Re: [PLUG] Comcast spoofs on network to block P2P

[Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net>]

On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 09:29:39PM -0400, zuzu wrote:
> On 10/20/07, Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 08:30:11PM -0400, zuzu wrote:
> > > is this fraud?  identity theft?
> > >
> > > isn't this how China operates its national firewall? (spoofed RST packets)
> >
> > Dood, every firewall in existence has this ability and its employed on a
> > regular basis. (*) I don't like what Comcast is doing any more than anyone
> > else but the technique is legit. Complain about the use, not the tool.
> 
> I didn't mean to imply the problem is the tool.  I'm merely curious
> about the technique and its deployment by ISPs (as well as possible
> countermeasures).  I did intent to complain about the use; the problem
> is the spoofing, I think.

And I'm saying the problem is not the spoofing. "Spoofing" RSTs in order
to snap abusive connections specified by the network administrator(s) is
an everyday thing. The problem is that Comcast is interfering with traffic
that its users pay them to transit because it competes with Comcast's TV
and on-demand revenue stream. It would be exactly the same if they were
doing traffic shaping via queues or RED. In fact, snapping both halves of
a connection is the fastest and most efficient way of stemming this 
traffic so I guess we should be thankful Comcast is *not* degrading its 
network further by trying to get its core routers to do TBF or RED on the
BitTorrent traffic.

-- 
Toby DiPasquale
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug