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Comcast’s Project Infinity: over 1,000 HD on-demand choices

Comcast seem to be going from strength to strength and we know that High Definition (HD) Television viewing is hitting sky high levels, “so where do we go now then? Well Comcast has plenty up their Read more

Comcast Email and Webmail Problems

Back on May 29 2008 we reported that the Comcast Email service had been hacked, who would have thought that five months down the line users are still having security issues with the Comcast Email and Webmail service. Read more

Comcast Docsis 3.0 Internet service runs twice as fast

Comcast is about to use new technology which will allow their Broadband Internet service to run twice as fast, meaning you will be able to download files much quicker. Customer will be able to take advantage of these new speeds, if they are willing to pay extra. Read more

Comcast Sue FCC: Predictions come true

Its been expected for a long time now that after the FCC gave its 3-2 decision against Comcast, we will see the cable operator sue the FCC.

Today we are hearing that predictions have come true, Comcast is suing the independent US government agency, The Federal Communications Commission. Comcast has filed an appeal in the DC Court of Appeals over the FCC ruling.

The appeal documents are simple; it’s a $450 check, a cover letter and two-page document. The appeal itself will not be simple, this will likely drag on for a long time and its not entirely clear what the outcome will be.

Comcast has admitted that the FCC has the authority to regulate ISPs, but there is a lot more to this story. View Arstechnica for more information or read other Comcast news.

Comcast Cap of 250 Gigabyte: Is it enough?

With the future of the Internet looking like it will include a lot of data used by video streaming, you would think we would all need more bandwidth in our broadband package.

Comcast has put a cap of 250 gigabytes on their broadband service starting Oct. 1, and as they are one of the largest Internet providers in the U.S., what will happen now?

No one wants to find his or her Internet slow and this move is to stop excessive use and limit Internet consumption. Some broadband customers have been using many times what Comcast would like and this move is in direct response to that situation,

With this 250 gigabyte-a-month cap aimed at residential users, will it be enough for the average Comcast user? Let us know in the comments or read other Comcast news.

Comcast to limit speed of heavy net users with Fair Share

There is going to be a new traffic management system called Fair Share from the largest Internet service provider, Comcast. They said that they need to implement the new policy to deal with the problems of heavy traffic users. Fair Share’s aim is to limit the top internet speeds for targeted customers for short periods.

Comcast’s senior vice president, Mitch Bowling said that Fair Share management system will establish if the internet traffic is congested by users who “disproportionately” consume network resources. It will then identify the bandwidth hogs; Fair Share will delay their overall top speed for roughly 10 to 20 minutes to keep service to other users smooth and at a steady pace.

The Federal Communications Commission had sanctioned Comcast for interfering with the traffic of its Internet customers, Comcast was not fined but was ordered to stop using its discriminatory ways by the end of 2008 and make public all its practices within a month.

Comcast was accused of “unreasonable network management practices” by the FCC.

Source: efluxmedia

Comcast still maintain innocence after FCC verdict

On August 1, the FCC concluded that Comcast had violated federal policies. The cable operator was found guilty of interfering with customer’s use of peer-to-peer applications. Comcast still do not find anything wrong with this and still maintain that they are innocence.

Comcast have said that their practices are consistent with industry practices; Sena Fitzmaurice said that they did not block access to Websites or online applications; these include peer-to-peer services.

Comcast managed to escape a fine from the Federal Communications Commission, but they have imposed a deadline on the cable operator. Comcast are now considering all their legal options.

The Comcast case goes back to last year when the FCC received a complaint that the cable operator had an unfair bandwidth policy. According to the complaint, Comcast was altering peer-to-peer connections.

Comcast did say that some broadband users tend to use a huge amount of bandwidth, this then overwhelms the network. This kind of usage threatens to harm the online experience for others.

Comcast has to submit to the Commission’s Order, a compliance plan describing how it intends to put a stop to these practices. They have 30 days to do this.

FCC’s Comcast Decision: Statement from Verizon

The following is a statement by Tom Tauke, Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications, on the Federal Communications Commission’s vote today on the complaint by third-party organizations against Comcast for allegedly degrading peer-to-peer applications on its network:

“Consumers want a quality Internet experience. That requires a combination of industry investment, innovation and self-governance along with appropriate government oversight to shine the light on any potential problems with individual practices or providers Read more

Comcast guilty today of secretly degrading network traffic

The Federal Communications Commission found Comcast guilty today of secretly degrading network traffic. The broadband provider was throttling P2P traffic from BitTorrent and broke network neutrality principles while doing this.

