Brighthouse Networks passes BitTorrent testing

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The news has been out quite a bit about how Comcast and Cox, especially Comcast, interferes with the operation of BitTorrent clients. Here's a list of ISPs worldwide that interfere with BitTorrent clients. My ISP, Brighthouse Networks (formerly Time Warner Cable of Central Florida) was not on the list. Being as paranoid as I am I decided to test my link anyway using Max Planck's Glasnost testing service.

Glasnost is open source, and consists of a Java applet running on a server page communicating with a remote server. The combined setup emulates a BitTorrent client and reports its results. I'm happy to report that Brighthouse currently does not interfere with BitTorrent traffic. Here's Glasnost's report.

Results for your host (xxx.x.xxx.xx.cfl.res.rr.com - xx.xxx.x.xxx):

Is BitTorrent traffic on a well-known BitTorrent port (6881) throttled?

* The BitTorrent upload (seeding) worked. Our tool was successful in uploading data using the BitTorrent protocol.

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits your BitTorrent uploads. In our tests a TCP upload achieved minimal 453 Kbps while a BitTorrent upload achieved maximal 457 Kbps. You can find details here.

* The BitTorrent download worked. Our tool was successful in downloading data using the BitTorrent protocol.

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits your BitTorrent downloads. In our tests a TCP download achieved minimal 2101 Kbps while a BitTorrent download achieved maximal 2097 Kbps. You can find details here.

Is BitTorrent traffic on a non-standard BitTorrent port (4711) throttled?

* The BitTorrent upload (seeding) worked. Our tool was successful in uploading data using the BitTorrent protocol.

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits your BitTorrent uploads. In our tests a TCP download achieved minimal 450 Kbps while a BitTorrent download achieved maximal 457 Kbps. You can find details here.

* The BitTorrent download worked. Our tool was successful in downloading data using the BitTorrent protocol.

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits your BitTorrent downloads. In our tests a TCP download achieved minimal 2158 Kbps while a BitTorrent download achieved maximal 2126 Kbps. You can find details here.

Is TCP traffic on a well-known BitTorrent port (6881) throttled?

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits all downloads at port 6881. In our test, a TCP download on a BitTorrent port achieved at least 2101 Kbps while a TCP download on a non-BitTorrent port achieved at least 2158 Kbps. You can find details here.

* There's no indication that your ISP rate limits all uploads at port 6881. In our test, a TCP upload on a BitTorrent port achieved at least 453 Kbps while a TCP upload on a non-BitTorrent port achieved at least 450 Kbps. You can find details here.

It took more than a few attempts to run the test. It kept failing with the message that the test server was busy and to try again in a few seconds. So I kept clicking the link until the test finally ran. Before you run this test make sure, especially under Linux, that Firefox can run Java applets. I ran the test on Firefox 3 beta 5 on Ubuntu 8.04. I have Java installed external to Ubuntu; build 1.6.0_10-beta-b23. This is the latest version of Java 6 Update 10. When the page requiring the Java applet loaded I was presented with a dialog to install the Java plugin. No big deal and installation of the plugin went off smoothly. But installation interfered with the test and it failed, requiring me to reload the testing page.

I'm glad Brighthouse can be considered one of the Good Guys with regards to BitTorrent. I worked for Time Warner Cable when the Full Service Network was in full swing (back in the mid 1990s). I was both happy and proud to have been a part of that effort. I currently have all my communication services with them (T.V., internet, and phone), and I really can't complain. They were, and still are, a great group of people.

Comments

  1. gregoryMay 18, 2008

    I use Brighthouse too. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. danielAugust 03, 2008

    it seems that brighthouse is now throttling bittorrent downloads - any info on how to get around it? different ports/encryption don't seem to do the trick :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. BillAugust 03, 2008

    I just re-ran the Glasnost test from my house. I performed the test with the following hardware and software:

    * Dell Latitude D630, 2.4GHz T7700
    * Fedora 9
    * Firefox 3.0.1
    * Java 1.6.0_10 build 28

    Glastnost indicates that BitTorrent still works on all ports (well known, standard and non-standard) with upload and download. Keep in mind that networks that throttle other BitTorrent clients and servers will have a negative impact on your client regardless of Brighthouse Networks throttling policies.

    ReplyDelete

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