comcast throttling giganews

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
does this.

[paul_0090]

On 2009-01-04, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com <Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com> wrote:
> comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
> if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
> does this.

Haven't had any "throttling" problems downloading either an 81 meg file from
lucasarts or the 4.3 gig linux dvd; did the download via a command mode
ftp client.

Do have sporadic disconnects of about 1 sec while listening to web audio
streams.

Just remembered regarding the download of the linux dvd is that it dies of
disconnects when using the browser to get the iso file; switch to command mode
& got the 4.3 gig at about what is a bit higher than 6 mbps.

[f/fgeorge]

On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:19:39 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
>if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
>does this.
IF they really are throttling it is done at the main station and there
is nothing you or I can do about it. Are you sure they are throttling?
Could it be just a slow net and/or a slow connect point? Look here and
then click on the closet to you and you can drill down to see if yours
is slow. http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:58:53 GMT, f/fgeorge <ffgeorge@yourplace.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:19:39 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>wrote:
>
>>comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
>>if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
>>does this.
>IF they really are throttling it is done at the main station and there
>is nothing you or I can do about it. Are you sure they are throttling?
>Could it be just a slow net and/or a slow connect point? Look here and
>then click on the closet to you and you can drill down to see if yours
>is slow. http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm

no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.

[$Bill]

Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>
> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.

Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
be the news server itself is the problem.

Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
be giving you the 16Mb that it should.

[Bit Twister]

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:09:28 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>
> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
> start throttling you and never unthrottle you.

When I had Comcast cable, the giganews server was throttled.

> i swear that those
> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.

Now that I am on FIOS, news server not throttled. News server
connection was overloaded.

Solution: server only carries Big 8, text only, news group.

[none]

In article <gfb5m45r0maqkkfmgpgm65amuks3el4srb@4ax.com>,
Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:

> On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:58:53 GMT, f/fgeorge <ffgeorge@yourplace.com>
> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:19:39 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >>comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
> >>if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
> >>does this.
> >IF they really are throttling it is done at the main station and there
> >is nothing you or I can do about it. Are you sure they are throttling?
> >Could it be just a slow net and/or a slow connect point? Look here and
> >then click on the closet to you and you can drill down to see if yours
> >is slow. http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
>
> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.

may or may not be related: Comcast discontinued their 2Gig/month
usenet service (through giganews) about a month ago. I mention it as
the time frame is similar. If you were not using that......nevermind.

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
wrote:

>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>
>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>
>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>be the news server itself is the problem.
>
>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.

no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.

[Bill M.]

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>
>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>
>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>
>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>
>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.

You read it wrong. I don't even know where to start. I guess maybe go
back and read it again.

--
Bill

[f/fgeorge]

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>
>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>
>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>
>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>
>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.

I have Comcast, have for many years now, and have never experienced
throttling. I up and sownload several cd's worth of data every month
and have no problems. I can almost always get the 6mb and the boost up
to 12, or 16 or whatever, from most sites over a large downlaod. Now
there are some sites I can not get over 2 or 3mb! But that is the same
on my friends FIOS too. I used to use giganews, comcasts news server,
I have been thru several. I now use EasyNews for all my newsgroup
stuff, yes it is a pay for use service, but I can up and download with
no throttling at all. I use EasyNews because of the retention and the
small amount I have to pay to get it. EasyNews does limit its
uploading to 200 posts in a 24 hour period, but that is not a problem
for me.

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:08:47 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>>
>>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>>
>>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>>
>>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.
>
>You read it wrong. I don't even know where to start. I guess maybe go
>back and read it again.

I'LL TRY AGAIN. can i download from what other sites? http? nntp?
torrent? Binaries? what are you talking about? since all newsfarms are
generally subscription, i can obviously only test one or two, because
i have to pay for them. On the web, it depends on who you are
connecting to, to what the bandwidth is. You ask an impossible
question. I do know it was halved or more, from the same nntp server
farm. How can I check comcasts modem, to see what it is throttled at?
I am unaware of this procedure. Unless it is software diagnostic on an
rca cable modem, I might be out of luck, as i don't want to buy their
modem.

