Virgin Media to throttle Torrent users

[Jordy]

Sadly this doesn't surprise me at all as most British ISPs are turning against their BitTorrent customers, luckily Virgin media users have till mid-09 before this is implemented, lets hope no other ISPs follow suit.

And also, what's the point in the 50mbps now? :P Oh come on, torrenting at that speed would be a joy.

http://torrentfreak.com/virgin-media-to-throttle-bittorrent-users-081216/


In the US, Comcast has been ordered (http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-vs-bittorrent-whats-next-080821/) to stop slowing down BitTorrent users, because this violates Net Neutrality. Across the pond, this does not seem to be an issue, as several ISPs have installed hardware to slow down BitTorrent users.

There haven’t been many reports of British ISPs throttling BitTorrent traffic, but this doesn’t mean (http://azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs#United_Kingdom) that they don’t. Pipex, one of the largest ISPs in the UK, is notorious for its anti-BitTorrent measures. They actively throttle BitTorrent traffic, especially during peak times, and also throttle all encrypted traffic. Other UK ISPs that throttle BitTorrent traffic are BT Broadband, Eclipse, Plusnet, Freedom2Surf and TalkTalk. Virgin Media has not (openly) targeted BitTorrent traffic, but they will now follow suit.


Virgin Media’s CEO Neil Berkett told The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/virgin_bittorrent/) that the company will start limiting BitTorrent traffic for all its customers. To some this might not really come as a surprise, as earlier this year Berkett said (http://torrentfreak.com/virgin-media-ceo-says-net-neutrality-is-a-load-of-********-080413/) “This net neutrality thing is a load of ********” Virgin’s BitTorrent throttling plans seem to back up this earlier statement. Which throttling methods Virgin will use has not been announced, but Berkett said that they will be implemented mid 2009.


ISPs have been messing with BitTorrent traffic for years, even when the traffic generated was just a tiny fraction of what it is today. When the first ISPs began throttling BitTorrent traffic, Azureus (now Vuze), BitComet and uTorrent introduced a countermeasure, namely, protocol header encryption. This worked well initially, but soon after encryption was introduced, ISPs started to use hardware that could detect encrypted traffic.


The degree of traffic shaping varies a lot between different ISPs. Some only limit BitTorrent traffic during certain times of the day or throttle in specific regions, others take a more aggressive approach and prevent their customers from seeding or even downloading .torrent files. The most used argument to justify their actions, is that all the BitTorrent traffic on their network slows down other customers’ connections.



Whether this is indeed the case can be debated. Nevertheless, instead of investing in their own network to solve these potential congestion issues, ISPs prefer to slow down customers who just happen to use the ‘wrong’ protocol, claiming problems with capacity. Which is interesting, since Virgin started offering an unlimited 50Mbit/s package this week, up from their old limit of 20Mbit/s. Maybe BitTorrent throttling helps make room for this new service.

[scottish]

about time.

[Jordy]

about time.Why do you care? The chances of your service being limited because other people torrenting is very slow.

[Flisker]

I really do hope Be* does not/don't do this...

[Decode]

Tiscali are the worst, they just give you routers that can't port forward so there is no way of getting bittorrent to work fast.


about time.

Why... :S

[PintGlass]

Tiscali are the worst, they just give you routers that can't port forward so there is no way of getting bittorrent to work fast.



Why... :S

Dont use the router tiscali provides??

[Decode]

Dont use the router tiscali provides??

I don't want to buy a new one, and i'm sure if I did torrents would still be limited on there side any way.

[AlexOC]

-sighs-

oh my torrents, my wonderful torrents.

this is stupid, i will cnotinue to torrent until they bring me down!

[MasterFM]

Hi, I'm called They


/me brings you down

:D

[N!ck]

I really hate ISPs that do this. You pay them for the internet, so it should be up to fricking you to decide what you do with your bandwidth.

[PintGlass]

I don't want to buy a new one, and i'm sure if I did torrents would still be limited on there side any way.
Well im with tiscali, and i dont get limited :)

[AlexOC]

Virgin Media can suck my hole.

[PintGlass]

I really hate ISPs that do this. You pay them for the internet, so it should be up to fricking you to decide what you do with your bandwidth.

