Canadian ISP Admits to Throwing Brakes on World of Warcraft
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Hi, I see you joined today. Well, yesterday. Today plus a few hours ago. Point is, it was also your first post. Welcome to the Escapist! We hope you enjoy your stay here.randar007 said:
Some tips: If you want the person you quoted to notice it and actually respond to your comments, you'll have to bring their attention back to the thread. This is done by using the "quote" button in the bottom right-hand corner of their post. Do not use "reply" as it simply takes you down to the comment box and does not notify them. With so many users and so many threads on the Escapist in a day, you can't be sure people who post comments will continue to watch the thread until it has finally keeled over.
Another thing you'll find is that advertising is frowned upon. I know, Teksavvy is awesome, but the way you phrased it made it sound like an advertisement. Just watch out in future.
Having cleared that up:
Teksavvy plans are technically not unlimited. They may advertise them as such, but the cap had been for a very long time 200GB. As of not too long ago, however, they upped it to 300GB cap. So yes, there still is a cap, it's just a lot higher than most caps found with the bigger names, such as Rogers, Bell, Shaw.
--
Onto the article itself:
The tabloid-esque title disappointed me, somewhat. As a Canadian, I was surprised that this was the first instance I've ever heard of it if "Canada hates Warcraft" (which, it didn't even specify WoW, it implied it was Warcraft. I have been lead to believe over the years that these things are actually quite different -- I wouldn't know, I've never played either.).
However. What with it being such a tabloid-esque title, it did make me curious enough to open the link and see what the deuce was going on. So, in a sense, I'm sure the title did exactly what it was meant to do: draw people in. I can't deny it, it drew me in.
On the other hand... it leads people who do not take enough time to read, or bother to process what is going on in the country to the assumption of "ALL OF CANADA IS BAD FOR INTARNETS RAAAGH". To be fair, it is not the greatest. But it also isn't as bad as some would make it out to believe... if people took advantage of the services provided by the smaller companies. I mean, it's not like we're living in
Also, the fact that one of our major ISP services is throttling the connection for a certain type of content is actually no surprise to Canadians. Well, it shouldn't be a surprise, anyway. Let's look at the facts:
Bell is an ISP. Rogers is an ISP.
Bell owns a cellphone service. Rogers owns a cellphone service.
Bell provides television. Rogers provides television.
Bell owns radio stations. Rogers owns radio stations.
Bell owns television channels (CTV, A Channel, TSN). Rogers owns television stations (Sportsnet, various others).
Thus, both ISPs are also content providers.
As such, it is quite well known that they throttle connections made to the opposition's website because the user wishes to view the content of the other company. This is among many other things that they throttle the connections for. Personally, I haven't experienced it, as I've never been with either Bell or Rogers as my ISP (yet), but there is no denying that this happens, though the companies may try to cover their asses.Bell owns a cellphone service. Rogers owns a cellphone service.
Bell provides television. Rogers provides television.
Bell owns radio stations. Rogers owns radio stations.
Bell owns television channels (CTV, A Channel, TSN). Rogers owns television stations (Sportsnet, various others).
Thus, both ISPs are also content providers.
And the fact that Rogers can't fix this throttling on WoW due to an over-active P2P filter for a few months? That's just the spirit of our ISPs, for you. If they delay it long enough, maybe the public will forget about it and they won't have to change it. They also like to complain that things "cost too much money" because people tend to believe them, thus allowing them to get away with so much. Sure they "own" the wires connecting everyone to the internet... oh, wait. No they don't. The majority of it was subsidized by the government, so it shouldn't even be "the ISP's wires, the ISP's way." The government should have a say in decisions. But no, they like to preoccupy themselves with things. Important things, such as proroguing parliament, and elections.
Canada's Internet service is by and large pathetic. Ever since ex-telecom employees and shareholders effectively took over the CRTC, it has been less about ensuring the rights of Canadians and more about ensuring the rights of telecoms to do whatever the fuck they want. We are third-rate at best despite per-capita being one of the biggest consumers in online content, and the government has no interest in responding to the needs of its people unless it ends up being a hot issue come election time.
Suffice is to say, if you're a Canadian and aren't happy with paying stupidly high prices for extremely limited and poor-quality service, I suggest you make your thoughts known to the CRTC - flood their inbox with e-mail queries and feedback, send 5000 faxes to Tony Clement and others who are part of it, send snail-mail letters to party leaders at both provincial and federal levels, etc. Heck, if possible, get a few friends to protest on a politician's front law and I guarantee you'll see it addressed within a week. Nothing gets representatives going like incessant reminders that they should actually be doing their fucking jobs for a change (or a scandal involving personal expenditures, but never mind that).