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:07:40 GMT, f/fgeorge <ffgeorge@yourplace.com>
wrote:

>On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>>
>>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>>
>>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>>
>>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.
>
>I have Comcast, have for many years now, and have never experienced
>throttling. I up and sownload several cd's worth of data every month
>and have no problems. I can almost always get the 6mb and the boost up
>to 12, or 16 or whatever, from most sites over a large downlaod. Now
>there are some sites I can not get over 2 or 3mb! But that is the same
>on my friends FIOS too. I used to use giganews, comcasts news server,
>I have been thru several. I now use EasyNews for all my newsgroup
>stuff, yes it is a pay for use service, but I can up and download with
>no throttling at all. I use EasyNews because of the retention and the
>small amount I have to pay to get it. EasyNews does limit its
>uploading to 200 posts in a 24 hour period, but that is not a problem
>for me.

it depends on how much you download per month, or at least it did.
if all you downloaded in a month was several cd's, let's say about 3
gigabytes per month, with a 250gigabyte cap, comcast wouldn't throttle
you because your d/l is really small. i have been downloading from
giga,newscene,apn and a few more i forgot for about 10 years now and
of course up until comcast sent out their throtte email last month, i
was never throttled at all and use to pull down binaries at about 2.2
Mb.
you get throttled when comcast looks in your direction and thinks your
downlaoding has become too large for their taste, although dsl reports
said that comcast now has a full time throttling algorithm in place,
but I don't know how accurate the report is. It seems that comcast
used to keep you throttled, if they had ever throttled you. I am using
'you' metaphorically. please, just because you have not experienced
something does not mean it doesn't exist, it jus means that you have
not experienced it.

[Bill M.]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:17:17 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:08:47 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>>>
>>>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>>>
>>>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>>>
>>>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>>>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>>>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>>>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>>>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.
>>
>>You read it wrong. I don't even know where to start. I guess maybe go
>>back and read it again.
>
>I'LL TRY AGAIN. can i download from what other sites?

Any site that has something you're interested in.

>http? nntp?

Yes and yes.

>torrent? Binaries?

Yes and yes.

>what are you talking about?

Huh?

>since all newsfarms are generally subscription, i can obviously only
>test one or two, because i have to pay for them.

Generally true, but most of the majors have free trials, some lasting
as long as 10 days, IIRC, so if you don't mind burning a free trial
opportunity you might consider that. In addition, some of the pay
servers have plans starting at less than $5 a month, so that could be
another approach if you need a longer term test.

>On the web, it depends on who you are connecting to, to what the
>bandwidth is.

True, but you can almost always greatly improve the situation by using
a download manager that opens multiple concurrent connections. I use
and recommend FreeDownloadManager (www.freedownloadmanager.org) for
web downloads, and a multithreaded news client like Newsleecher or
Newsbin Pro for Usenet. It's rare these days to encounter a mainstream
website that doesn't allow you to open multiple concurrent
connections, and again, concurrent connections are the key to greater
download speed, whether it be from the web or Usenet.

>You ask an impossible question.

I didn't ask any questions in my previous reply.

>I do know it was halved or more, from the same nntp server
>farm.

Nothing was halved that I'm aware of. Can you be more specific?

>How can I check comcasts modem, to see what it is throttled at?
>I am unaware of this procedure. Unless it is software diagnostic on an
>rca cable modem, I might be out of luck, as i don't want to buy their
>modem.

Chances are excellent that your modem is throttled to the speed tier
that you're paying for, so that's a good first step. Beyond that, use
the "multiple concurrent connection" approach outlined above and you
should have no trouble filling your download (or upload) pipe. Stay
away from so-called speed test sites, as they don't move enough data
to provide meaningful results.

--
Bill

[$Bill]

Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>
> farm. How can I check comcasts modem, to see what it is throttled at?
> I am unaware of this procedure. Unless it is software diagnostic on an
> rca cable modem, I might be out of luck, as i don't want to buy their
> modem.

Try posting the brand and model number and someone will tell you if
status pages with that info are available from the modem.

My Terayon TJ715X has status pages at http://192.168.100.1 - some have
passwords and others don't.

[Bill M.]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:27:30 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>it depends on how much you download per month, or at least it did.
>if all you downloaded in a month was several cd's, let's say about 3
>gigabytes per month, with a 250gigabyte cap, comcast wouldn't throttle
>you because your d/l is really small.