True, i do anyways though :P

They haven't stopped me yet :D

[N!ck]

True, i do anyways though :P

They haven't stopped me yet :D

I would personally be tempted to waste bandwidth by uploading and downloading rubbish data consistently at peak times just to piss them off.

[AlexOC]

I would personally be tempted to waste bandwidth by uploading and downloading rubbish data consistently at peak times just to piss them off.

Wise Plan.

[MasterFM]

:eusa_danc
Wise Plan.


agreed. I do already though. Downloaded about 17GB of stuff since december 1st :D

[AlexOC]

:eusa_danc


agreed. I do already though. Downloaded about 17GB of stuff since december 1st :D

Hehe.

We should just take down Virgin Media via crashing them, It's not illegal, we just download alot of stuff :)

And i think its pathetic, what next, they ban adult sites :O:O:O:O:O

[PintGlass]

I would personally be tempted to waste bandwidth by uploading and downloading rubbish data consistently at peak times just to piss them off.

I would, dont have the speed though :(

on a 2mb connection, around 240kbps down, 30kbps up.

Still get round to down/up around 40gb a month though :P

[MasterFM]

And i think its pathetic, what next, they ban adult sites :O:O:O:O:O

Don't even think about banning pr0n cus i swere to god i'll go and blow up any server that they use as a proxy

[Recursion]

Traffic shaping anyone...? Lame idea LOL

[Decode]

Hehe.

We should just take down Virgin Media via crashing them, It's not illegal, we just download alot of stuff :)

And i think its pathetic, what next, they ban adult sites :O:O:O:O:O

In Australia that might be happening:O

[PaintYourTarget]

I have BT internet and my torrents seem to be rather amazingly fast. Although, that is at 1am in the morning, so barely peak time.

[PintGlass]

Hehe.

We should just take down Virgin Media via crashing them, It's not illegal, we just download alot of stuff :)

Hmmm, you might be on to an idea here....

And i think its pathetic, what next, they ban adult sites :O:O:O:O:O Then they would have no customers, whole internet would die off.

[AlexOC]

unlucky Aussies xD http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/233/1009233/australia-wants-ban-internet

[Recursion]

I hope you guys are being sarcastic here.

[LoveToStack]

It's totally irrelevant to me. 1MB BT (already throttling BitTorrent) and even with port fowarding it's totally useless. :'(

[lolwut]

Why is it we pay them money to use the internet as we want, and they now decide to say "You can't actually use the internet. Sorry."
Virgin Media have given me no end of problems and hence reasons to move, this is almost definitely the tipping point.

I really want to kick VM's CEO in the head. Many times. Daily.

Anyone got any ISPs which VM customers could move to? I was thinking Sky because I know some of their plans are actually truly unlimited..?

[Kevin]

Warez FTW, if you have rapidshare premium they download in no time what so ever.

[N!ck]

Why is it we pay them money to use the internet as we want, and they now decide to say "You can't actually use the internet. Sorry."
Virgin Media have given me no end of problems and hence reasons to move, this is almost definitely the tipping point.

I really want to kick VM's CEO in the head. Many times. Daily.

Anyone got any ISPs which VM customers could move to? I was thinking Sky because I know some of their plans are actually truly unlimited..?

www.bethere.co.uk

[LoveToStack]

Why is it we pay them money to use the internet as we want, and they now decide to say "You can't actually use the internet. Sorry."
Virgin Media have given me no end of problems and hence reasons to move, this is almost definitely the tipping point.

I really want to kick VM's CEO in the head. Many times. Daily.

Anyone got any ISPs which VM customers could move to? I was thinking Sky because I know some of their plans are actually truly unlimited..?

Sky is meant to be good, yes. If I were ever to move then it'd either be to Sky or Virgin, only Virgin because of the speeds though. :rolleyes:

[Pyroka]

Torrents suck anyway, why would you want to use them. They're unreliable links of crap.

[N!ck]

Torrents suck anyway, why would you want to use them. They're unreliable links of crap.

Maybe you don't know how to use them properly?

[Rapidshare]

Torrents suck anyway, why would you want to use them. They're unreliable links of crap.


Everything that on rapidshare first came from torrenting :P

[Pyroka]

Maybe you don't know how to use them properly?

