Canadian ISP Problems

Found this little bit from the best blog on the net, next to this one of course!
Thought it would interest all you Canadian podcasters out there.
~Dani

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Canadian ISP blocking iTunes store/podcasts?
A reader writes, "A very short thread on Apple's website notes that Rogers/Shaw ISPs in Canada are blocking podcast downloads because of a policy against multiple downloads."

Over the past month Rogers (ISP) in Canada has put some software on their networks that prevents activity for BitTorrents, P2P, IRC, and also along with that is a rule that if you are trying to download a large media file from more then 1 server it will be dropped. When you download a Podcast from iTunes it downloads that file from multiple servers in the background (I confirmed this by watching my cable modem logs). As soon as it tries to use more than 2 different servers for the download, it just stops. That's the reason why Podcast downloads stop at random places - it's the point where a 2nd server is involved in the download. The same issue causes timeouts and cut-offs in the iTunes music store.

Here is the problem - when anyone calls Rogers about the problem they say it is either a router, firewall or Apple problem and they shrug you off.

Hundreds or thousands of people in Canada can no longer get Podcasts or purchase music from the iTunes Music store. This is BAD. Please, Apple, contact Rogers and sort it out. So many people have called Rogers with no luck.

Link

Update: Three readers have written to say that they can't reproduce this error, or that it only occurs intermittently for them. It may be that Rogers is fine-tuning its packet-shaping app to catch fewer false positives from the iTunes server.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/20/canadian_isp_blockin.html