I don't think there have been any credible reports of throttling on
Comcast in recent years unless you want to count the forged RST packet
issue from last year, but IMO that was too crude to be called
throttling. Prior to the soft 250 GB cap that was recently announced,
the even softer cap was somewhere between 400-800 GB, so by an ISP
yardstick it was pretty generous. Even so, if a person's activity rose
to the level of getting noticed, they still didn't get throttled.
Instead, they would get directly notified and asked to tone it down.

>i have been downloading from
>giga,newscene,apn and a few more i forgot for about 10 years now and
>of course up until comcast sent out their throtte email last month, i
>was never throttled at all and use to pull down binaries at about 2.2
>Mb.

Have you noticed a change? I haven't, so I'm curious.

>you get throttled when comcast looks in your direction and thinks your
>downlaoding has become too large for their taste,

Not true. The system throttles a user's connection if a particular
CMTS port is congested, and if that user has been identified as a
primary reason why. The system will flip a user from the standard
"Priority Best-Effort" traffic (PBE) to lower quality of service (QoS)
"Best-Effort" traffic (BE) for fifteen minutes if they're a major
reason congestion exists.

>although dsl reports
>said that comcast now has a full time throttling algorithm in place,
>but I don't know how accurate the report is. It seems that comcast
>used to keep you throttled, if they had ever throttled you.

That was never true, and also isn't true now under the new system.

--
Bill

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:50:17 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:17:17 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:08:47 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>>>>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>>>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>>>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>>>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>>>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>>>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>>>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>>>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>>>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>>>>
>>>>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>>>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>>>>
>>>>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>>>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>>>>
>>>>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>>>>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>>>>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>>>>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>>>>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.
>>>
>>>You read it wrong. I don't even know where to start. I guess maybe go
>>>back and read it again.
>>
>>I'LL TRY AGAIN. can i download from what other sites?
>
>Any site that has something you're interested in.
>
>>http? nntp?
>
>Yes and yes.
>
>>torrent? Binaries?
>
>Yes and yes.

yes, i have tried. it is random speeds from the web, i have tried 3
news servers and the one i have been using the longest is throttled
the most. i have done tests with their support techs and they said it
was comcast as there was no throttling on newserver part.
>
>>what are you talking about?
>
>Huh?
>
>>since all newsfarms are generally subscription, i can obviously only
>>test one or two, because i have to pay for them.
>
>Generally true, but most of the majors have free trials, some lasting
>as long as 10 days, IIRC, so if you don't mind burning a free trial
>opportunity you might consider that. In addition, some of the pay
>servers have plans starting at less than $5 a month, so that could be
>another approach if you need a longer term test.
i have done that with 3 news servers, all of them get throttled down
after several files are d/l. i have emailed tech sipport at all 3, and
all of them said it was comcast.
>
>>On the web, it depends on who you are connecting to, to what the
>>bandwidth is.
>
>True, but you can almost always greatly improve the situation by using
>a download manager that opens multiple concurrent connections.

agent uses up to 10 simultaneous connections

> I use
>and recommend FreeDownloadManager (www.freedownloadmanager.org) for
>web downloads, and a multithreaded news client like Newsleecher or
>Newsbin Pro for Usenet. It's rare these days to encounter a mainstream
>website that doesn't allow you to open multiple concurrent
>connections, and again, concurrent connections are the key to greater
>download speed, whether it be from the web or Usenet.
>
>>You ask an impossible question.
>
>I didn't ask any questions in my previous reply.
>
>>I do know it was halved or more, from the same nntp server
>>farm.
>
>Nothing was halved that I'm aware of. Can you be more specific?

how in the hell would you know what my server farm connection
had been changed to. are you psychic? or are you working for comcast?
>
>>How can I check comcasts modem, to see what it is throttled at?
>>I am unaware of this procedure. Unless it is software diagnostic on an
>>rca cable modem, I might be out of luck, as i don't want to buy their
>>modem.
>
>Chances are excellent that your modem is throttled to the speed tier
>that you're paying for,

thanks for that. that was the first thing i had checked

> so that's a good first step. Beyond that, use
>the "multiple concurrent connection" approach outlined above and you
>should have no trouble filling your download (or upload) pipe. Stay
>away from so-called speed test sites, as they don't move enough data
>to provide meaningful results.

