http://gizmodo.com/372442/bittorrent-pl ... r-torrents

Discuss.

Resnet (resnet.*.edu), US4

And also Comcast. I have Comcast web at home and damnit, I knew something was wrong. I was hoping I was incorrect in my assumption that they were stopping me from seeding, but it seems I was right =/ This is most unfortunate.

Hmm.

The US kind of needs to get with it. I know the countries with uber fast internet (100mb up/down) usually have a higher population density, but c'mon. We have fiber going to peoples' houses. We have dark fiber. It seems like we have the infrastructure to support really fast internet - but no one will cooperate.

Cable companies try to milk the current technology for every dime they can. When they upgrade the infrastructure, they expand the amount of pipe used for TV channels, but they leave internet speeds the same.

So I guess the high-speed companies need to cooperate. Actually I don't know much about the whole internet, pairings, backbones, etc. But I'm guessing that the reason we're behind everyone isn't technological or because a lack of ability to expand infrastructure... but rather because of greed and a lack of willingness to cooperate.

Verizon is getting things started with FiOS, but other companies need to follow along. AT&T's UVerse is a piss poor attempt. It's only fiber-to-the-node, so there's still copper between the house and the node, which limits you to to watching only 4 different channels at a time in the house (which is a problem for larger families), and something like 10mbps for internet. Cable is capable of extremely fast internet, but right now, cable companies are wasting bandwidth by having to send 3 different streams of the same channel out to everyone (the analog stream, the digital stream and the HD stream) so we're limited in the bandwidth on that too for data.

More companies just need to do what Verizon is doing and start bringing fiber out to the home. There's more bandwidth on fiber than anyone will ever need, whereas copper and coax are quickly running out.

Touche

Uverse is a lot cheaper than FiOS in terms of Infrastructure cost. FiOS is in, what, 3 metro areas*? Fiber to the Node allows you to have a really fast backbone, and use existing copper to provide the (very very expensive last thousand feet to the doorstop) So while it still relies on twisted-pair copper lines, those lines can support a lot of bandwidth when the node has a good backbone. [IE right now its a 30-something meg V-Dsl line for 4 tv streams, 5 meg internet, and phone service. The plan is to up that to 80 in the next year] So, since Verizon refuses to bring Fiber to every node (and then to every home), i'll take ATT as the better option for more consumers. It's not the uber-connection of Fiber to the home (thats a ways down the pipe), but it reaches more people, so millions have access to it instead of thousands with fiber to the doorstop. A network needs to have fiber to EVERY NODE before they try and start delivering fiber from the node to the home. Otherwise, some people are left with no high speed connection. **

And don't even get me started on cable. Twisted pair is much much better than coax (for bandwith), and it costs less than Cable. Telephone companies are regulated heavily by the federal government. Cable companies are not. Cable companies can jack up rates all they like, and don't have to compete.***

And as already noted - there may be a day when you eat those words that fiber can provide all the bandwidth ever needed.

*Edit: Compare this to Uverse's 30 (and growing) metro areas Uverse availability, whereas Verizon only plans to serve where they can make the most possible money http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_FiOS#Availability

**Edit: a good analogy is build me interstate highways between the big cities before you try and build one that goes to every house in NY, NY, but nowhere else. What i'm saying is - build a good network backbone EVERYWHERE, before trying to build a good backbone in one place with an excellent local connection in one place, and shitty backbone everywhere else.

***Edit: btw - the FIOS technology is fundamentally similar to cable (it essentially IS cable, just served over fiber lines), so all data is broadcast to every member of your block, and they broadcast ALL tv streams at the same time (wasting bandwith providing essentially 300+[depending on # of channels] tv streams at once instead of using newer IPTV tech and just providing 1 stream).