Friday, August 22, 2008

Comcast: The Many Faces of How Your Internet Works

Net Neutrality.

I'm fairly certain those two words already have you ready to scan the next headlines. But it shouldn't because the concept -- which is being defined by the FCC right now -- will determine many things about how your connection to the Internet works.

Net Neutrality means that everyone with the same type of connection line will have the same experience surfing and sharing online

Comcast got its hands caught in the regulatory cookie jar after it was disclosed they had slowed traffic from its heavy Internet users, which meant if you were uploading or downloading too much, you're connection might be slowed. The FCC was none too happy about this, that practice being illegal and all.

The commission levied fines and then pushed the company to release information about how it will comply with the federal regulations in the future. In other words, says TG Daily, Comcast infringed about individual's service and now gets to help discuss what can be done to fix the problem.

Now many of the folks who are getting smacked by Comcast are using file-sharing networks to trade videos illegally. They claim, as all of these companies do, that file sharing is bad. Very bad. Very, very bad. In fact, they spend millions prosecuting those who engage in such activity.

Except when they do it themselves. Then it's cool.

The question then is thus: If Comcast wants to block people trading files on peer-to-peer networks, but has signed up with a peer-to-peer service to help deliver a better Internet connection, will they slow their own packets down since they'll be using so much bandwidth?

Posted By Brad at 02:27 AM
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