ISP Speeds Up Customers BitTorrent Downloads

[nsane.forums]

Over the past few years Internet service providers have been increasingly complaining about the massive load BitTorrent transfers place on their networks. They claim that this load can reduce the performance experienced by other subscribers, but the huge amount of data transferred outside their own network is also very costly.

To solve these issues, some ISPs have started to slow down all BitTorrent traffic, Comcast-style. Others choose to limit BitTorrent speeds at certain times of the day, and there are other examples where customers simply cannot download files with a .torrent extension at all.

Luckily there are options available which can help manage BitTorrent traffic and please customers, all at the same time. The Israeli ISP Bezeq has taken this more consumer-friendly route. This ISP actually makes BitTorrent downloads faster by caching popular torrent downloads on their own network. By doing so the load on the network decreases and since there are less connections to peers outside the network Bezeq is also saving on costly bandwidth.

It works as follows. When a Bezeq customer downloads a .torrent file the ISP will intercept it and add (!) a new tracker to it. The additional tracker is only accessible for Bezeq customers and it connects to a high speed web-seed hosted on Bezeq network. As a result the files will be downloaded much faster. A Bezeq customer told us that almost all ‘popular’ torrents he downloaded connect to local seeds.

Interestingly, the tracker Bezeq uses is hosted by a Usenet provider in The Netherlands, while the actual seeds (caches) are on the ISPs network. The Usenet provider confirmed to TorrentFreak that the ISP is indeed listed as a client, but they were not aware of its torrent caching practices or that they were hosting a BitTorrent tracker.

On the surface this seems to be a win-win situation for both the ISP and its customers. Bezeq saves on resources and expensive bandwidth while the customer enjoys higher download speeds. There are of course privacy concerns, since the .torrent files are intercepted and edited without permission, but the biggest opposition to such a system will most likely come from the entertainment industry.

Various anti-piracy lobby groups, including the MPAA and RIAA are already pushing for more cooperation from ISPs in tracking down copyright infringers. The relationship between the entities is an uneasy one already, and that’s before an ISP decided it would become a BitTorrent seeder. Although Bezeq does not control which files are cached on their servers, the likes of the MPAA and RIAA will likely see it as aiding in copyright infringement.

Caching BitTorrent traffic and attempts to keep it within the local network as much as possible are not new, but aside from occasional tests these technologies are never implemented by ISPs. Bezeq did not respond to our inquiries so we can’t confirm that they have implemented it for all their customers. For those who are lucky enough, enjoy the ride.

Post from: TorrentFreak

View: Original Article

[Sonar]

[well we are not being turned but DOWN - lol]

I for one and a friend of mine is being throttled to **** from a 10 meg connection to 500 kb's for the past 5 months near to 6. £25 a month.

its just not us its the area "we get told its a high utility download usage for the area"post code" but 15 minutes down the road another friend on the same postcode and same connection is fine.

This would be Virgin !!!!!

We been on the phone to them 100000000000 times.. had deductions to the accounts... around 5 enji's out to test the modem/cables and what not... "they come out and of course the thing is running fine... they leave then an hour later it drops lol.

We are self's don't download much but do run the xbox 360. we can go all day/week without the pc/xbox 360 being used and the connection is still the same.

This issue has become an every day fault/drop from 10 megs to 500 kbs.

We are thinking of changing isp but everything else is a BT line(ADSL) and our city max's out at 8 megs download.

Was just wondering as this problem hasnt been fixed within 6 months nearly can we do anything about it? down the lines of > Trading standers?

Paying for the service and not getting it for 6 months, With proof of results from speedtest.net do we have a leg to stand on?

Edit:

None of us are using wireless routers. So no one is draining our bandwidth that side of it.

[myidisbb]

could you be wireless and someone or others are using your router then?

[Sonar]

could you be wireless and someone or others are using your router then?

We are both using a normal router (no wireless) on either.