an article about the subject for the website of the German Focus magazine, asked Kabel Online for a response - and was surprised about their answer. The company did not directly describe what they're doing, but admitted that a small percentage of its customers are affected because "the overwhelming majority of our customers doesn't use file sharing networks". The company also claimed that downloads are not time sensitive, meaning people just have to wait a few hours.
This is the first time a German ISP has admitted to selective network management. It will be inteersting to see if this will lead to a German version of the net neutrality debate.
Customers of the company have talked about trouble with Bittorrent downloads for months. They all reported an odd pattern: Bittorrent up- and download speeds are dropping at 6pm sharp every night, only to get back to normal at midnight.
I just wrote an article about the subject for the website of the German Focus magazine, asked Kabel Online for a response - and was surprised about their answer. The company did not directly describe what they're doing, but admitted that a small percentage of its customers are affected because "the overwhelming majority of our customers doesn't use file sharing networks". The company also claimed that downloads are not time sensitive, meaning people just have to wait a few hours.
This is the first time a German ISP has admitted to selective network management. It will be inteersting to see if this will lead to a German version of the net neutrality debate.
Simon wrote:
I see what they did there. Very LOL.
"This is the first time a German ISP has admitted to selective network management."
That's not true. Port-based throttling has been used by German and other Europe ISPs since long. Also the title is misleading. Most-likely they are not "blocking" anything but just throttling.
Don't fall for Comcast-speak. Comcast is definitely blocking by resetting TCP connections. What Comcast meant with slowing down was the programs will keep trying and eventually pass the filter. Additionally Comcast may also use throttling because TCP connections magically slow down after some time.
For everyone affected, it's trivial to check whether Kabel Deutschland does what Comcast does or not. Of course even if it's just throttling, everyone with a sane mind would stay away from Kabel Deutschland now. There's far too much competition in Germany - unlike the USA where you often have little choice of broadband ISPs - to get away with cheating your customers. I smell EPIC FAIL.