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:05:07 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:27:30 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>wrote:
>
>>it depends on how much you download per month, or at least it did.
>>if all you downloaded in a month was several cd's, let's say about 3
>>gigabytes per month, with a 250gigabyte cap, comcast wouldn't throttle
>>you because your d/l is really small.
>
>I don't think there have been any credible reports of throttling on
>Comcast in recent years unless you want to count the forged RST packet
>issue from last year, but IMO that was too crude to be called
>throttling. Prior to the soft 250 GB cap that was recently announced,
>the even softer cap was somewhere between 400-800 GB, so by an ISP
>yardstick it was pretty generous. Even so, if a person's activity rose
>to the level of getting noticed, they still didn't get throttled.
>Instead, they would get directly notified and asked to tone it down.
I am not talking about caps, I am refering to throttling.
>
>>i have been downloading from
>>giga,newscene,apn and a few more i forgot for about 10 years now and
>>of course up until comcast sent out their throtte email last month, i
>>was never throttled at all and use to pull down binaries at about 2.2
>>Mb.
>
>Have you noticed a change? I haven't, so I'm curious.
yes, it went from 2.1 megabits down to about 800K
>
>>you get throttled when comcast looks in your direction and thinks your
>>downlaoding has become too large for their taste,
>
>Not true. The system throttles a user's connection if a particular
>CMTS port is congested, and if that user has been identified as a
>primary reason why. The system will flip a user from the standard
>"Priority Best-Effort" traffic (PBE) to lower quality of service (QoS)
>"Best-Effort" traffic (BE) for fifteen minutes if they're a major
>reason congestion exists.
which is basically the same thing I just said.
>
>>although dsl reports
>>said that comcast now has a full time throttling algorithm in place,
>>but I don't know how accurate the report is. It seems that comcast
>>used to keep you throttled, if they had ever throttled you.
>
>That was never true, and also isn't true now under the new system.
you obviously do work for comcast, i suggest that you actually go to
dsl reports and check out the reports on comcast's new algorithm.
I know, 'dls reports' is lying.
since you have indicated you work for comcast, further discussion is
useless.

[Bill M.]

On Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:06:37 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:05:07 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:27:30 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>>wrote:
>>
>>>it depends on how much you download per month, or at least it did.
>>>if all you downloaded in a month was several cd's, let's say about 3
>>>gigabytes per month, with a 250gigabyte cap, comcast wouldn't throttle
>>>you because your d/l is really small.
>>
>>I don't think there have been any credible reports of throttling on
>>Comcast in recent years unless you want to count the forged RST packet
>>issue from last year, but IMO that was too crude to be called
>>throttling. Prior to the soft 250 GB cap that was recently announced,
>>the even softer cap was somewhere between 400-800 GB, so by an ISP
>>yardstick it was pretty generous. Even so, if a person's activity rose
>>to the level of getting noticed, they still didn't get throttled.
>>Instead, they would get directly notified and asked to tone it down.
>I am not talking about caps, I am refering to throttling.
>>
>>>i have been downloading from
>>>giga,newscene,apn and a few more i forgot for about 10 years now and
>>>of course up until comcast sent out their throtte email last month, i
>>>was never throttled at all and use to pull down binaries at about 2.2
>>>Mb.
>>
>>Have you noticed a change? I haven't, so I'm curious.
>yes, it went from 2.1 megabits down to about 800K
>>
>>>you get throttled when comcast looks in your direction and thinks your
>>>downlaoding has become too large for their taste,
>>
>>Not true. The system throttles a user's connection if a particular
>>CMTS port is congested, and if that user has been identified as a
>>primary reason why. The system will flip a user from the standard
>>"Priority Best-Effort" traffic (PBE) to lower quality of service (QoS)
>>"Best-Effort" traffic (BE) for fifteen minutes if they're a major
>>reason congestion exists.
>which is basically the same thing I just said.

Umm, not even close.

