Cox to experiment with prioritisation
Cox is hoping that ditching its policy of blocking P2P traffic outright and introducing a system of bandwidth prioritisation will keep its customers sweet - and the FCC off its back.
According to BetaNews, the company is looking in to methods for limiting the impact peer-to-peer file sharing traffic has on real-time communication protocols – which may spell the end for its outright blocking policy, and more joy for its customers. The move will also come as a pleasurable surprise to the Federal Communications Commission, which sanctioned the company last year for injecting packets into P2P datastreams that resulted in the connection being dropped – without telling its customers that it was doing so.
In a statement to the Associated Press, spokesman David Grabert hopes that the new filtering system, “based on the time-sensitive nature of the Internet traffic itself,” will “lead to a smoother Internet experience with fewer delays.”
The new system prioritises traffic according to protocol, rather than blocking certain protocols outright even in times of spare capacity. Packets which require a more-or-less immediate response, including web traffic, voice chat, video streaming, and gaming, will get a higher priority than less time-critical traffic such as file uploading, peer-to-peer file transfers, and Usenet groups.
The company is quick to assure customers that the new system – which covers more protocols than the old system – will only “momentarily” delay the traffic, and then “only when the local network is congested.”
The new system will undergo trials in Arkansas and Kansas, to be followed by a rollout to all four million customers across the US if successful – except business customers, who get to continue to enjoy an unmolested Internet feed for there extra dollars.
Whether the new prioritisation system will please both sides of its userbase – the P2Pers who just want to snag the latest releases as fast as possible, and the normal web users who just want their YouTube videos to play back smoothly – remains to be seen, but it certainly has a better chance than outright – and secret – blocking.
Any Cox users here hoping to see P2P transfers become an option again, or are you worried that your real-time traffic will suffer under the new scheme? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyJust remember the aphorism, people: never assume, cos it'll only make you look like a tosser.
but, yes. ISP throttling is a pain in the ass. I get the occasional youtube video that refuses to stream , and I used to be able to stream videos from gamevideos.1up.com but now I have to wait for it to load a decent proportion of the video before playing (GV.com takes around 1-2Mb/s to stream and my line goes up to 4Mb/s)
it sucks when you get penalized for using what you pay for.
but back to the news. it's a step in the right direction. By the sounds of it, Cox Communications had the FCC on their ass for the throttling? I doubt they would have a policy re-think if not for the threat of legal action.
<--- Located in Kansas.
Last night it took about 3 minutes to load Google.com. <Sarcasm> Connect to the work VPN... are you kidding me, that has to be illegal, only criminals use VPN's, or have servers!!! </Sarcasm> Crosses fingers and hopes the world hears a resounding "POP" as they pull their heads from some place dark and smelly.
as for the throttling, that sucks, i'm with sky broadband so they dont limit me at all, but i went to a mates for some lanning, and he told me off for downloading at 4pm, he said wait til gone midnight and then do it or they'll spank his connection, and thats virgin media i do believe!
peace
fatman
Just a few weeks ago here on b-t was a news that UK invested loads of money into transparent proxies filtering all outgoing and incoming traffic (in a so-called paedophile search - anyone believes that crap? even the sound of it is dumb)
Yes, it's virgin who throttles like hell, however, unlike other isps they atleast tell you how much "fair useage" (redownloading all my stuff on steam would be enough to trigger the throttling approx 40 times during the evening and 20 times during afternoons) is in their opinion.
Could they "shape" encrypted p2p packets if you using un-common ports?
Its like giving someone the keys to a Ferrari and then telling them they can only drive it at 3mph.
I essentialy cant download anything between 10am and 9pm now or my connection gets spanked so hard you'd think you where going 10 rounds with mike tyson.