RE: ISPs slowing P2P traffic...

["Frank Bulk - iNAME" <frnkblk () iname com>]

Without being totally conspiratorial, do you think the network engineers at
these service providers know that that their residential subscribers' PCs
and links aren't tuned for high speeds, and so can feel fairly confident in
selling these speeds knowing they won't be used?

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On Behalf Of Joe
St Sauver
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 4:15 PM
To: jared () puck nether net
Cc: nanog () merit edu
Subject: Re: ISPs slowing P2P traffic...

Jared mentioned:

#       We'll see what happens, and how the 160Mb/s DOCSIS 3.0 connections
#and infrastructure to support it pan out on the comcast side..

There may be comparatively little difference from what you see today,
largely because most hosts still have stacks which are poorly tuned by
default, or host throughput is limited by some other device in the path
(such as a broadband "router") which acts by default as the constricting
link in the chain, or the application itself isn't written to take full
advantage of higher speed wide area connections.

Depending on your point of view, all those poorly tuned hosts are either a
incredible PITA, or the only thing that's keeping the boat above water.

If you believe the latter point of view, tuning guides such as
http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/tcptune/ and diagnostic tools
like NDT (e.g., see http://miranda.ctd.anl.gov:7123/ ) are incredibly
seditious resources. :-)

Regards,

Joe St Sauver (joe () oregon uoregon edu)

Disclaimer: all opinions strictly my own.