>>
>>>although dsl reports
>>>said that comcast now has a full time throttling algorithm in place,
>>>but I don't know how accurate the report is. It seems that comcast
>>>used to keep you throttled, if they had ever throttled you.
>>
>>That was never true, and also isn't true now under the new system.
>you obviously do work for comcast, i suggest that you actually go to
>dsl reports and check out the reports on comcast's new algorithm.
>I know, 'dls reports' is lying.
>since you have indicated you work for comcast, further discussion is
>useless.

What's this about working for Comcast? I'm just someone trying to help
clear your considerable confusion.

Feel free to provide a link to where you found a credible report
supporting your claim that "It seems that comcast used to keep you
throttled, if they had ever throttled you". You won't be able to.

--
Bill

[Bill M.]

On Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:01:54 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:50:17 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:17:17 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:08:47 -0600, Bill M. <wbillups@hotmail.com>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:03 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
>>>>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:22:25 -0800, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> no absolutely sure about it. i have 16MBit, and up until about a month
>>>>>>> ago, i coudl pull in about 2.2megabytes per. then for about a month i
>>>>>>> was downloading some huge files. then one sad day i connected my
>>>>>>> newsreader and i could never, ever get past about 1 MB per down, most
>>>>>>> of the time dropping into the high K's. it looks like these jackasses
>>>>>>> start throttling you and never unthrottle you. i swear that those
>>>>>>> people at comcast are lost in space. as with everyone else in the
>>>>>>> universe, once FIOS comes to town they hoover all of comcraps internet
>>>>>>> customers. I just do not have FIOS yet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Can you D/L other files from other sites at higher speeds ? It could
>>>>>>be the news server itself is the problem.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Did you check your modem to see what it's throttled at ? It might not
>>>>>>be giving you the 16Mb that it should.
>>>>>
>>>>>no i tested it with stunnel, and tested d/l speed on dsl reports.
>>>>>accrding to reports I am getting 16MB, (at least close to ny). it's
>>>>>the not the modem either. I think i read a report on dsl reports that
>>>>>comcrap's throttling is now 100% everywhere. Maybe if you upgrade to
>>>>>ultra (22MB), comcast will throttle you down to 300 baud.
>>>>
>>>>You read it wrong. I don't even know where to start. I guess maybe go
>>>>back and read it again.
>>>
>>>I'LL TRY AGAIN. can i download from what other sites?
>>
>>Any site that has something you're interested in.
>>
>>>http? nntp?
>>
>>Yes and yes.
>>
>>>torrent? Binaries?
>>
>>Yes and yes.
>
>yes, i have tried. it is random speeds from the web, i have tried 3
>news servers and the one i have been using the longest is throttled
>the most. i have done tests with their support techs and they said it
>was comcast as there was no throttling on newserver part.

Of course that's what they said. What do you expect them to say? The
fact is, there is more to the path from them to you than just them and
Comcast.

>>>what are you talking about?
>>
>>Huh?
>>
>>>since all newsfarms are generally subscription, i can obviously only
>>>test one or two, because i have to pay for them.
>>
>>Generally true, but most of the majors have free trials, some lasting
>>as long as 10 days, IIRC, so if you don't mind burning a free trial
>>opportunity you might consider that. In addition, some of the pay
>>servers have plans starting at less than $5 a month, so that could be
>>another approach if you need a longer term test.
>i have done that with 3 news servers, all of them get throttled down
>after several files are d/l. i have emailed tech sipport at all 3, and
>all of them said it was comcast.

Understandable. See above.

>>>On the web, it depends on who you are connecting to, to what the
>>>bandwidth is.
>>
>>True, but you can almost always greatly improve the situation by using
>>a download manager that opens multiple concurrent connections.
>
>agent uses up to 10 simultaneous connections

Up to 10? So how many was it actually using? Agent isn't known for its
prowess with binary downloading, so you're handicapping yourself just
a bit from the start.

