5 ms·

This strikes me as a scary first step. The whole "re-education" spin is extra-scary; if I had a kid who downloaded something and was exposed to this kind of tr

by acabal 14y ago

This strikes me as a scary first step. The whole "re-education" spin is extra-scary; if I had a kid who downloaded something and was exposed to this kind of treatment, I'd be pretty loudly wondering who Comcast thinks it is to be "educating" my child with its propaganda. What can we as techies do to combat this? How can we add a layer of encryption and anonymity that's so dead easy that it becomes ubiquitous?

dmix 14y ago
VPN software, even setting up tunnelbrick on OSX is pretty easy for techies, but I imagine it can be pretty tough for newbs. It'd be nice if there was a one-click type of process. Maybe where the credentials are transferred via web service using a login auth from the desktop client? The technology for anonymity is there and adequate, just needs some proper UX design and user education.
- acabal 14y ago
  That's part of the problem, but the other part is that regular people just don't care. I don't think they will care until it's too late, and even when it's too late they might not care to realize it. (I.e. in the future where the internet only works for Comcast-approved sites, and folks are happy with it because at least they can pay Comcast $80/month to watch Game of Thrones in their browser.) Technology has to step in and make anonymity and encryption basic on some fundamental browser, os, or protocol level, so that the average user doesn't even need to actively search out anonymity solutions. I don't know what the answer is. I suppose if it were that easy, we would have figured it out by now. Edit: VPNs are still not a perfect solution, because your activity on them could be logged. (The TOS says they don't keep logs? Then you're just trusting the company to do what they say in their TOS, because when the government comes knocking it'll go right out the window.)
- ericabiz 14y ago
  Plenty of these exist on the marketplace. Personally, I use HideMyAss (http://hidemyass.com/vpn/ http://hidemyass.com/vpn/) (no affiliation other than a happy customer.) I use it for privacy reasons, although I'm sure there are plenty of folks who also use it for downloading. It's an OpenVPN client with its own configured servers and a friendly, easy-to-use GUI for Windows and Mac. It is so fast that sometimes I forget I have it on when I'm doing normal web surfing. It's also come in handy for me with troubleshooting. For instance, once I was able to track down an issue with Cloudflare's CDN where customers in certain parts of the world could not access a website, by using it to appear as though I was coming from that area of the world. Cloudflare support confirmed the issue and fixed it once I was able to screencap with my home connection vs. my HideMyAss proxy IP in a different "location."
- rdl 14y ago
  Running a p2p protocol like BitTorrent over a VPN is pretty horribly inefficient. At that point, I'd just use a seedbox and download my final product over https (optionally on a VPN, too)
  - thefreeman 14y ago
    You don't even need to use https to transfer to from your seedbox to your home. They aren't scanning the content of your transfers. They just have people collecting IP's from public (and probably various private) trackers, which they then distribute to the ISP's.
thefreeman 14y ago
A seedbox is really the way to go. There are definitely a few additional steps you will need to get used to between you and your content, but its definitely worth it for peace of mind. There are also some nice benefits like being able to stream most media on demand rather then waiting for it to download. A couple keys: 1) Get an extension for your browser that will automatically submit .torrent files to your seedbox. 2) Get a good multi threaded download manager for transferring from your seedbox to your pc. Regular browser downloads will not max our your connection. One linux I use aria2c (command line) and for windows, "free download manager" cannot be beaten.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  You don't need a browser extension if you use the Deluge thin client, and it's a lot more functional.
- oijaf888 14y ago
  Why will regular browser downloads not max out your connection? I've downloaded stuff via browser downloads at > 100Mbps without trouble.
SkyMarshal 14y ago
There's a really thorough post about CAS, and available countermeasures, at reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/evolutionReddit/comments/193m6k/six_strikes_goes_live_on_monday_how_to_beat_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/evolutionReddit/comments/193m6k/six_... TLDR: VPN's, I2P, VPS's, Usenet, Retroshare, Alternative ISPs, and spreading awareness of CAS and its countermeasures via active grassroots outreach and communication.

by acabal 14y ago

dmix 14y ago

VPN software, even setting up tunnelbrick on OSX is pretty easy for techies, but I imagine it can be pretty tough for newbs. It'd be nice if there was a one-click type of process. Maybe where the credentials are transferred via web service using a login auth from the desktop client? The technology for anonymity is there and adequate, just needs some proper UX design and user education.

acabal 14y ago
That's part of the problem, but the other part is that regular people just don't care. I don't think they will care until it's too late, and even when it's too late they might not care to realize it. (I.e. in the future where the internet only works for Comcast-approved sites, and folks are happy with it because at least they can pay Comcast $80/month to watch Game of Thrones in their browser.) Technology has to step in and make anonymity and encryption basic on some fundamental browser, os, or protocol level, so that the average user doesn't even need to actively search out anonymity solutions. I don't know what the answer is. I suppose if it were that easy, we would have figured it out by now. Edit: VPNs are still not a perfect solution, because your activity on them could be logged. (The TOS says they don't keep logs? Then you're just trusting the company to do what they say in their TOS, because when the government comes knocking it'll go right out the window.)
ericabiz 14y ago
Plenty of these exist on the marketplace. Personally, I use HideMyAss (http://hidemyass.com/vpn/ http://hidemyass.com/vpn/) (no affiliation other than a happy customer.) I use it for privacy reasons, although I'm sure there are plenty of folks who also use it for downloading. It's an OpenVPN client with its own configured servers and a friendly, easy-to-use GUI for Windows and Mac. It is so fast that sometimes I forget I have it on when I'm doing normal web surfing. It's also come in handy for me with troubleshooting. For instance, once I was able to track down an issue with Cloudflare's CDN where customers in certain parts of the world could not access a website, by using it to appear as though I was coming from that area of the world. Cloudflare support confirmed the issue and fixed it once I was able to screencap with my home connection vs. my HideMyAss proxy IP in a different "location."
rdl 14y ago
Running a p2p protocol like BitTorrent over a VPN is pretty horribly inefficient. At that point, I'd just use a seedbox and download my final product over https (optionally on a VPN, too)
- thefreeman 14y ago
  You don't even need to use https to transfer to from your seedbox to your home. They aren't scanning the content of your transfers. They just have people collecting IP's from public (and probably various private) trackers, which they then distribute to the ISP's.

thefreeman 14y ago

A seedbox is really the way to go. There are definitely a few additional steps you will need to get used to between you and your content, but its definitely worth it for peace of mind. There are also some nice benefits like being able to stream most media on demand rather then waiting for it to download. A couple keys: 1) Get an extension for your browser that will automatically submit .torrent files to your seedbox. 2) Get a good multi threaded download manager for transferring from your seedbox to your pc. Regular browser downloads will not max our your connection. One linux I use aria2c (command line) and for windows, "free download manager" cannot be beaten.

w1ntermute 14y ago
You don't need a browser extension if you use the Deluge thin client, and it's a lot more functional.
oijaf888 14y ago
Why will regular browser downloads not max out your connection? I've downloaded stuff via browser downloads at > 100Mbps without trouble.

SkyMarshal 14y ago

There's a really thorough post about CAS, and available countermeasures, at reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/evolutionReddit/comments/193m6k/six_strikes_goes_live_on_monday_how_to_beat_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/evolutionReddit/comments/193m6k/six_... TLDR: VPN's, I2P, VPS's, Usenet, Retroshare, Alternative ISPs, and spreading awareness of CAS and its countermeasures via active grassroots outreach and communication.