Comcast fires employees for P2P discussions
- October 29th, 2007
- Read 1263 times
- 7 Comments
Comcast employees are on lockdown with the recent storm of controversy regarding accusations that the ISP is throttling Bit Torrent traffic. Those in Comcast’s support department is finding out that if you let customers know their traffic is being modified, you will lose your job. Customer support reps are supposed to stick to a script and if asked about “the situation”, lie through their teeth to customers. Shame on you, Comcast.
Also, if you work for Comcast, don’t talk to us or anyone else. Speaking to the media will also result in termination of your job. Want the juicy goods? Hit the jump for an e-mail from an IP support manager:
“If a customer contacts us to inquire about this, please use the following talking points,” reads the e-mail.
“Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent,” the e-mail continues. “We respect our customers’ privacy and we don’t monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which web sites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.”
Word on the ‘net is that the ISP is using Sandvine’s technology to block BitTorrent traffic. I used to be a Comcast customer for years and truth be told, I never had a ton of problems. In fact, I’ve got more beef with my current provider, Time Warner Cable. Are any readers experiencing this so-called throttling of BitTorrent bandwidth? Have you confronted Comcast about it? Sound off!
Comcast to employees: talking about blocking P2P can get you fired [Ars Technica]
ryan
8 months ago
I’m on Comcast. I can’t seem to upload more than 50/kps with utorrent, but my downloads can be be plenty snappy.
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Dan (Who am I?)
8 months ago
I’m with Comcast and have found that patches from the Blizzard updater for World of Warcraft has gotten worse and worse each month (or whenever they release a patch). Most patches will take 10-15 minutes just to start and then slow to a crawl in the middle and take another 10 to finish. I’ve tested downloading patches from starbucks and other hotspots and work and they’ve been fine. It’s just when I’m at home with Comcast that the patches take forever.
I guess I’ll be re-upping my Fileplanet subscription. :/
jon burg (Who am I?)
8 months ago
Hey, loving the buzz around net neutrality. It’s been a matter of time, and the first shoe has fallen.
If you were hired today as a consultant for Comcast PR and Corporate Communications, what would you do?
I’m holding this survey over at: http://jburg.typepad.com/future/2007/10/open-survey—i.html.
CharlieB (Who am I?)
8 months ago
I’ve heard a lot of people try to paint this as a net neutrality issue but it doesn’t seem, to me, to be one. This just seems like common network management. Most ISP’s do this kind of thing in order alleviate congestion over the network; if they didn’t the Internet would be so slow and so inefficient that even BitTorrent users wouldn’t be able to take advantage.
mv (Who am I?)
6 months ago
i’m a comcast customer and i recieved an email bout something i was dl and it told me all of the following info. i am currently looking for another isp. that dont monitor my info or promise “lightning fast downloads” then moitor or limit your usage. anyone able to recomend anyone in chicago?
copy and pasted from email——-|
V
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 1 Dec 2007 20:13:34 GMT
Infringement Last Documented: 1 Dec 2007 20:13:34 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: XXXXXXXX
Infringing Filesize: 568981136
Infringer IP Address: XX.XXX.XX.203
Infringer DNS Name: c-XX-XXX-XX-XXX.hsd1.il.comcast.net
Janet DeSouto (Who am I?)
4 months ago
Hmmm, then I quess the email I got from them specifically listing a film I tried to download and telling me is a no-no because “… we don’t monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which web sites they visit. …”
Dave (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’ve used Comcast for +3 yr. Service has generally been good except for the torrent blocking.
Quite often (most times) torrent up-loads grind to a halt and stop — which of course greatly slows the reciprocal DL rate. I haven’t tried any torrent DL’s in the last month.
Last year, when Verizon began offering FIOS in my neighborhood, Comcast upped their data rate 50% from 4 Mbps to 6 Mbps. Recently, its been back to 4 Mbps.