Interesting People mailing list archives
a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:24:02 -0700
________________________________________ From: Tony Lauck [tlauck () madriver com] Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 1:11 PM To: David Farber Subject: Re: [IP] Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing Comcast's technical problems are not with the Internet, they are with their DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems, which have limited shared upstream bandwidth and an ineffective multiple access protocol. Presumably these problems will go away when Comcast finally upgrades to DOCSIS 3.0. Other last mile network technologies such as DSL and fiber do not have these problems. Comcast was part of the consortia that developed DOCSIS and has only itself to blame for its difficulties. Their problems are not the fault of the Internet architecture or the IETF. They are definitely not the fault of their customers, although Comcast and some of its apparent shills continue to blame the customers, continuing to demonize them as hogs and even thieves. Comcast's problems involve more than upstream network performance. Comcast has damaged its reputation by a lack of candor. They continue to be ill served by their efforts to push blame elsewhere. To my way of thinking, this continuing behavior on Comcast's part fully justifies any tough treatment they have received from the Commissioners and other responsible adults. Unfortunately, some of Comcast's critics now seem to be acting equally irresponsibly. Perhaps this is to be expected of college students. As for network professors, I think they should be delighted that users are saturating some networks; this is the only way real experience with network resource allocation mechanisms can be obtained. In the real world any useful resource will eventually become saturated. As a networking technologist I am delighted that this is happening. Tony Lauck www.aglauck.com David Farber wrote:
________________________________________ From: Richard Bennett [richard () bennett com] Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 5:45 AM To: David Farber Subject: Re: [IP] George Ford is getting booed and heckled As predicted: In neutrality debate, carriers get blamed for Net's weaknessesBy Richard Bennett Article Launched: 04/17/2008 01:35:28 AM PD The circus is coming to Stanford University. The network neutrality circus, that is, which makes cable companies the whipping boys for underlying flaws in the design of the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating petitions from consumer groups and a local start-up, Vuze, against Comcast. The cable broadband giant is accused of disrupting video traffic uploaded by users of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network. But Comcast says its network management practices are legitimate, needed to ensure that other broadband subscribers aren't starved by bandwidth hogs. The commission already held one public hearing in February on network management practices at Harvard University, and is holding the follow-up today at Stanford. Little light came from the Harvard hearing, where FCC Chairman Kevin Martin badgered Comcast's solitary witness with loaded questions and failed to display any insight into broadband carriers' management challenges. What's more, Martin and the broadband critics have failed to acknowledge an underlying truth about the Internet: It was originally designed for the polite society of network engineering professors and students, not our rough-and-tumble world of large-scale copyright theft and video file-sharing. And it has design defects - bugs - that make it vulnerable to overload and abuse. rest: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8955737 David Farber wrote:From an IPer re the Stanford Net Neutrality meeting. Sad if accurate Dave "It is pretty sad that the only economist here today could barely be heard over the heckling and boos. This event is really a farce." ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
-- "Difficulties can never be greater than your capacity to solve them." - P. R. Sarkar Anthony G. Lauck PO Box 59 Warren, VT 05674 Southface 5 (for UPS and FedEX) 81 Park Ave Warren, VT 05674 (802) 583-4405 (802) 329-2006 (FAX) ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing David Farber (Apr 18)
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- a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing David Farber (Apr 19)
- Re: a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing David Farber (Apr 21)
- Re: a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing David Farber (Apr 22)
- Re: a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing David Farber (Apr 23)