Time Warner activates Packet Shaping

[Ace Pace]

Was going to happen at some point

Time Warner today implemented a network management tool to improve the operation of the network for all subscribers. As a result, a small minority of users may experience slower speeds during peak hours when using certain applications that consume lots of bandwidth. You can address this situation by reducing your use of bandwidth-intensive applications during peak hours. "Peak hours" are generally in the evenings.

"Packet shaping" technology has been implemented for newsgroup applications, regardless of the provider, and all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony. Road Runner reserves the right to implement network management tools for other applications in the future.

[Phantasee]

For some reason when I read it, it seemed they were trying to avoid saying torrents. If it's true that Bittorrent consumes such a large percentage of Internet bandwidth (as reported previously by various sources), then why don't they come out and say 'torrents' instead of 'certain other high bandwidth applications'?

[Andrew_Fireborn]

plausible deniability in the realm of piracy enabling accusations.

[Uraniun235]

all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony

So... wait, what high bandwidth applications do they envision permitting?

[Mr Bean]

all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony

So... wait, what high bandwidth applications do they envision permitting?

Why stress testing networks by downloading large image and video files from the busiest servers on the net of course.