# Comcast Throttling



## It3ration (Dec 23, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I've been a computer scientist for years and I am so fed up with Comcast, the big ISP. I thought I'd ask around to see if anyone else has been having similar issues.

To start, here's an interesting article:

comcast throttling

Comcast has been aggressively filtering and throttling traffic in the past year. My current plan is about 20 mb down / 3 mb up. However, I cannot keep a Skype call going for more than 5 minutes before their node restarts the upstream. This seems illegal considering most people pay around $60.00 bucks a month for "excellent service" (or perhaps it's in the fine print, which is very misleading). The official Skype forums are chock full of people complaining about this exact same issue.

Here's an example of my modem's log:

2009-12-23 00:48:41 5-Warning TSM: TxError WatchDog - Restart Upstream
2009-12-23 00:48:40 5-Warning HAL: Overcoming Tx Error (reseting the US - DMA)
2009-12-22 22:34:44 5-Warning TSM: TxError WatchDog - Restart Upstream
2009-12-22 22:34:44 5-Warning HAL: Overcoming Tx Error (reseting the US - DMA)

This of course just continues forever - it happens whenever I use Skype. It appears they are sniffing packets and penalizing people that use voip. 

Is anyone else as pissed as I am? Dsl is looking better every day.

It3ration


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## brunson (Dec 23, 2009)

Though I'm not a computer scientist (I actually know how computers work) I work with a satellite variant of DOCSIS modems in my job. Those aren't throttling messages, you've most likely got bad hardware or a flaky connection. 

Can you see what your US SNR is from the status page of your modem? Depending on the signaling capabilities of your modem, you may only be able to see it at the head end on the CMTS.

FWIW, I'm on Comcast in Denver and our kids stream Netflix on the Roku almost continuously without any throttling. I had issues with US resets a couple of months ago and they sent someone out. I had a couple of problems in my tail circuit (loose couplers, bad connectors) that were causing signal loss.

Have you called them to report the issue?

Edit: I wasn't really cracking on you, the comment about knowing how computers work is a reference to Dykstra, who once said, "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."


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## anythingtwisty (Dec 23, 2009)

**** Comcast.
If you think their internet is bad, try their DVR service or their cable. Our DVR regularly malfunctions, and we have had to get it replaced 4 times. Occasionally (at least once a month), all of our cable starts skipping (hard to explain), and the listings are wiped from the system. As for the internet service, I am outraged at the fact that the government has overlooked this serious problem.
**** Comcast.


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## jms_gears1 (Dec 23, 2009)

anythingtwisty said:


> **** Comcast.
> *FAILURE*
> **** Comcast.


i fixed your post...

seriously, you guys should see about switching to At&t u-verse their internet's pretty good, as well as phone, and DVRish stuff. youd have to see if its available in your area.

but from what my girlfriends parents said it costs about 15 b/m more than their comcast basic cable (for u-200 package) but you get ~200 channels, and free stuff on demand.


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## anythingtwisty (Dec 23, 2009)

AT&T is no better:
http://gizmodo.com/5412913/white-house-deputy-chief-technology-officer-compares-censorship-in-china-to-american-isps


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## jms_gears1 (Dec 23, 2009)

anythingtwisty said:


> AT&T is no better:
> http://gizmodo.com/5412913/white-house-deputy-chief-technology-officer-compares-censorship-in-china-to-american-isps



wait what? what is it saying, because either i missed something or, that proved nothing...


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## It3ration (Dec 23, 2009)

A technician has been out to my place about 10 times in the last 6 months - at first I thought that it might be someone in the area abusing their bandwidth, hence the node resetting. That is, until he told me it's because of Skype.

So ridiculous.


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## brunson (Dec 23, 2009)

That is pathetic if it's true. Those technicians aren't always the smartest tools in the box. Sending out a technician costs them money, a truck roll costs my company $135, so they're costing themselves more than they're making from you if they're really trying to hide a practice.

Throttling by starving an upstream is a really bad way of doing traffic shaping. Over a satellite we're incredibly bandwidth limited, causing an upstream reset on our network would probably wast more spectrum than it saved.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence."

Sorry I don't have anything more constructive to add, without insight at the headend it's hard to do anything more than speculate.


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## Muesli (Dec 23, 2009)

Come to the UK. We have TalkTalk for all your crappy internet needs.


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## brunson (Dec 23, 2009)

P.S.

DSLReports has a forum dedicated to practically every broadband provider. If you tried posting there you might get some helpful advice.

Hope that helps,
e.


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