>
>> I use
>>and recommend FreeDownloadManager (www.freedownloadmanager.org) for
>>web downloads, and a multithreaded news client like Newsleecher or
>>Newsbin Pro for Usenet. It's rare these days to encounter a mainstream
>>website that doesn't allow you to open multiple concurrent
>>connections, and again, concurrent connections are the key to greater
>>download speed, whether it be from the web or Usenet.
>>
>>>You ask an impossible question.
>>
>>I didn't ask any questions in my previous reply.
>>
>>>I do know it was halved or more, from the same nntp server
>>>farm.
>>
>>Nothing was halved that I'm aware of. Can you be more specific?
>
>how in the hell would you know what my server farm connection
>had been changed to. are you psychic? or are you working for comcast?

Oh, your server farm connection. I didn't know you had a server farm
since you didn't mention it before. How are you testing with it?

>>
>>>How can I check comcasts modem, to see what it is throttled at?
>>>I am unaware of this procedure. Unless it is software diagnostic on an
>>>rca cable modem, I might be out of luck, as i don't want to buy their
>>>modem.
>>
>>Chances are excellent that your modem is throttled to the speed tier
>>that you're paying for,
>
>thanks for that. that was the first thing i had checked

If you can figure out the make and model of your modem, you'll be able
to search and see if it has a web server with status pages. Many do,
and they are frequently located at http://192.168.100.1 although some
apparently need a login/password.


--
Bill

[Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com]

On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:19:39 -0500, Fosco_Bleecker-Baggins@shire.com
wrote:

>comcast is throttling my giganews server. does anyone have any ideas
>if this is permanent, applies only to nntp packets, or how comcast
>does this.

Comcast Internet throttling is up and running
Cunning plan replaces P2P blocking
By Egan Orion
Tuesday, 6 January 2009, 11:08

COMCAST, the second-largest US cable television and Internet
communications service provider, has a new broadband traffic
throttling scheme installed and operating in all of its markets.

The ISP's new regime for restricting its customers' bandwidth
utilisation replaces its former stealthy practice of arbitrarily
blocking subscribers' peer-to-peer (P2P) upload traffic, which was
criticised by the FCC last year after it was exposed by the Associated
Press and others.

Comcast's filing with FCC (PDF) says it has put in new hardware and
software technology at its Regional Network Routers locations to
effect this cunning traffic management plan.

Its network throttling implements a two-tier packet queueing system at
the routers, driven by two trigger conditions.

Comcast's first traffic throttling trigger is tripped by using more
than 70 per cent of your maximum downstream or upstream bandwidth for
more than 15 minutes.

Its second traffic throttling trigger is tripped when the Cable Modem
Termination System you're hooked-up to – along with up to 15,000 other
Comcast subscribers – gets congested, and your traffic is somehow
identified as being responsible.

Tripping either of Comcast's high bandwidth usage rate triggers
results in throttling for at least 15 minutes, or until your average
bandwidth utilisation rate drops below 50 per cent for 15 minutes.

The Comcast two-tier traffic throttling system enforces different
quality-of-service levels. Internet packets to and from a specific
subscriber are assigned 'Priority Best Effort' (PBE) queueing by
default, and the traffic rate is throttled by switching packets to
lower priority 'Best Effort' (BE) queueing.

Comcast uses a bus analogy to explain how its two-tier traffic
throttling system works:

"If there is no congestion, packets from a user in a BE state should
have little trouble getting on the bus when they arrive at the bus
stop. If, on the other hand, there is congestion in a particular
instance, the bus may become filled by packets in a PBE state before
any BE packets can get on. In that situation, the BE packets would
have to wait for the next bus that is not filled by PBE packets."

According to the company, upstream and downstream traffic is managed
separately, and its router packet queueing increments - the waiting
time between each 'bus' in its analogy - are two milliseconds, or
1/500th of a second.

Comcast says that a throttled subscriber's connection that is forced
into the lower BE quality of service queue "may or may not result in
the user's traffic being delayed or, in extreme cases, dropped before
PBE traffic is dropped."

Thus, Comcast's latest traffic throttling method can lead to transfers
being blocked, too. But only in 'extreme cases' it says, so that's
alright then.

Comcast has also imposed a monthly 250GB bandwidth usage cap on all of
its customers, and it will, after one warning, terminate service for
one year to those who exceed that cap twice within a six-month period.

So you punters who signed up with Comcast as your ISP can be assured
that the company will deliver only about half of the maximum bandwidth
it advertises, on a consistent basis. µ

L'Inq
DSL Reports