bandwidth-caps
Cable modem hacking expert indicted on fraud charges
Ryan Harris—known by the alias DerEngel—is an expert on cable modem hacking, an art that he describes at length in a 2006 instructional guide that was published by No Starch Press. He runs a small company that sells unlocked cable modems with custom firmware and provides instructional material that explains how to manipulate the devices in various ways. Although there are plenty of valid reasons for users to want complete access to their network hardware, cable modem hacking can also be used to circumvent ISP-imposed bandwidth caps and obtain free service through MAC address spoofing.
Continue reading »STUDY: P2P Traffic Down to 15-20% in North America
Down from 37% back in 2007, and data suggests traffic pattern shows signs of “either persistent congestion or, more likely , evidence of widespread provider manipulation of P2P traffic rates.” Arbor Networks, which sells subscriber traffic management equipment to ISPs, has released the results of a new study which concludes that P2P traffic is down to roughly 15-20% of all North American traffic. That’s down substantially from the 37% of all North American traffic P2P reportedly consumed back in 2007. It took daily average traffic fluctuations of 40 North American consumer & regional ISPs and concluded that not only is P2P traffic down, but that its cyclical inverted traffic pattern suggests “either persistent congestion or, more likely, evidence of widespread provider manipulation of P2P traffic rates.” Notice in the images below how P2P traffic peaks at 6am and then decreases till around 4pm when HTTP traffic reaches its peak.
Continue reading »Week in review: cap-casualty edition
Internet caps—and Time Warner Cable’s clumsy attempts to both implement and justify them—dominated the news this past week. It started with the company trying to justify its outrageous caps and shooting the messenger. A couple of congressmen then threatened legislation intended to thwart the imposition of caps.
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