I do, and I got so annoyed with how I had to forward all my ports in my router and still get only 200MB/S download speeds (or 0kbits because its a broken link and you just wont find out cuz its torrents!), that I bought a rapidshare premium account.

Best decision since god made humans.



Everything that on rapidshare first came from torrenting :P

thats a damn lie, i buy legal stuff and put it on RS lol.

[Rapidshare]

I do, and I got so annoyed with how I had to forward all my ports in my router and still get only 200MB/S download speeds (or 0kbits because its a broken link and you just wont find out cuz its torrents!), that I bought a rapidshare premium account.

Best decision since god made humans.




thats a damn lie, i buy legal stuff and put it on RS lol.

Bet you any money that legal stuff you got was already on torrents ;)

[Pyroka]

Bet you any money that legal stuff you got was already on torrents ;)

I think you're confused, I BOUGHT IT LOL.

Rapidshares been around quite a while.. but yeah I guess I can admit that there is a likelihood that SOME stuff on rapidshare was from torrents, because people were like "oh god can't let this disastrous wait happen again *puts on RS* much better".

zing LOL.

[:job2]

I think if an ISP is going to limit the speed you can get they should write to you telling you that they have sone this, that way I could lower my package or something.

There are too many people in my area with broadband, this with old fashioned hardware at the exchange means I get stupidly low speeds.

Like sometimes at about 8pm my download speed is anything as low as 1kb/s

[Titch]

Sky is meant to be good, yes. If I were ever to move then it'd either be to Sky or Virgin, only Virgin because of the speeds though. :rolleyes:

we are with carfonewarehouse / aol deal, really good and fast for me.

[Lulz]

Tiscali are the worst, they just give you routers that can't port forward so there is no way of getting bittorrent to work fast.



Why... :S
110KBSP on bittorrent, right now, on Tiscali. Havn't set up the ports or anything.

[MasterFM]

110KBSP on bittorrent, right now, on Tiscali. Havn't set up the ports or anything.

Exactly, 110 KB/S sucks.
I sometimes get like 10MB/s (on extremly good torrents)

[Implement]

Best download speed I've had on a torrent is 5MB/s.

Regularly get 500KB/s speeds also.

[Boonzeet]

I have BT internet and my torrents seem to be rather amazingly fast. Although, that is at 1am in the morning, so barely peak time.

My torrents go so slow around 4pm - Midnight, but after then they pick up.

I think this is ******* ridiculous though. Downloading 7GB of Adobe CS4 via torrent (legal versions, I need the serials) - has taken me about 4 days already. Not to mention when I torrent the rest of my internet goes very slow, can't connect to Habbo etc.

Isn't this illegal for ISP's to do? It's almost as bad as when Comcast in some states limited users connecting to certain websites and Password reset forms.

We pay for our right to use the internet, so I don't know why we are limited.

What's going to go next? Are businesses going to monitor text we update to the internet and ban us from forums?

[Recursion]

Generally when you are downloading it sucks your bandwidth so your net would go slow :|

[Kevin]

My torrents go so slow around 4pm - Midnight, but after then they pick up.

I think this is ******* ridiculous though. Downloading 7GB of Adobe CS4 via torrent (legal versions, I need the serials) - has taken me about 4 days already. Not to mention when I torrent the rest of my internet goes very slow, can't connect to Habbo etc.

Isn't this illegal for ISP's to do? It's almost as bad as when Comcast in some states limited users connecting to certain websites and Password reset forms.

We pay for our right to use the internet, so I don't know why we are limited.

What's going to go next? Are businesses going to monitor text we update to the internet and ban us from forums?


Would you not invest in a rapidshare premium account, and download adobe cs4, wouldent take that long at all.

[MasterFM]

Would you not invest in a rapidshare premium account, and download adobe cs4, wouldent take that long at all.

I did before it came out, best thing i ever done tbh.
Just get a 3day pass if you want to pay by phone :)

[HotelUser]

My ISP, Eastlink (Canada) has been throttling torrents for some time now:@. The alternative ISPs (Rogers and Cisco) also throttle torrents. But that's what encryption's for..

[Recursion]

Cisco is an ISP now? :S

[Agnostic Bear]

Torrents are stupid they should never have become mainstream they're not meant for home computers. Stupid things.