[LINK] Internet filtering plan may extend to peer-to-peer traffic, says Stephen Conroy

Tom Koltai tomk at unwired.com.au
Fri Dec 26 23:55:04 AEDT 2008


> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Kim Holburn
> Sent: Tuesday, 23 December 2008 12:43 AM
> To: Link List
> Subject: [LINK] Internet filtering plan may extend to 
> peer-to-peer traffic,says Stephen Conroy
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24833959-50142
> 39,00.html
> 
> >  THE Federal Government's controversial internet censorship scheme
> > may extend to filter more online traffic than was first thought,  
> > Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy revealed today.
> >
> > In a post on his department's blog, Senator Conroy today said
> > technology that could filter data sent directly between computers  
> > would be tested as part of the upcoming live filtering trial.
> >
> > "Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does
> > exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be  
> > tested in the live pilot trial," Senator Conroy said.
> >
> > Peer-to-peer file-sharing technology is the most common way for
> > computer users to share video, picture and music files over the  
> > internet.


Well I think the Minister has probably reading this site:
http://www.ipoque.com/solutions/application-focus/p2p

/Quote"

Peer to Peer

Expensive P2P: File sharing based on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks has
surpassed the World Wide Web as the single most bandwidth-consuming
application in many parts of today's Internet. It can cause a
substantial increase in traffic volume which in turn incurs rising
communication costs and adversely affects the performance of other
network applications such as Web, E-Mail and File Transfer. Legacy
filtering approaches based on port numbers are error prone. They produce
many mismatches (about 30-50%) and are easily circumvented.

Solution: The PRX P2P filter feature a protocol-based identification of
P2P traffic. Once such traffic has been identified, it can be blocked or
throttled to a defined rate. Additionally, all P2P traffic is assigned a
lower priority than other traffic ensuring an improved network
performance during periods of high utilization. The rate limitation is
invisible to P2P users. File sharing applications continue to work, only
with a lower data rate. This approach minimizes the motivation of users
to try to circumvent the P2P filter device.
/unquote

I watch with interest a national rollout that requires individual ISP
instalation and configuration to work. And I mean DAYS to configure per
ISP.....
What was the budget for this project again ? It will make NBN look
cheap.

Tom






More information about the Link mailing list