Europe has similar problems with Tiscali and other broadband providers. Will they be next to face a similar judgment from European powers?

Certain broadband providers have trouble working out the difference between P2P traffic from BitTorrent and P2P from gaming. This has been experienced by thousands of gamers with games like Call of Duty 4.

The FCC rejected Comcast’s claim that network throttling is part of routine network management. Comcast was found guilty on a 3-2 vote and it has now been ordered to stop blocking traffic.

It is very misleading when broadband providers block P2P traffic and do not make this clear when we sign up. The FCC recognized this and said Comcast misled consumers when it did not properly disclose its P2P policy.

Do you think the FCC’s actions are justified or do you think they are trying to regulate the Internet?

Source: Read

Comcast Email and Webmail problems still an issue

We reported on May 29th about the Comcast Email service being hacked and their site showed a message “Site Is Under Construction”. This only stayed for a short time and then the service was up and running.

Today we are hearing from PR readers that there are still problems with the Comcast Email and Webmail service.

Below is a comment one PR reader sent in:

I’m in email hell with Comcast right now. For the past two weeks I never know if my sent email is getting to where it’s sent. It leaves but does not arrive.

I’ve spent hours on the phone to Comcast with no answers. Some emails arrive some do not. I can’t believe I’m the only one experiencing this.

Are there still issues with Comcast Email, do you share the same problems as above? Let us know in the comments.

Read other Comcast news here.

Comcast and Tiscali share BitTorrent and gaming problem

Comcast Corp the Cable TV giant’s and Internet service provider are doing wrong to customers; they have been accused of wrongly slowing down some of its customers Internet traffic.

Looking at the latest news, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will rule that Comcast has violated federal policy by deliberately preventing some customers from file-sharing. For example, sharing videos online via file-sharing services like BitTorrent, the company has acknowledged it slowed some traffic. But they said it was necessary so they could prevent a few heavy users from overburdening its network.

The ruling is expected Friday, the FCC decision will no doubt be challenged in court. Comcast being accused of blocking is a pretty bad thing or at least throttling traffic from subscribers trying to share files through the highly popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer network.

I know many customers in the UK are having the same problems with Internet providers “Tiscali” including myself. I have just cancelled my contract with Tiscali because when I want to play the Playstation 3 online it is nearly impossible to plays multiplayer online games with friends or family on the contacts list.

Basically what these companies are doing is traffic shaping, switching off certain ports. All companies not just Comcast should be looked into and Tiscali should be on top of the list, they may be in breach of contract for exercising port and service blocking. We are all getting blocked from a number of websites and of course my major problem is P2P (peer-to-peer) gaming.

Comcast homepage and webmail Hackers did warn company: Hijackers are Defiant & EBK

We have an update for you about Comcast, yesterday we reported the news “Comcast Email Hacked: Webmail security issues, comcast.net site is back up” (See Here), well today we want to let you know that the Comcast hijackers did indeed warn the company. We know that these computer hackers took down Comcast’s webmail and homepage service for around about five hours on Thursday and they said they did not know what they were getting themselves into.

The hackers known as “Defiant” and “EBK” are indeed in serious trouble and “Defiant” whose first name is James said he wished he was a minor because this is going to be really bad, James is 19. The hackers are members of an underground group called Kryogeniks, neither hacker would give their full names or their locations but what we have found out via a source is that Defiant’s MySpace profile lists him in Cashville, Tennessee, but obviously he says this is not correct, his girlfriend lists herself as being in New York. The attack began on Tuesday according to the hackers and the two hijackers used a combination of social engineering and a technical hack to get into Comcast’s domain management console at Network Solutions, they did not give out technical details of their technique but did say it was relied on a flaw at the Virginia-based domain registrar.

Once the hackers were in they had control of over 200 domain names which are owned by Comcast, the hackers changed the contact info for one of them from Comcast.net, to Defiant’s e-mail address and for the street address they used the “Dildo Room” at “69 Dick Tard Lane.” Comcast however did say they noticed the administrative transfer and wrested back control, which forced the hackers to repeat the exploitation to regain ownership of the domain and then the hackers contacted Comcast’s original technical contact at his home number to tell him what they’d done. So as you see they did warn them. When the hackers called Comcast the manager scoffed at their claim and this is when he hung up on them, EBK who is 18 then took even more harsh action and redirected the Comcast site’s traffic to servers under their control, the funny thing is “Apparently” Comcast would not confirm nor deny they warning phone call.

