Is Comcast Scanning Internet Subscribers?

[spectrewind]

[citation][nom]Sythix[/nom]seems like privacy invasion to me.[/citation]

Gaining unlawful computer or network access? Illegal, methinks.

 

[spectrewind]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom]Yes I have been notified that my IP was tracked downloading copyright material then gave me the name of it. I was a little upset and a little frightened. What else have they been snooping on? My private emails? I thought torrents files used some sort of encryption while being sent. Either way I am sick and tired of Comcast as they are now throttling (which I thought they ended the practice of) torrent files. I don't trust them at all (comcast that is).[/citation]

Your emails are only private if you are using some kind of certificate-based encryption. Most people stick with the usual POP3/SMTP. Note that this is NOT POPS protocol. Your emails are being broadcast in clear-text (excluding encrypted attachments).

 

[megamanx00]

Big brother is watching.

 

[nitto555rchallenger]

[citation][nom]spectrewind[/nom]No it isn't. Just put your machine behind a firewall and make sure no hosting devices are running to allow remote access.[/citation]
This was when they upgraded their router years ago since then I've stopped used Comcast.

 

[r3t4rd]

"Is Comcast SCAMMING Internet Subscribers?"

There fixed it for you guys. Just about "Crappy" for everything, but regardless, I have to use them because I have no other alternatives.

 

[anamaniac]

Hell, I'd take Comcast over my current ISP...
Though my ISP doesn't bitch to me about my 100 gigs of month of torrenting for years now, it's $40 a month (that's in a package deal) for a 925KB/s (reported but usually 600KB/s) download and 50KB/s upload...

Wish FIOS was in my city, if not only to reguate the price of my net..

 

[climber]

If you want information security, keep the info in your head... it's safe at least for now.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

This explains why my 1 meg download speeds dropped to 200KN download speeds..... I dont fucking want they're "security" I can do it myself.

 

[mofogo]

I wouldn't trust a popup window letting me know I have a virus from Comcast anymore than I would trust any other pop up window in my browser. Shouldn't take long for someone to replicate it and screw a lot of people over. I'll watch for viruses on my own thank you very much.

 

[techguy911]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom]Yes I have been notified that my IP was tracked downloading copyright material then gave me the name of it. I was a little upset and a little frightened. What else have they been snooping on? My private emails? I thought torrents files used some sort of encryption while being sent. Either way I am sick and tired of Comcast as they are now throttling (which I thought they ended the practice of) torrent files. I don't trust them at all (comcast that is).[/citation]

Anyone using any p2p can have there ip tracked by people on the seed, if your on a torrent seed that i am on i can track your ip what happens in this case is anti-p2p sits in on shares and logs ip's only way to bypass this is multiple proxy.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom]Yes I have been notified that my IP was tracked downloading copyright material then gave me the name of it. I was a little upset and a little frightened. What else have they been snooping on? My private emails? I thought torrents files used some sort of encryption while being sent. Either way I am sick and tired of Comcast as they are now throttling (which I thought they ended the practice of) torrent files. I don't trust them at all (comcast that is).[/citation]

Are your torrents legal? If not, then why do you get mad at Comcast for finding out which ones you're downloading? I'm pretty sure in their ToS, they have stipulations allowing them to monitor your network activity and track e-mails which are sent to and from the "comcast.net" domain.

Right or wrong, you shouldn't be surprised that they know you're downloading illegal content. All of the major ISPs track that type of activity nowadays, thanks mostly to the RIAA and MPAA. So unless you're protecting yourself and/or masking your internet activities, expect to get little notes when you download something "illegal" which is flagged.

While I personally don't believe in downloading copyrighted material, mostly because now that I'm older I can afford to buy the "legal" versions, it does concern me that they take a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach. They assume everyone is doing something illegal, therefore they log a lot of your activities, whether you're doing something wrong or not.

I don't personally use Comcast, we have Charter in this area, but I doubt they are much better or worse than Comcast when it comes to tracking.

