This is the CacheLogic study referred to in the Reuters story.

Peer-to-Peer [is] a huge problem for last mile providers, where it makes up 80% or more of the traffic on the network.

CacheLogic - P2P Traffic Analysis

] According to British web analysis firm CacheLogic,
] BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all
] the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other
] peer-to-peer programs combined -- and dwarfs mainstream
] traffic like web pages.
]
] "I don't think Hollywood is willing to let it slide, but
] whether they're able to (stop it) is another matter,"
] Bram Cohen, the programmer who created BitTorrent, told
] Reuters.

Wired News: File-Sharing Thrives Under Radar

] The grand city of Philadelphia unveiled today an
] ambitious plan to coat the city with Wi-Fi, using a mix
] of public and private funds to provide the service.

Internet Free Philly.

Philly goes Wi-Fi crazy | The Register

BGPlay is a Java application which displays animated graphs of the routing activity of a certain prefix within a specified time interval. Its graphical nature makes it much easier to understand how BGP updates affect the routing of a specific prefix than by analyzing the updates themselves.

BGPlay - graphical visualisation of BGP updates

] An Akamai spokesman said it noticed an attack against
] four unnamed "customers" that rendered their sites
] inaccessible. Akamai said that the strike against those
] customers in turn caused a failure of its own domain name
] server (DNS) system, which translates word-based URLs
] into numeric Web addresses to link surfers to company
] sites.
]
] "We do know that attack was against four sites that
] happened to be Akamai customers," said company spokesman
] Jeff Young. "But I don't know if the intent was to go
] after Akamai or go after Web properties that happened to
] be customers of ours."

Blackout hits major Web sites | CNET News.com

] Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of
] your house. Share a single broadband Internet connection
] and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive
] cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go.
] Extend the range of your current wireless network. How
] many devices do you need to do all this? Just one.
]
] Presenting AirPort Express.

This does everything a AP/Router should do and is the same size as the Apple power adapter. Not only is this great for the home, but its perfect for travel. I'd much rather have one of these then the AP I carry around..

Apple - AirPort Express

] 1. The Internet isn't complicated
] 2. The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.
] 3. The Internet is stupid.
] 4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value.
] 5. All the Internet's value grows on its edges.
] 6. Money moves to the suburbs.
] 7. The end of the world? Nah, the world of ends.
] 8. The Internet's three virtues:
] * a. No one owns it
] *  b. Everyone can use it
] *  c. Anyone can improve it
] 9. If the Internet is so simple, why have so many been
] so boneheaded about it?
] 10. Some mistakes we can stop making already

World of Ends

Every person who uses a Linux firewall/gw for their home network needs to know this.

Let me guess a problem you have.. Whenever someone is uploading on the network, TCP sessions seem to lose interactivity. The biggest display of this is ssh connections. Whenever someone is uploading, ssh connections all have that delay thing going on. You start off feeling like that machine in New York is right around the corner, even though you are in San Francisco. Start uploading something, BAM.. All of a sudden that unix box feels like its on the moon as you find yourself waiting 3 seconds to see your typing come back to you.

If you have a cable modem or DSL line, and a Linux box doing NAT, you likely are dealing with this problem.

Its your DSL/Cable modem's fault. Its got this really big buffer in it, and whoever fills it up wins. That's whoever is uploading, running BitTorrent, et cetra. In office environments, its almost constant.

There is an easy fix for this.. So easy, that you will spent more time reading this, and trying to understand it, then you will actually performing it.

] TBF is very precise, network- and processor friendly. It should
] be your first choice if you simply want to slow an interface down!

And there are a number of reasons you might want to slow down an interface. One very basic and important thing to remember about traffic control: You cannot control the way in which you receive data, but you can control the way you send it.

In the case of your home network, you don't want your firewall sending anything to the DSL/Cable device at a rate faster then it can pass on. Its a stupid device. A stupid device with a very big buffer in it. Its just going to let that buffer fill and send everything fifo (First In First Out). It does not know that you don't care about the BitTorrent as much as the SSH traffic. Its just going to let the buffer fill and send it in order.

Enter the Token Bucker Filter:

] # tc qdisc add dev ppp0 root tbf rate 220kbit latency 50ms burst 1540

] Change 220kbit to your uplink's *actual* speed, minus a few percent. If
] you have a really fast modem, raise 'burst' a bit.

And of course, substitute ppp0 for whatever your external interface is. Unless you are using PPPoE, its likely eth0 or eth1.

This way, once Linux starts to send packets to the DSL/Cable modem faster then it can send, Linux overlimits and starts dropping packets rather then telling them to all get in line and wait for their turn.. This results is TCP connections where interactivity matters (like ssh) no longer having issues. All your outbound traffic is still fighting for the same bandwidth, but whoever is speaking the loudest does not drown everyone else out.

For the record, this is the command I currently have in my security gateway's rc.local:

tc qdisc add dev eth3 root tbf rate 250kbit latency 50ms burst 1540

My max upstream seems to be about 260kbit and my external interface is eth3, because my gw has four ethernet interfaces.

This post links through to the appropriate page in the most excellent Linux Advanced Routing & Traffic Control HOWTO. It explains everything I have here, and more.

Route on!

How to make BitTorrent (or other uploading applications) stop crushing SSH sessions

] The FCC press release (in PDF format, no HTML) said that
] 255 MHz in the 5.470-5.725 GHz band are now available for
] unlicensed devices. This action will also harmonize the
] spectrum available for these U-NII devices throughout the
] world, enabling manufacturers to reduce product
] development costs by allowing the same products to be
] used in many parts of the world.
]
] The FCC is also requiring the items covered in IEEE
] 802.11h, which was developed to conform to European/World
] Radio Congress concerns, also apply to the lower indoor
] bands of 5.250-5.350 GHz as well as the new 5.470-5.725
] GHz bands: dynamic frequency selection (DFS) - a
] listen-before-talk mechanism — and transmit power
] control (TPC).
]
] That additional 255 MHz should translate into as many as
] 12 additional nonoverlapping channels for 802.11a, which
] already has 12 nonoverlapping channels. In a talk with
] Atheros that Glenn had recently, the company noted that
] bonding channels in 802.11a to create multiple channel
] throughput of 108 Mbps or higher has enormous potential
] because of the lack of channel overlap.

Wi-Fi Networking News has the scoop.

Wi-Fi Networking News: Update on Wrinkle in U-NII Expansion Plans

] The Federal Communications Commission announced that it
] is increasing the radio spectrum available for wireless
] networking services.

Yes, this is actually good news involving the FCC.. Amazing.

] The FCC said Thursday that it is adding 255 megahertz of
] spectrum in the 5 gigahertz range--an increase of 80
] percent--for devices that use unlicensed radio
] frequencies.

Looking for more technical details.. Will blog when I find them.

FCC expands spectrum for wireless use | CNET News.com