# Comcast blocks bittorrent ... crosses the line? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 20, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392 "2007-10-20T15:38:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/61 "2007-10-23T21:17:28Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] IIf you allow unrestricted P2P, congestion goes way up, latency goes to hell and consequently the internet service is only useful for P2P and low bandwidth applications. [/QUOTE] I didn’t say “allow unrestricted P2P”, I said “How do they justify fraud and terminating connections (over, say, traffic shaping) as a ‘best effort’?” Again, the issue (to me) is not that they are limiting throughput or having to make business decisions that mean less P2P bandwidth, it’s that they fraudulently advertise a certain service and don’t deliver _and_ that they effect their limitations by breaking connections instead of slowing them. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/62 "2007-10-30T14:19:46Z")
> **[Problems loading google (DNS issues possibly?) - Comcast XFINITY | DSLReports...](https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19252565-Problems-loading-google-DNS-issues-possibly)** > > Forum discussion: Well this just started happening a few days ago. All other web pages would load, except google. So my first thought was to run a full virus scan and check for spyware to make sure nothing was infected or hijacked. Both clean. Then... Comcast now apparently blocking Google requests. Analysis, thanks to Something Awful. > **[The Something Awful Forums](https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2669968)** It’s pretty damning. Clearly, it’s those Google users wasting all the network bandwidth, ruining the internet for all of us. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/63 "2007-10-30T17:46:05Z")
:rolleyes: I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is no chance, none whatsoever, that Comcast is deliberately blocking access to Google. Somebody screwed up some configuration somewhere(your link seems to indicate a DNS problem). ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/64 "2007-10-30T18:44:23Z")
My best guess was the traffic shaping program was misinterpreting the volume of traffic from Google’s servers. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/65 "2007-11-02T17:54:54Z")
Thought you guys might be interested in [this](http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxRiQSVfgK4sLbVRE_X4MOlM9q0AD8SL33B00). It should be interesting to see how this plays out. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/66 "2007-11-02T18:14:54Z")
Given that the service agreement specifically prohibits running a server, I doubt that it will go anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/67 "2007-11-02T19:07:46Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] Given that the service agreement specifically prohibits running a server, I doubt that it will go anywhere. [/QUOTE] Uploading files equals running a server? ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/68 "2007-11-02T21:16:59Z")
People must establish a connection with you, and you serve files to them. How is that not running a server? ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/69 "2007-11-02T22:33:34Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] People must establish a connection with you, and you serve files to them. How is that not running a server? [/QUOTE] I don’t know, that’s why I was asking. I’m under the impression that “running a server” involves more than just uploading files. Are you saying that Comcast customers uploading files are violating a service agreement they have with Comcast? If that’s so, I’m curious why Comcast hasn’t simply stated this in their defense and why you didn’t use it as a debate point earlier in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392/70 "2007-11-03T16:58:39Z")
I can’t speak for Comcast, but I would guess that if they brought up the “running a server” argument, that would hurt them in the future if they decided that they needed to manage downstream traffic as well. They’d prefer to set the precedent that they do have the right to manage traffic on their network when it’s to benefit their customer base as a whole. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-blocks-bittorrent-crosses-the-line/423392.md?page=3)