[LinuxUsers] UDP default now for uTorrent

[Jeff Lasman]

On Sunday 07 December 2008 03:28 am, Jeff Lasman wrote:

> the ISPs learn how to identify it and aggressively throw away the
> packets.
>
> Which is actually much easier to do than the article points out ...
> deep packet inspection isn't going to be necessary.  Only traffic
> rate.

On page two of his second article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/05/richard_bennett_bittorrent_udp/

the author, Richard Bennett, points out:

<snip>
Several management tweaks can prevent perverse side-effects like this 
from happening, such as reconfiguring traffic shapers to key on stream 
volume rather than protocol type.
</snip>

So he and I see the same "fix" implemented by ISPs to solve the problem 
of the 'net coming to a standstill.

He also points out that what the torrents are looking towards is an 
entirely new protocol, uTP, which can still seriously impact traffic 
(if routers that currently limit TCP/IP traffic don't limit uTP 
traffic, more uTP traffic will cause more congestion on, and thus more 
limiting of, TCP/IP traffic.

But the fact that this is a new protocol actually makes it easy for the 
ISPs to enter "reactive mode" (as Bennett also says on page two of his 
more recent article); they can and will eventually learn to shape it as 
much as they do now, or more so.

What Eric Klinker (CEO of BitTorrent) has really done, is given the ISPs 
ammunition to tell governments "See, they don't play fair, so we have 
to identify and shape."

In the long run:

We could see a meltdown

We could see traditional ISPs spend billions more on capacity or 
dramatically raise their rates, or go out of business

We could see them implement new terms of service (if necessary) with one 
month lead times, and start shutting down the 5% of their users causing 
the problem.

Care to bet on the outcome?

Note that the disclaimers as to time-of-day from my previous message 
apply to this one as well.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman, Nobaloney Internet Services
P.O. Box 52200, Riverside, CA  92517
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