BT Openworld has been forced to admit it is restricting the bandwidth for certain Web sites after furious customers starting compiling evidence of interference. Previously BT had categorically denied any such restrictions.
The applications and ports are all connected with peer-to-peer applications such as Gnutella, eDonkey and Kazaa which allow users to swap files with one another. BT said: "A small percentage of customers using P2P applications use up a very large percentage of the available bandwidth". Which is no doubt true but doesn't explain why BT has previously denied all suggestions that it is restricting the service.
The admission comes just days after Web site ADSL Guide posted evidence of "port throttling" - restricting the download speed from applications that use a specific port on a computer. A software engineer measured traffic through the ports used by well-known peer-to-peer networks. In each case, the download speed dropped dramatically from a constant 58.1Kbps to between 1.5 and 3.75Kbps.
News source: The Register
View: ADSLGuide.co.uk's Openworld make Peer to Peer appear Slowworld and BTOpenworld Confirms Throttling
