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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.

Tiscali: found bad for broadband, traffic shape, p2p block

When your thinking about a new broadband service there are many things we need to consider. These include: the amount of data you think you will use, what you want to use it for, price and if there are any restrictions.

Its easy to think you can just get broadband because the price looks good and the data limit is right with the package you choose. But you could not be more wrong.

Tiscali have become a joke to not only us, but also thousands of other customers on the Tiscali broadband service. We know 3 other people that have used the Tiscali service as well as us, and that’s small compared to the hundreds on their own forums that are complaining.

If you visit the Tiscali forums that they control you will see thousands of pages all about P2P problems, games being blocked on the PC, Sony PS3 and Xbox 360.

The Tiscali traffic shaping obviously only benefits Tiscali and makes their customers rage with anger, including us. We have now moved to BT and have no problems at all.

With our experience of the Tiscali service for over a year, we say do not touch it if you want to play games. There is a good chance they will block you connecting to your friends online.

Let the world know if you have had the same problems as us, and thousands of others in the Tiscali forums by telling your story in the comments.

ISP Tiscali is considering legal action against BT

Its being reported that BT sent emails to Tiscali’s customers about the company’s future existence as an ISP, these letters apparently went to Tiscali’s associates as well (Nildram and Pipex).

ITProPortal is reporting the news and said that letter was titled, “Tiscali Chief Plots Sell-Off”, this could have been extremely damaging to Tiscali and if true could leave BT in hot water.

In the letter its being reported that it said the customers should look for “an alternative broadband service”, the letter claimed the future of the Tiscali broadband service was unknown.

Its Interesting that the letter talks about an alternative broadband service, and goes on to talk about switching to BT’s broadband services.

If this letter really came from BT, what do you think of BT trying to take Tiscali’s customers in this way?

Its hard to believe the letter to be true when you think the letter also included the privacy details, would BT really use peoples personal details to get new business without your permission?

Read more on ITProPortal.

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

Tiscali COD4 P2P Update on Sony PS3: still connecting problems in Call of Duty 4

With still 8 days to go before I’m connected to BT Broadband, I thought I would give you an update on the Tiscali COD4 P2P problem.

I am able to get into games now when searching (although very slow at times), but trying to invite friends to games that are on Tiscali or if they try and invite me in is near impossible…it works rarely even to the point of switching off and walking away in frustration Read more

Tiscali P2P Update & Mac Code: Sony PS3, Error 33 on Call of Duty 4 (COD4)

This is an update to the news the other day about Tiscali’s P2P problems and how they stop Sony PS3 gamers getting on Call of Duty 4 in evenings. We had over 8000 page views to that story and many comments.

After trying to get online gaming in COD4 the other day again and taking over 2 hours until around 10pm when I got in, I thought, “enough is enough”.

I had a read through the 41+ pages in the Tiscali forum again and could see know one was getting anywhere and in fact many were moving to another broadband provider Read more

Tiscali stops all Sony PS3 owners playing Call of Duty 4 (COD4) Online

Its hard to know where to start with this issue, simply put Tiscali are stopping all Sony PS3 owners playing Call of Duty 4 Online at certain times (mostly the whole evening up to 12 midnight).

I first looked into this when I could not connect to games on my Playstation 3 and got “error 33” with Call of Duty 4, and also having many other connection problems in the game.

After a little research I found out I was not the only one with these problems and even more amazingly nearly everyone was a Tiscali or Pipex (owned by Tiscali) customer.

I have read all 41 pages on a Tiscali forum, which shows many of the ISP’s users moving away to another broadband provider and getting their Mac codes.

It looks like the issue is COD4 uses P2P to find games and Tiscali are blocking this at certain times Read more