 

[itadakimasu]

The concept seems good.. If you have a customer who has a ton of virus and spyware to the point where they can't use their computer, they'd have no need for your service... If they're spying though and monitoring people's online activities... Shame on them.

Fios FTW. I think I have the slowest Fios, and it's much faster than my comcast speeds were. I get 1.0-1.2Mbps download speeds and upload speeds of upwards of 300kbps. You really can't beat Fios for internet service. My coworkers have the 20Mbps fios, but I'm fine w\ my 10Mbps !

 

[sublifer]

Where is the SBM contest?

 

[Halberd388]

Considering all I have in the area for high speed is Comcast, Centurytel, Time Warner and Knology it sounds like Knology here I come!

 

[wifiwolf]

I smell a problem with this. We've been seeing fake warnings for years. One of the first things I tell people to avoid is that virus warning lurking all over the internet - those that install a free anti-virus virus which downloads even more of them. Now this will be confuse.

 

[blackened144]

I can only get DSL capped at 6mb or Comcast capped at 8mb... I have the 8mb service from Comcast and its great, I always get a full 8mb.. 24mb for the first 100megs or first minute too, with their PowerBoost technology... I never got the full 6mb speeds with my 6mb DSL service... And although Comcast supposed capps thee service at 250gb/month, I have regularly gone over that and never had an issue.. Also, the only outage I have ever had with Comcast was due to my not paying my bill on time.. I have no real complaints about the service from Comcast, but their customer service blows.. The second FiOS or U-Verse is available in my area I will be saying goodbye to Comcast.

 

[andyviant]

[citation][nom]mofogo[/nom]I wouldn't trust a popup window letting me know I have a virus from Comcast anymore than I would trust any other pop up window in my browser. Shouldn't take long for someone to replicate it and screw a lot of people over. I'll watch for viruses on my own thank you very much.[/citation]

First thing I thought. So all someone has to do is get a site that returns in a google/bing search, set it up to redirect to a "Comcast Support Site" and help you uninfect your computer. "Oh! Comcast told me when they set me up that they might send me a notice through my browser, this is legit! Thanks comcast!"

Terrible.

 

[o0RaidR0o]

I'm surprised anyone is still using torrents! Personally I use newsgroups with SSL encryption. It's anonymous all the way around.

 

[g0rilla]

They better make the notice look different than the ones that the fake antivirus companies use. It sounds like this may make viruses worse.

 

[rooket]

[citation][nom]fflam[/nom]i am an installer for comcast. and in my area they do not throttle torrent files. they may throttle the default port but not the files them selves, chant the port you use (in your torrent program) i ruteenly get 2megabytes/sec down on my torrents. also the only way comcast will scan your computer is if you download the comcast desktop doctor, and or tool bar. i haven't herd anything about comcast scanning your computer here but agen im just a installer.as for buying comcast crap software, comcast does not sell software as was stated previously all comcast internet subscribers get a full version of mcaffee for free. well comcast can "access" your computer because you have the remote help feature turned on in windows. and the wifi routers we use are standard netgear routers (model depends on the service you have) we used to use those crappy gateways but those still were just modems and routers in one device, and they work just fince with the xbox wifi adapter (i install probably 5 xbox's a month). and on top of that comcast tracks the total traffic though the modem (well technically though the server the modem connects to but what ever)not per device. and just because i work for them, doesent mean i agree with them. i HATE the comcast software (toolbar and desktop doctor) and i have gotten several calls for going over my 250GB/month cap.[/citation]

I liked how comcast offers mcafee but unfortunately for me it doesn't find current virii. Would hope they'd maybe switch up to symantec endpoint protection 😉 That or work with mcafee to update their stuff. I also find it annoying how mcafee's suite makes my file explorer slow and scans my desktop making me wait til it is done before I can use my pc. I just don't use mcafee any more. Sometimes an antivirus is just as bad as a virus. 😛