Studies

Studies

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
p2p filtering



Turns Out P2P Filters Don't Actually Work

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

While ISPs are succumbing to pressure from the entertainment industry to start using traffic shaping products to filter out P2P traffic, there's been little examination as to whether or not those products actually work. Until now. While the findings aren't complete, what did come through loud and clear is that most vendors of such products don't have very much faith in their own products. Internet Evolution went to test 28 such products -- and 23 refused to let the tests happen. Of the five that they could test, three were so unhappy with the results that they forbade Internet Evolution from publishing the results. In other words, most of these products just don't work.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 7:37am

    Mmmm... Stir Fry

    by AC

    Mike - Typo in the headline.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 7:41am
    by Anonymous Coward

    Whenever legal tries to run the IT department, it just doesn't work out.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 7:52am
    by Anonymous Coward

    So how many companies are running out and buying the programs from the two companies whose software actually worked?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 7:57am

    they need permission why, exactly?

    by AMusingFool

    And how can they be forbidden to publish the results? They got the copies for free, with conditional publishing? Then why not buy the software, and publish the results?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 8:29am
    by Gunnar

    My guess is these filtering programs aren't cheap, and Internet Evolution doesn't have the review budget of, say, Consumer Reports.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 8:41am

    Re: Mmmm... Stir Fry

    by Soy... sauce?

    I'm a lo mien and wonton fan myself. Woka Woka Woka!

    Hmm. Now I'm hungry.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 8:43am

    Re: Mmmm... Stir Fry

    Oops. Fixed, thanks.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 8:57am

    Won't Wok

    I had a weird mental picture of Mike trying to get programs to use a wok for him...

    Anyways, I think that, no matter how much the filters suck, ISPs are going to continue to use them, just to save face.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 9:19am

    Isn't this a good thing?

    by comboman

    ISPs can tell MPAA/RIAA they installed filters. Customers can still use P2P. Win-win?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 10:16am

    Block what and how?

    How exactly are ISPs going to filter encrypted µTorrent streams running on any of a few thousand otherwise IANA reserved ports that the torrent users themselves don't need but other users and businesses do?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Apr 1st, 2008 @ 11:38am

    And we're surpised?

    by Isn't it expected?

    Given we cant get independent evaluations of voting machines why are we surprised?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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