Suffice is to say, if you're a Canadian and aren't happy with paying stupidly high prices for extremely limited and poor-quality service, I suggest you make your thoughts known to the CRTC - flood their inbox with e-mail queries and feedback, send 5000 faxes to Tony Clement and others who are part of it, send snail-mail letters to party leaders at both provincial and federal levels, etc. Heck, if possible, get a few friends to protest on a politician's front law and I guarantee you'll see it addressed within a week. Nothing gets representatives going like incessant reminders that they should actually be doing their fucking jobs for a change (or a scandal involving personal expenditures, but never mind that).
kc karoo in Hull doesn't provide unlimited packages either, and they did it before Canada, and we cannot have another provider in hull...bloody disgraceful when providers can do this
TM is a tech support regular. So she already knows all about the launcher using P2P to distribute patches.Jagji56 said:
Rogers is throttling customers on World of Warcraft even when they are using the not using the P2P download system to patch their game.
This isn't correct.Bobbity said:
World of Warcraft will optionally use a P2P like system to distribute patches. But that's only when a patch comes out - normal day to day game data comes in on port 3724 and is rather clearly marked as "wow1" or "blizzard" if you examined the packets using deep packet inspection.
It does not use P2P for game data at all.
Not only that but patches don't come along every day - the last one we had was on the 8th of Feb and was only about 150 mb-ish. The one before that was 16th of November 2010 and was 330 mb-ish. Other patches had similar timings if you like to look them up on wowpedia.org Blizzard does not allow you to play with an outdated patch so the vast majority of major downloading would of occured just after these patches hit.
There would be the odd download after those times for the players who are just returning to play but no way is it high enough for them to panic about a huge amount of downloads.
Lastly the new streaming patching system that patches the game as you play ? Transfers files over port 80 from one of Blizzard's servers. This is not done via P2P at all.
P2P traffic shouldn't be tampered with in the first place. People should get what they pay for and that is an internet connection that functions at the highest possible speed that can be supplied. An ISP shouldn't need to worry what is being shared in the first place so why assume all P2P is illegal?
Ok.Selvec said:
What if it were Skype then ?
Skype uses P2P to do its work.
What they are throttling shouldn't really be relevant here . If you think it is then you're blinding yourself to the actual issue here - an ISP throttling legitimate uses of bandwidth under rules that shouldn't apply to the thing involved.
As a Canadian who's lived abroad most my life, now that I'm back in Canada, I can safely say that this country's telecommunications industry is an embarrassment, and by far and away the worst I've ever experienced. The actual internet connection is ok, reasonably fast and stable, but I literally pay 10x more a month for phone and internet services than I did in Asia, and only get a fraction of the services for the price.
It's not so much that the quality of the internet service is poor (though it's by no means great), but that you pay so much for so little compared to everywhere else in the world. *That* is what's infuriating about it.
It's not so much that the quality of the internet service is poor (though it's by no means great), but that you pay so much for so little compared to everywhere else in the world. *That* is what's infuriating about it.
good price i guess i pay the extra $30 for no limits. Kind of a waste to have that fast a speed to be capped at the end of the monthAnton P. Nym said:
my only reason for the speed is i stream all my TV and 1080p streams eat bandwidth like crazy.
Quite the contrary, historically our reputation in communications is advanced by Canadians [http://www.amazon.com/Best-kept-secret-Canadian-intelligence-Second/dp/1895555299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301409516&sr=8-2]. Ten years ago, Canada was considered a world leader in e-government (ie, putting government services online), which only goes to show how far we've fallen.icyneesan said:
The problem is, this has resulted in a handful of powerful telecom interests having an effective lock on the market, and they are protected by strict rules against foreign investment. (For some nonsensical reason, communications infrastructure is considered "cultural", putting restrictions on foreign ownership.) Even the third-party ISPs who offer better broadband packages (assuming you live in one of the areas they service) have to rent bandwidth from the big guys, and the latter have been known to throttle them as well [http://www.tektok.ca/2011/01/teksavvy-customers-throttled-by-crtc-ruling/].
We need more open competition in our broadband and wireless markets.
The real problem is with Roger/Shaw, they are the same company. Rogers who has spent all this money on their 'On Demand System', they are loosing out because companies like Netflix give you all that for only 8 bucks a month. So now everyone is using live streaming, and Rogers want as much money has they can get. So by throttling how much we can download, they are effectively trying to stop Netflix.
Another problem, is I live in Toronto and every single apartment building uses Rogers. With every building putting on clauses to not allow the installation of a dish, so that the building can keep getting their kick backs.
This applies to most major cities in Canada, either under the name of Rogers or Shaw.
On another note, Rogers Head Quarters in Toronto. Is the size of a city block, and its downtown.
Most people who talk about using another service provider, live in a private residence.
This is why the CRTC and Roger, are in the same bed together. Rogers/Shaw is practically Canada's, Internet/Television provider.
Another problem, is I live in Toronto and every single apartment building uses Rogers. With every building putting on clauses to not allow the installation of a dish, so that the building can keep getting their kick backs.
This applies to most major cities in Canada, either under the name of Rogers or Shaw.
On another note, Rogers Head Quarters in Toronto. Is the size of a city block, and its downtown.
Most people who talk about using another service provider, live in a private residence.
This is why the CRTC and Roger, are in the same bed together. Rogers/Shaw is practically Canada's, Internet/Television provider.