Apparently EBK the hacker said “”If he wasn’t such a prick, he could have avoided all of that,” says EBK. “I wasn’t even really thinking. Plus, I’m just so mad at Comcast. I’m tired of their shitty service.” The defacement message was short and simple: “KRYOGENICS Defiant and EBK RoXed Comcast,” it read. “sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

Obviously and of course is now more apparent, Defiant and EBK do not like Comcast.

Yesterday when we reported this news to you we had a comment sent in by Charlie Douglas at Comcast saying “Charlie from Comcast here — last night users attempting to access Comcast.net were temporarily redirected to another site by an unauthorized person. While that issue has been resolved and customers have continued to have access to the Internet and email through services like Outlook, some customers are currently not able to access Comcast.net or Webmail. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers, and network engineers are working to resolve the issue.
We believe that our registration information at the vendor that registers the Comcast.net domain address was altered, which redirected the site, and is the root cause of today’s continued issues as well. We have alerted law enforcement authorities and are working in conjunction with them.”

What are your views on this?

Source

Comcast Email Hacked: Webmail security issues, comcast.net site is back up

It seems the importance of using a very strong password for emails is a must because the hacking of Comcast email service shows security issues. Many users do not understand obviously how important it can be, even though internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast using some of the most advanced email security solutions, wonders never cease to amaze because hackers can and will get through.

I have visited www.comcast.net this morning and it seems the site is down with a message on the homepage saying This Site Is Under Construction and Coming Soon but thankfully it is back up and running again, oops so no chance for you to go to Comcast net sign in to login. We all when going to a service like Comcast and other email providers that they use cutting edge email security appliances, but the whole truth of the matter is that much of the Web’s infrastructure is hacked together legacy equipment. In simple terms it is fair to say users should protect themselves from having their online identity compromised, the bottom line is that users should change their passwords frequently and then maybe this hacking problem may ease a little.

Let me say now that anyone using this service that has had the same password for some time now should really consider changing it, the current problems with Comcast web email security solutions proves that it’s vital for us to protect ourselves with effective online caution. Word of warning for those wanting to change passwords, DO NOT use birthdates, pet names or even family names, USE mixed up letters and numbers even down to using uppercase and lowercase characters. I would recommend you changing passwords once a month to be on the safe side,

You should be changing passwords weekly, but even security freaks don’t do it that often. Once or twice each month is really not sufficient, but it’s a lot better than nothing. It’s a simple email security solution that will help you avoid the problems that Comcast email users are having right now.

www.comcast.net is all up and running again.

$3.2 Billion Investment from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable & Bright House Networks

So what does a $3.2 Billion investment from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks get you? By the looks of things, it will be a new mobile broadband company. Today we are hearing that Print and Clearwire are to combine WiMAX businesses, and this will create the new mobile broadband company.

The combined company will have a target price of $20.00 per share and the formation of new company brings together the nation’s leaders in Communications, Technology Innovation and Entertainment. This new company will speed the deployment of the first nationwide next-generation Mobile WiMAX Network.

This transaction has been designed to unlock the potential of Clearwire’s and Sprint’s 4G Assets, we are also hearing that the new company will be led by a seasoned management team from Clearwire and Sprint’s XOHM Business Unit; The Board of Directors will include leading Wireless and Cable Executives. In a press lease, it was reported that “The new company, which will be named Clearwire, will be focused on expediting the deployment of the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network to provide a true mobile broadband experience for consumers, small businesses, medium and large enterprises, public safety organizations and educational institutions. The new Clearwire expects to dramatically enhance the speed and manner in which customers access all that the Internet has to offer at home, in the office and on the road.”

With the future web needing to support fast video access that has become very popular with consumers, this is a good step in a better user experience.

Comcast’s BitTorrent, P2P and Traffic Shaping: FCC kicking butt

Many people have been complaining about Comcast and the fact that they are throttling P2P application. This BitTorrent traffic controlling has become a subject that has got the attention of the FCC; it seems as if the Read more

FCC Meeting on Comcast’s traffic shaping: Sony PS3, P2P, BitTorrent and Tiscali

On Monday the FCC is holding a meeting on Comcast’s traffic shaping practices, the public hearing will be held 10am-4pm EST at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA.

The main discussion will be focused on “network neutrality and traffic shaping”, this subject is one that I am well aware of in the UK with Tiscali stopping all Sony PS3 owners playing Call of Duty 4 online thanks to their issues with P2P traffic at certain times.

It seems Tiscali does not understand the different between P2P gaming and P2P BitTorrent sites Read more