For ISPs, like Bell and Rogers, who practice throttling techniques to discourage file sharing the results of some Italian research will be good news. Until now file sharing users could twart the throttling efforts of their ISP by encrypting the files they were sharing rendering them unrecognizable. A team of Italian researchers from the University of Brescia, has devised a method that they have demonstrated can catch these "hidden" file-sharing packets with up to 90 per cent accuracy. Their method "involves measuring the size and frequency of the discrete "packets" of data that a file-sharing program sends out over, and receives back from, the internet." The results of their experiments are impressive, if you are an ISP, "First and foremost, virtually no legitimate traffic is blocked by our mechanism," the Brescia engineers report. "Second, and equally important, the vast majority of [illegitimate] traffic is blocked by the mechanism." CBC Story here.
