Google joins the fray on ISP throttling and Net neutrality

In yet another development of the battle over high-bandwidth (read P2P- and/or streaming-video) consumers and (some) ISPs' throttling of their connections, Google is preparing a tool to let consumers find out whether (and how) their ISPs are shaping their connection.

Flash now comes with bundled P2P media-streaming client

The new version of the ever-popular Flash player now comes bundled with a P2P media-streaming client. This could, in a short time, gain quite an extensive foothold for the new overlay network, and is already leading to widespread speculation.

ZDNet shows Zattoo some love

I've never had a chance to see Zattoo's P2P live TV-streamer, myself (blocked based on IP geolocation), but this brief ZDNet review is quite enthusiastic, and seems to indicate they're already getting fair efficiency out of P2P. Note also the author's comment (in the comments, after the post itself) on Zattoo's emerging advertising model.

Coming soon to a game console near you!

Forbes reports that Netflix is en route to providing VOD not just on the PC, but also on several partners' entertainment devices, and suggests that these devices will be set-top boxes, Blu-ray players(?!), and game consoles. All this is of course in aid of infiltrating the living room and bridging the gap between Internet connections and users' TV screens.

Bandwidth hogging now blamed on video streamed over HTTP, not on P2P

Gizmodo reports that most Internet traffic (and especially peak-time traffic) is HTTP-based video streaming a la YouTube, and gives some more numbers and context. P2P traffic accounts for just 20% of the total. Of course, most bandwidth consumption is limited to a small fraction of the users. Interesting...

This is all based on data from a not-quite-disinterested maker of traffic-shaping devices, so take this with a grain of salt.

Vuze posts data on ISP throttling using forged reset packets

It was recently shown (and posted here) that at least some ISPs (well, Comcast) forge reset packets from legitimate connections, in order to actively degrade the performance of BitTorrent and possibly other out-of-favour P2P protocols. Such throttling is perceived as considerably more aggressive than simply denying some applications more bandwidth.

From all the way across the hall, loyal reader Daniel L. points out this recently posted report on P2P-maker Vuze's wide survey, intended to measure this phenomenon. The evidence seems pretty damning (for many listed ISPs), although not quite "smoking gun" quality.

Comcast's "P2P Bill of Rights"

Comcast is promoting a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities"; which they are drafting with other interested parties. Presumably, this continues their recent "playing nice with P2P" strategy, and since they also stress the importance of legal file-sharing, could signal the importance of "playing nice with content owners".

More coverage from AP.

Livestation going public

Livestation is going public at the NAB annual event, and releasing just a little extra information.