[mrcharles]

For those that make use of BitTorrent for moving files around... have a read at this article... Comcast (a US monopoly) is not our friend (if there was any question...)... if they are your service provider, you might want to look elsewhere (but be sure to tell them why you left...)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101907R.shtml

[-Adrian]

Yeah that kinda sucks. For the time being protocol encryption might work (haven't tried it), but of course a switch is the right thing to do if you stand behind this cause.

[Leonardo]

could some one give in a short sentence a description of BitTorrent?

I have heard of a lot before, but haven't use or know what it's

[-Adrian]

It's a file-sharing protocol with which users share their internet connections to exchange files. Basically someone starts seeding a file using his normal inet connection (dedicated servers are far less common, unlike with normal downloads) and others start downloading from him. The neat thing about it is that the users not only download from the original source, but also exchange missing pieces among each other, quickly creating a huge "torrent" of data. It's usually very fast given enough people participate, but it's important that all users upload (seed) enough themselves to contribute to the system fairly. Leeching is when you don't

To get started you need a torrent client with which you open a .torrent file that you find on the web. Also you should make sure your ports aren't blocked by a firewall. That's basically all there is to it.

For windows users i recommend µTorrent - has everything you need, super tiny, super low on resources.

I use torrents a lot in recent times. I prefer them to normal ftp or http downloads, because they're oftentimes faster than your average server (especially if the server gets hammered), allow you to pause/continue at any time and most clients have built in error correction to prevent corrupt downloads.

[def4d]

i use flashget that is pretty nice, the only pb i had is that when you download big files (4Go for my example), the use of memory increase a lot, and go over my 2go if i don't restart one time a day!

[andrebaros]

Comcast is doing the same thing for video chat... ever since they started to offer phone service.

Last Christmas we set up iChat for my in-laws so they could chat which my son (and my wife) which worked great for most of the year, then suddenly we started to loose connections 1 or 2 minutes into each session. After digging online I found that lots of Comcast users had the same problem suddenly occur. The work around is to manually clamp your chat software to a low bit rate (and low quality) so that you don't cross the threshold which Comcast objects to.

I'd switch, but right now I don't have any data wires running to my house other than cable, so switching to DSL means starting from scratch with a telco paying all the installation costs, for slower service.

[mrcharles]

Isn't it interesting... you subsribe to a service that is "X Mbps" and when the provider fails to deliver there is no recourse.

Sounds like a consumer protection case... in the US that is a laugh, only corporations receive protection.

[seco7]

Isn't it interesting... you subsribe to a service that is "X Mbps" and when the provider fails to deliver there is no recourse.

Sounds like a consumer protection case... in the US that is a laugh, only corporations receive protection.

Most of them have fine print about usage limits, I know Time Warner's Roadrunner does. They guarantee X Mbps until you have moved X megs of transfer then they can step you down. In my case I think the limit is 18 megs in 24 hours. They also claim to only clamp you down if they "need" to, but I'm not so sure about that.

[mrcharles]

I sure don't want to be clamped...

but I guess I already have been... I haven't checked my provider's limitations yet...