[asterisk-biz] Is ISP Blocking VoIP

[Christopher Bergström]

[snip]

>>>
> in an article by Jeff Chester (1 feb 06) titled Hijacking the Internet 
> - "How Big
> Cable and Phone Companies Plans for Broadband Threaten Democracy", a
> plan to stop the proliferation of affordable access and fair 
> competition in the
> internet world is identified. Cisco already being a major player with 
> technology
> to limit, meter or otherwise restrict the QOS we all enjoy.
> ...Cisco and others (such as Allot Communications) warn cable and phone
> companies about the need to "limit unprofitable peer-to-peer 
> communications"
> or even ban them.  Among the applications mentioned for such treatment 
> including
> BitTorrent, Gnuetella, and Kazaa.  One can tell a lot about the 
> intended role of
> these packet-inspection products by their names:  "SmartFlow," 
> "NetEnforcer," "NetPure," "NetRedirector," and "IP Control System."

[snip]

Anyhow layer 7 packet analyzing isn't cheap at times and can pretty 
easily be circumvented if you know how to mangle the packet.  We use 
this to ensure QOS on some of our applications.  If it ever does become 
an issue of an ISP being really stupid.. Different ports, tunnels and 
changed packet headers would keep them pretty busy.  I think their 
overall ROI on something like this just wouldn't add up, but let them 
try it'd at the very least be a fun game of cat and mouse.

If anyone remembers how MSN and Yahoo didn't want anyone using third 
party applications to connect to their messenger service years ago.. 
Then developers had to spoof client types and update protocols.. I'm 
sure it would unfold in a similar fashion.. They update.. we update.. 
and so on.. In the end though they gave up. Consumers will win, because 
the providers won't unit and if they do, competition will capitalize.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.