Roadrunner blocking P2P?

I found this interesting bit of information at SlashDot.org HERE .

Quote:

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"...RoadRunner is quietly blocking the use of Kazaa in certain markets. Particularly in Texas, they have some sort of port scanner in place which scans for Kazaa activity and then disables use of that port, rendering the program completely useless. Grokster, iMesh, and all other FastTrack programs are similarly affected...."

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The full article doesn't really have much more information, but there are a few links provided by the submitter which discusses it further. I know many people (including myself) are on broadband, and for those who use Kazaa, or similar P2P programs, this could cause some problems.

AJ

i don't think that will disable your abality to get files only to share them. request to kazaa servers go out on random ports while the sharing server operates on 1214.

i'm also pretty sure there are options or ways to change the sharing ports as well.

Man, that does not surprise me with the bandwidth usage the thing takes, but so is any other busy server. I think it's not because it is KaZaA or other file sharing apps per se, it's more on the lines of the "no servers" policy enacted on a lot of cable modem services. Like the others said, there's always a way around the problem.

Another problem could be the increased activity of anti-piracy sending compliants to ISP's for copyright violations, but this is unlikely because of the relative rareness of the occasion (say several thousand complaints vs. millions of users dowloading). However, this could change with the wind of litigations in the air, and maybe the ISP's want nothing to do with what might go down later. However, this is just a speculation. To see more about the proposal and use of MediaForce software by the BSA and other copyright holders, see

http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsrel...-28.1114.phtml
and the offical site for MediaForce
http://www.mediaforce.com/

Can this be a reason for the blocked ports? It's anybody's guess.

My 2cents? I wish the best of luck with the software... :rolleyes:

if you changed the port from 1214, nobody could find it, you might as well not be sharing.

In the Tampa area, where I have a business-class account with RoadRunner, they just switched over to a 'you pay for a certain amount and then pay more if you go over' scheme for residential. Why? Because of the rampant usage that p2p programs that teenybopper loser ass freeloaders are using prevalently. One friend in the network dept. for TWRR said one user had used over 10gb for that month. Do you know what kind of TRAFFIC that is on a residential account? I think it's a good idea. No, I've never used any p2p program for freeloading. I used Audiogalaxy as a gold member for 5 bucks a month but even that got shut down so I cancelled. All in all, I've downloaded maybe 20 songs from AG when it was up yet I've been a member for 11 months. Oh well, live and learn. Hopefully the ISPs will nail them because p2p takes up way more than online-gaming.

It isn't a port-blocking device that Road Runner is using, or actually it doesn't have to be.

There is a device made by Packeteer called the Packetshaper and it can read into the packets at layer 3 through layer 7 and determine what app you are running across your connection regardless of port. They can put the ISP class of this device in line and tell it to either limit or completely block p2p and any other app for that matter that they want.

Or they can assure guarantee a certain amount of their bandwidth to the applications they want and leave the rest to be shared by all other apps.

It can also be done by user or subnet. You could block Instant messaging for your employees subnet but allow the executive subnet to use it all they want.

Many businesses are starting to place these in because they can block p2p, winmedia, and streaming stuff on a per user basis. Or the more relaxed office settings will assign a very low priority to p2p etc...so when any other app comes along, it overpowers the p2p.

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Connorsdad